Bluetooth handsfree call too quiet

[Krellan]

I have a TomTom 930, and it syncs perfectly to my Bluetooth phone (Palm 680).

The volume on the TomTom is nice and loud, for both the computerized voices and the prerecorded voices. Nothing wrong with that at all.

However, when I try to use the TomTom to take a Bluetooth call, the person on the other end of the phone is whisper-quiet! I can't understand a word.

Is there anything I can do about this?

Unfortunately, there seems to be no volume adjustment at all on the TomTom for adjusting the volume of Bluetooth calls.

 

[dhn]

I think you adjust the volume on the phone.

 

[cacherjoe]

I get the same thing and have not been able to find a way to up the volume. Ihave a blackberry 8830. There are volume buttons on the side of the phone that control volume for everything else but doesn't work when I'm in a call. Basically it's useless if I'm driving at highway speeds because of the vehicle noise.

J

 

[krogalsky]

I have a GO720 and found out (kind of by accident) that there IS a separate volume control for the hands free. I was listening to music on the jukebox and a phone call came in. Before the call, the volume slider was at 100%, but when I answered the call and the jukebox came back, the slider was now at 70%... I simply increased the slider to 100% and, viola, now I can actually hear the call. So it looks like it's a combination of both the headset volume on the cell phone and the bluetooth volume on the Tomtom.

 

[sageuvagony]

On my 720, I can hear them just fine. In fact, the speaker gets very very loud when I turn the volume up during a phone call. The feature works great, but becomes useless if I drive over 45-50 mph in my Civic. At that speed, the other person can barely hear me since all they hear is my car's road noise and engine. At 60MPH, I can't hear them at all, nor can they understand me either. That's why I just gave in and spent money on a nice premium motorola headset. No echos, no noise, just clarity. I've never used the hands-free feature again on the TomTom.

 

[Krellan]

Thanks! I'll have to try adjusting the TomTom's onscreen volume control the next time I get a phone call.

I checked on my phone and all the sliders for all the various volume modes are up all the way. Not much more I can do there.

Am I the only one who wouldn't mind carrying a larger and thicker cellphone, if it meant better call quality, clearer voices (not necessarily louder), and the ability to have the phone near both your mouth and your ear simultaneously? Or am I just getting older?

 

[Krellan]

I was able to improve the volume substantially. It's still a little too low for my tastes, though, especially when it has to compete against car noise.

The secret is to be in the middle of a Bluetooth call when you try to adjust the volume. You can't change the volume unless you're actually in a call at the time! This is not very good user interface design. TomTom should have added a way to adjust the Bluetooth volume slider anytime, from "Volume Preferences" in the menus.

The Bluetooth volume, when you're in the middle of a call, takes over the normal TomTom volume slider.

I slid this up to 100%. The default was 70% or so.

There was also another "hidden volume control" on my phone (Palm 680)! Like the TomTom, you can only access this when you were in the middle of a Bluetooth call. This defaulted at only 50%. I also slid this up to 100%.

I guess six volume sliders weren't enough for Palm, and they had to add a seventh. Wow, at the rate this is going, phones will soon need a DJ mixer attachment just to control their volume!

So, with both the phone's volume slider and the TomTom's volume slider cranked up to 100% each, I can hear the voice on Bluetooth almost as easily as the internal GPS navigation instructions spoken by the TomTom.

 

[geandsco]

I also have problems with the blackberry 8830 and the GO730. The volume control on the BB doesn't work when I am in bluetooth mode. Adjusting the volume on the TT in the middle of a call is cumbersome, too many touches involved especially when driving. I tired when not driving and it didn't seem to make any difference, except that the directions then blared at me if you don't set it back to the previous volume. I may just give up and go back to the Motorola earpiece.

 

[mikealder]

This is a simple thing to adjust, try the following:

Make a call to someone you know via your TomTom device, but make sure they know you are going to test the device prior to the call.

Once they answer the call tap the lower left corner of the screen on the TomTom and adjust the volume slider to get the level you are happy with.

Quit the call, the phone handsfree volume will now be remembered, you don't need to adjust it a second time.

The Handsfree volume can ONLY be adjusted while you are actually using the TomTom for a handsfree phone call, at all other times this volume control remains hidden and not adjustable

On some Nokia handsets it is possible to increase the volume from the TomTom by adjusting the phones volume control, I have never tried this as I only use HTC devices, but its not a bad idea to try turning the volume to maximum on the phone prior to making the test call outlined above - Mike

 

[a.b.normal]

This is a simple thing to adjust, try the following:

Make a call to someone you know via your TomTom device, but make sure they know you are going to test the device prior to the call.

or just use your home/landline and call yourself/cellphone .