Data transfer to 140s VERY slow and keeps pausing

[Scoobmaster]

I am attempting to do an explorer restore to my 140s after a failed map update (the details of what happened are in this thread posted earlier).

The transfer of files will start, but after just a few (25-40) seconds the progress will "hang" or pause for about 30-60 seconds or so, then resume, then pause, etc..(it keeps repeating this cycle). To rule out any problems with my PC,USB ports, Drivers, or cable, I attempted this restore on TWO different machines (a laptop and desktop) with THREE different Operating Systems (Vista, Windows 7, and openSuse linux) and two different USB cables. I had the same result (the pausing of transfer) EVERY time. The tomtom screen alternates between the "warning do not unplug" screen with the blinking hard drive icon and big red X on it to just a "standard" connected screen.

This behavior started *AFTER* I attempted to update my map. Home was updated to 2.7 and it installed TomTom application version 8.414 on my device before attempting to update to the 835 map. Prior to that I was able to use HOME for minor updates with out issue. I have even attempted to reformat the internal drive on the 140s, but that (while successful) did not stop the problem.

As it stands, restore would take 18-22 hours (according to Windows file transfer) IF I let it go on.I am at my wits end and will probably be calling support this evening. Do any of you have any ideas?

THANKS in advance.

 

[doctormstein1]

I am attempting to do an explorer restore to my 140s after a failed map update (the details of what happened are in this thread posted earlier).

The transfer of files will start, but after just a few (25-40) seconds the progress will "hang" or pause for about 30-60 seconds or so, then resume, then pause, etc..(it keeps repeating this cycle). To rule out any problems with my PC,USB ports, Drivers, or cable, I attempted this restore on TWO different machines (a laptop and desktop) with THREE different Operating Systems (Vista, Windows 7, and openSuse linux) and two different USB cables. I had the same result (the pausing of transfer) EVERY time. The tomtom screen alternates between the "warning do not unplug" screen with the blinking hard drive icon and big red X on it to just a "standard" connected screen.

This behavior started *AFTER* I attempted to update my map. Home was updated to 2.7 and it installed TomTom application version 8.414 on my device before attempting to update to the 835 map. Prior to that I was able to use HOME for minor updates with out issue. I have even attempted to reformat the internal drive on the 140s, but that (while successful) did not stop the problem.




As it stands, restore would take 18-22 hours (according to Windows file transfer) IF I let it go on.I am at my wits end and will probably be calling support this evening. Do any of you have any ideas?

THANKS in advance.

you can try to change tomtom home to the default settings but make sure you backup any downloads you want to keep because it will delete all but the most recent downloads.however this will increase the speed dramatically.

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems - Support home - Select your product

 

[Ardax]

I've seen exactly the same issue with my 340S. 4 Systems (3 Intel, 1 AMD/nVidia), all running either Windows 7 RC or Windows 7 RTM. Writes for a second, pauses for a minute, writes for another second.

Your restore will take much longer than 18-22 hours. I left mine go for at least 3 days before getting disgusted with it.

Windows XP also exhibits this behavior, but the pauses are only a few seconds long each. I did a full restore in about 2 hours with an XP system. (Still too long IMO.)

Check your System Event Log. I bet that you'll see dozens, if not hundreds of disk errors eith Event ID 51. Each one of them will correspond with a "pause" that you're seeing.

I've currently got a discussion going with TomTom right now, and have requested an RMA. If you're seeing the same thing with a 140S, I wonder if it might not be a bug in the controller firmware loaded onto the GPS device itself? AFAIK, the 140S is the same as the 340S except for the screen size.

Did ever reformat the flash at all? I wonder if maybe there's some sort of alignment issue. That'd be... unusual, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

I don't have my unit in front of me to post the software revisions, but TomTom HOME 2.7.1 said that my device was up to date earlier today.

 

[andydrew]

Same issues 140 and 140s

I am seeing this same issues also with 3 TomTom GPS's. I had two of the model 140s returned both to my retailer and then got a 140. Symptoms:

* Data transfers take a very long time for larger items such as updating/reloading the application or map updates
* Checkdisk with surface scan takes many hours
* Check disk finds errors and fixes them from time to time
* You have to attempt to update the application 3 or 4 times to get a clean load. It will error out saying that a file can't copy - different files each time
* System Event log errors 11 - The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1.
* System Event log warnings 51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\DR2 during a paging operation.

I see problems using Home or just copying files back and forth in the OS. Have seen the issue with Windows 7 x64 RC. I also updated the map on one unit using XP SP3 on another computer - and it processed without error. So I can only confirm this issue on Windows 7 x64 RC.

Since this has happened on THREE different units in a row I would have to agree that there is a hardware issue with the flash memory controller, flash RAM, or controller firmware issues as mentioned above. I have another brand GPS (Navigon) connected to the same computer and OS - no issues like this.

I really hope TomTom can find the root cause of this issue and fix it with a software update/firmware flash. The GPS is really nice but it's a PITA to do anything with the unit that involves transferring any amount of data other than a very small amount. For example, updating the quickfix is quick.

 

[Ardax]

andydrew, are you sure the update worked on XP without error? On my XP system, updates were much faster than the Win 7 systems, but still much slower than I would have expected out of any kind of modern flash controller. They worked, but still threw lots of errors into the event log.

 

[andydrew]

Yes, on my second 140s I was able to update the map from 825 to 830. Took over 2 hours to download and install and worked correctly the first time. No errors in Home. Did not look at the event log and the computer that I used is not in the location where I am presently.

I have not yet tried a map update on my 140. As stated in my previous post I had a lot of trouble getting the application to update on the 140 with Windows 7 x64 RC.

Long story as to why I am on my third TomTom One in 3 weeks... off-topic for this thread.

 

[andydrew]

Just in case it's relevant - the Window 7 x64 RC system that I am using has an Intel ICH8 Family Universal Host Controller.

 

[Scoobmaster]

THANKS for posting your experiences! It makes me feel a little better knowing I am not alone in seeing this problem. The three operating systems I have tried to copy files from are Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, WIndows 7 x64 RC, and OpenSuse 11.0 x64. I have not tried to copy my backup to the 140s through XP yet, but I will now try that to see if my results mirror yours.

I won't be able to get to this today, but hope to try it out this weekend. I'll have to call TomTom support. The more people that report this issue, the more likely they are to make fixing it a priority.

 

[Scoobmaster]

*UPDATE*

I think I have everything working and up to date now (what a PAIN!).

THANKS for your tip that Windows XP has a smaller "pause" window - that was my ticket back to sanity. I hooked up the 140s to my son's XP SP3 machine and was able to restore the files back to the device in about 2 hours (with the shorter data copy "pauses"). After that I installed HOME on the XP machine and was able to update with latest map (again it took over 2 HOURS to copy the map to the 140s). At least it did work without errors and I now have a working TomTom 140s with the 830 map.

I still will call support on this though. I used an ordinary Kingston Datatraveler I 2GB USB drive to transfer the backup files from my Vista machine to the XP machine - BOTH machines could read/write the entire 1.8 GB in 3 MINUTES! That it takes the TomTom over two hours (because of the "pauses") for the same amount of data is pathetic!

 

[andydrew]

I just updated to map 835 on my 140 using Windows XP SP3. Installed without issue.

Still a dozen or so event log event ID 51 warnings:

An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\D during a paging operation.

But XP 32-bit seems to work much better than Window 7 64-bit in regards to updating the TomTom. Hopefully Microsoft/TomTom get this resolved soon.

 

[andydrew]

I also wanted to note that I made an explorer copy in Windows XP SP3 of my unit after I upgraded the map. Absolutely no Event ID 51 warnings during the explorer copy from the TomTom to my computer.

 

[mvl]

The slowness appeared to start with app 8.411. It changed the bootloader and caused crashes. App 8.414 seems to be more reliable in XP, but has long pauses.

The bootloader contains the Linux USB drivers that are at the core of the Tomtom OS.

My suspicion is that HOME works around this by doing a frequent verify & retry. Despite all the pauses that are commonly reported, the super-long install on HOME for Vista does seem to create a stable Tomtom.

XP is faster. And a manual install on command prompt (instead of explorer) is the fastest. Since command prompt appears to be reliable & quick, there's certainly some driver strangeness going on somewhere between the MS and Linux OSes.

 

[Ardax]

mvl, thanks for your input. Looks like this is a widespread problem after all. I'm surprised that such a bug even made it to release. It's as if TomTom never even tested a map update with Vista, otherwise they'd have noticed that it takes a bloody week to do a map update.

TomTom turned down my RMA request, stating that they believe that it can be fixed via a software update. Seems that it should be the case.

FWIW, I don't think the USB chipset matters. I've seen this on various Intel controllers (ICH 4M, 7, 8M, and 9) and an nVidia nForce 430. The only major group missing is AMD, but their USB performance sucks anyway.

 

[andydrew]

Yes, it would make sense that this is a problem with the application installed on the TomTom GPS. Yes, hard to believe that TomTom did not notice this issue when testing with Vista or Windows 7. I can understand if they had not previously been testing with Windows 7 - but they certainly should be testing with it now.

It doesn't take a lot of testing to reproduce this issue. You can see the symptoms almost immediately upon doing an application or map update.

What concerns me more than the general slowness is the number of times that the application or map update will fail before being able to copy the data successfully. So it's not just that it's slow - it's unreliable.

As a side note, I wonder how much TomTom saved by releasing the 130/340 units with a substandard 2GB of memory that is not upgradable and the lousy USB 1.x controller. The USB transfer speed is certainly not helping this situation. Takes 45-60 minutes to copy all files from the TomTom to computer using Explorer for backup purposes with the 1.x USB controller in the TomTom. The same amount of data can be copied to a USB 2.x flash drive in less than 5 minutes.

 

[dsteinschneider]

I'm running into the same problem with windows 7 pro. I first knew something was wrong when I couldn't update the map, it complained that it needed 52 MB more free space. As part of troubleshooting I did a windows disk scan and it created a 26MB found file. I then managed to install the map but none of the voices worked. I backed up the entire unit using explorer with hide hidden files unchecked. Then I did a fat32 format with fast format unchecked. That took hours instead of minutes, my first clue that something is wrong with the disk subsystem on the 140S. Once formatted it took me three tries to install just the nav app, I used Beyond Compare 3, a file utility I use for comparing folder contents and syncing up folders, to copy the map folder back onto the unit. That utility is very solid and gives very good feedback on what is happening during file transfers.

I'm glad OP posted and others confirmed. Otherwise I would have sent the unit back only to recieve a replacment that does exactly the same thing. It appears that if you get the map copied over to a clean install it will run fine.

 

[jbirch]

Still a problem.

Glad to find this thread and it's not just me. Just bought a xl330-s refurbished and ran the map update. Hours later i'm still waiting for the update to complete.

TomTom Home 2.7.5.2014, XL330S, Win7 Pro 64bit , Intel ICH9 USB2 Controller

Map upload was taking so long the first attempt I aborted (using the software abort key) Then the GPS indicated no maps, great .... day 1 and no maps. Had to manually delete the cline.dat file which for me seems to be the biggest issue loading. Other small files update without problems, voice packs updated ok. Did a system scan and sector check with Win 7 and it showed no issues.

Using the Win7 system monitor you can monitor the USB file transfer activity. Small bursts of transfer followed by minutes of inactivity. System Log show dozens of Disk - EventID 51 An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\DR5 during a paging operation. Few hours in to this attempt currently , if this fails i'll have to dig out a WinXP SP3 box to try the update on, and never update the maps again.

Update - TomTom software failed again after a couple of hours on another file. tables.dat Resolved issues with manual file transfer of map files into the map directory.

<sarcasm>Great update software</sarcasm>

 

[EricDP]

Still no resolution to this issue? I also just bought an XL330S and I'm having significant problems installing anything with TomTom HOME. First thing I did was try to update to the latest map and that failed, then I had no maps... I manually copied all the files over to make that work now I'm trying to get the computer voice installed. Just copying the files over doesn't seem to do it - any tips on how to complete that without using TomTom HOME?

 

[tobbjo]

I have the same problem on my XL. Tried two different computers, both WIn7x64. Returned the device since I thought it was broken. Same on the new device I received.

Happy happy me.
Tomtom support said that I should do a Error check on the disk. But that one takes forever and ever. And since it's two separate devices with the same problem...

Good thing I bought the device with 24 months of map updates.

 

[LMD75]

I had this issue with a Euro XL IQ Routes and it took around 45-60 minutes to make a full explorer backup.

I RMA'd it and replaced it with the Ver 2 XL IQ Routes model and it only takes 4 minutes to complete a full explorer backup. This is using Win7 x64 and x86.