GO 720 not charging

[heinz]

I have a GO 720 for 2 years now and it was perfectly working. I charged it only with an USB car charger. Suddenly it didn't charge anymore and the green charging light was off. First I thought something is wrong with the car charger and I bought a new TomTom home dock ( fast charger) for the Go 720. But it is also not charging and the green light is still off. What could it be? Is the plug of the TomTom faulty or has it a loose contact or what else could it be? Has somebody experienced the same problem? Please advice what to do?

 

[dhn]

Well, try the easiest option first. Do a reset of the unit.

Mind you, the fact the light is not showing is an indication that the unit is not sensing power coming to it, either by the car charger or the usb port. Could somehow some grunge gotten into the usb opening on the unit, preventing a proper contact? Shine a flashlight on it to see.

You may wish to get in touch with a repair location such as this and see what they have to say.

 

[racefan]

I have the same problem but my light is on but my 2 year old 720 will not charge. It shows it is charging with the flashing batter sign but after you unplug the car charger it will not stay on longer that 1 minute and get the low battery and it shuts of

 

[dhn]

Battery may be dead......

The link to how to replace it is found here

 

[heinz]

I tried to reset but i didn't work. Then I called the TomTom service and they said it has to be repaired but they will not do it because my GPS is out of warranty. I bought in May 2008. Too bad.
I will try to replace the battery as recommended. Thanks for the support.

 

[paspossible]

Hey! Same just happened to me 2 weeks ago!

1. I connected the TT with my home AC charger from my Blackberry. Some Motorola phones use the same charger also. I powered the TT up and left the power on. It stayed there all night, charging with the power on.
2. In the morning, I disconnected it and left the power on, waiting till it complained of a low battery.
3. I then put it on the computer docking station, connected to the USB port but without connecting the data link (answered "NO") again leaving the power "on".
4. Waited few hours again
5. I disconnected again till it complained. Reconnected...
6. I repeated this about 5-6 times and it worked. Now the battery is back to about 1 hour or so, depending on brightness.

It seems it's a case of an intelligent battery regulator in the TT who's too intelligent for it's own good and simply forget the real battery status so, it won't let the battery get a charge.

 

[The Silver Surfer]

Well I'm sure that everyone has moved on from since the original post, but as I have just had a similar problem I thought I'd join the site and share what has worked for me.

I have a Go720 which I've had for over 5 years in full working order, however, I hadn't really used it for the last year or so. About 6 months ago I got it out to give it a charge and everything was fine. The I decided to do the same again last week, but this time I had no green charging light. There was still some charge in the battery so I knew the unit was still functional. Well 5 years for the battery wasn't bad at all, so maybe I treat the unit to a new battery. 8 quid, delivered, from fleabay and the new battery arrives. A quick search for a removal tutorial finds a really simple video showing how's it's done in around 5 minutes.

So, new battery in and all powered up great. However, I plug the USB cable in again and nada, still no green light. Another search for "no green light" just points me in the battery problem arena again. Then I think about various laptops I've had in the past where the soldering to the power input socket cracks and knackers the connection. So with the USB connected at both ends I gently move the mini USB end left, right, up then down and hey presto when I move it upwards the green charging light comes on. I apply just a little more pressure to the upwards movement and there's a gentle click inside the device, almost like something popping back into place. As I type right now I have the unit beside me charging unassisted. What a result! So I now essentially have a new device again, well chuffed and only 8 quid lighter.

 

[dhn]

Welcome to TTF and thanks for the feedback......

 

[canderson]

@Silver Surfer
I REALLY don't like the sound of that .. the sound that is. What you undoubtedly heard were the two plastic pins on the USB connector popping back into their holes on the board. That means that over time, the pads have become loose on the board, allowing the connector to float. Hey, it's a poor design. The connector soldering/pads are being expected to hold the connector down to the board. Instead, the pins should have been properly staked to the board on the 'back' side with heat or an ultrasonic device so that the mechanical bits of the connector were the 1st line of defense against getting loose, not the electronic bits.

Meanwhile, you may have a bit of a time bomb there. I wouldn't feel at all bad about adding a bit of Super Glue to the little pegs around the holes on the back side in hopes of allowing the mechanics to keep things together a bit longer. My guess is that the pads having pulled away from the board are already a tenuous electrical connection, hence your original symptoms.