Hard Reset on XXL540

[go930user]

Hi all,

Was surprised to not see an aperture to allow an owner to get at a "reset" button on the XXL540 I've just acquired.

Am I not looking closely enough?

If there is no button, is a Hard Reset possible by some other method?

Given TTs history with software upgrades that reduce functionality and often result in lockups, I'm surprised that they have removed this facility. Or are they now absolutely confident that their software will never get trapped in an infnite loop?:lol:

I guess the retrieval method is to format the memory and reload the software - providing you have taken an image of it using IE. But that requires that you are at the computer where the image is located - usually not the case when the lockup occurs.

Oh, has anyone dis-assembled one of these things? It doesn't look to be as easy as the Go910 and Go930 I've previously owned - no screws under blanking plugs. That internal battery isn't going to last forever!

Cheers

Thanks

 

[spider362]

The 540 and others and those without a hole in the bottom for a push pin use the power on button held down until you hear the drum roll for a soft reset.

Once the device is active there is a factory (hard) reset in Change preferences on page 6 of 6 (Reset factory settings).

Does that have you covered?

 

[Andy_P]

Oh, has anyone dis-assembled one of these things? It doesn't look to be as easy as the Go910 and Go930 I've previously owned - no screws under blanking plugs.

On my XL the screws (Torx) are under the bottom label.

 

[go930user]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for both bits of information. I scrolled thru the settings when I first fired it up. Have to admit I missed the Hard Reset option.

Cheers

 

[Andy_P]

That info came from Spider, not me

But just to clarify... there are no hard-and-fast definitions of a "hard" or "soft" reset.

The equivalent of the reset hole you are used to is the 20-second press on the power switch. That re-boots the program from scratch (the power off just puts it into a "sleep" mode").

The "return to factory settings" from the menu also deletes a load of your personal settings files. There's a list of what it does here:

Factory Reset - What it does and doesn't do

 

[go930user]

Hi Spider,

Aplologies,

Just didn't note that the two messages were from differing contributors - my bad.

I'm always suspicious of "hard" resets that rely on tapping screens - much prefer a power off for 30 secs and then reboot - but I guess the manufacturer knows best.

Cheers

 

[spider362]

No problem go930user.

I guess I use "soft" and "hard" because of the difference in what is done to the device.

Since the power off button turns the device off one would think using the power button would be the "hard" reset and using the menu would be the "soft" reset. But the power button only puts the device to sleep and doesn't turn it off as one would think.

Don't know why it works that way, but it does.

 

[canderson]

To the contrary - the power button, held for sufficient time, causes an operating system level reboot of the device. Apart from draining down the battery, it's as "hard" a reset as you are going to get.

The "Factory Reset" procedure is used to clear out user configuration information and return any configured items to the factory defaults. It only changes configuration details (like day/night, voice and other preferences) to those as shipped.

 

[spider362]

I always thought it was the other way around...

Thanks canderson.

 

[dhn]

In fact, TomTom does refer to a factory reset as 'hard'. See here:
http://us.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7488/kw/hard%20reset/sno/1

 

[canderson]

Yeah, they do, and it surely does help to confuse the issue. My description of the power button reset is for the 'old platform' units, but I have no reason to think the 'new platform' models don't operate in the same way.

The firmware contains its own table of factory default settings for each of the unit's configurable items. When a Factory Reset is performed, that table is used to reload each of those items. It's really only helpful when something has been corrupted or needs to be 'cleared' in the user configuration table in flash.

The power button reset is on the order of the old CTRL-ALT-DEL "three finger salute" with DOS or older versions of Windows, if that helps clarify it.

The expression 'hard' reset is usually reserved for any procedure that forces the processor to jump to the first executable memory address - as though it had been completely unpowered and repowered, or forcing that to happen by actually pulling power from the processor. Sometimes an external switch of some sort is provided that drives a special CPU reset pin to ground or similar as a more genteel way of approaching the problem vs. jerking the power to the processor and reconnecting it.

 

[canderson]

Something else that causes some confusion ... there are at any time the unit is operating three different versions of the unit's configurable items list:

1) There's the one I mentioned that is hard coded and is used to replace all items when selecting "Reset Factory Settings"
2) There's the copy of the configuration as it comes from the factory or has been modified by the user and is stored in flash memory at shut-down each time. At power up, this information is copied from flash to DRAM for use by the firmware.
3) There's the current 'working' copy of the user configuration in DRAM. This is the configuration info actually being used by the unit (flash memory is too slow) to change the behavior of the unit while it is operating. During an orderly shut-down (not a crash), changes to the configuration information are copied back to flash for use the next time the unit is powered on.

 

[Andy_P]

As I said... there are no hard-and-fast definitions of a "hard" or "soft" reset! It just causes confusion.

Best to stick to the terms TT usually use - "Return to factory settings" and just "reset".