Help! poi.dat Corrupt

[Roxy]

Hello everyone!

I need some help. I am sorry if this subject might have been covered already. I have been checking all TomTom and GPS forums looking for solutions, but I haven't found anything that would definitely fix my issue. I just got my GPS partially working and I don't want to go back to square one.

I just finished manually installing the North America 855 map on my XL340s. I followed the instructions for a manual install provided by dhn at this link

https://www.tomtomforums.com/genera...nstall-downloaded-map-without-using-home.html

Everything went well during the file extraction and I followed the directions very carefully. I properly disconnected the unit from my computer. Once disconnected and it started to boot, the unit got stuck on the TomTom splash screen. It doesn't get any further. I tried a soft reset and that didn't work. So, I hooked my unit back up to my computer to take a look at the files and I let it connect to HOME. Under Mange my One XL, HOME told me that it had an error reading the USA_Canada_and_Mexico_P\poi.dat file.

I don't know what to do at this point. I would prefer to just manually replace that specific file with a good copy of points of interest for the 855 map. Thanks in advance.

 

[dhn]

Then try getting extracting the poi.dat file from the 855 cab file and copying it to the 855 folder on the computer.

See if that helps.

If not, you can try this:
1. Move the cab file from the download folder to another location.
2. Make an Explorer, not Home, backup of your unit's contents.
3, Move the 855 map folder from the unit to a location on the computer.
4. Connect to Home. Add maps and 855 should be offered again. Download and install this new file

See if that helps.

 

[Roxy]

I tried extracting the map again but this time to my computer and thought maybe I could copy the poi.dat file over to my device, but that didn't work. If there was a way to just extract the poi.dat file only again, I did not know how to do it. I am not very familiar with WinRAR.

After that didn't work, I moved the map folder from the device and from the tomtom map download folder on my computer. I got the map to redownload. I extracted that map onto my device and it just finished. Unfortunately, this process hasn't fixed my device. Everything was fine during the extraction I had all the files replaced with the new map download. However when I powered it on after disconnecting it from the computer, it is still stuck on the TomTom splash screen. I reconnected the device to my computer, but this time HOME didn't give me any errors. It also had no trouble reading files on the device because when I go to Manage my ONE XL I can see that the maps are on my device. It shows up as about the same size as the maps download on my computer, but like 0.6mb difference.

I have let my device sit for about 5 minutes thinking maybe it needs some time to read the files to boot up for the first time, but that didn't work. A soft reset didn't work either.

Is there anything else that I can do? What do you think it might be? This is only the latest issue I am having with my unit. I have been troubleshooting the unit since August 18th. I bought my unit in 2009 and I had only updated it once with the map guarantee. Even then, I had errors updating through HOME, but it eventually took the update. Since then, I had never again attempted to update my map. When I decided to go on a trip in August, I thought it was time to update the map. So I bought a map subscription plus a the current map version. The download went fine, but of course it kept erroring on different files when it was copying onto the device in HOME.

After trying a few things from the TomTom site and forums, he deleted the map and made things worse. The unit when turned on said "No Map Found". So after royally screwing it up, he tried copying a backup onto the device, but that didn't work.

Finally, we formatted the device and made Explorer backups of every file we had. We reinstalled TomTom HOME and downloaded the map from a 32bit computer via Ethernet without the anti-virus software running. Then, one by one I used HOME to install all the latest IQ route apps, then the GPS Fix, then the map. The map was the last file I couldn't successfully install. That was when I used dhn's instructions to manually install a map.

After all this, I have no clue if the unit is just faulty because I completely wiped it clean and individually installed each piece of software. I hope that it is just a file or two of the map that is causing the device to not read the map and boot up.

P.S. Thank you so much for all the help! It is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post...

 

[Roxy]

If it helps at all after I individually installed each software, the unit was almost back to normal. At that point it was acting normally except that it couldn't find the map and told me "No Map Found". So, I believe there shouldn't be any errors coming from all the other software besides the map.

Also,after I did the format and while I was individually installing the IQ Route apps, I ran the Windows Scan and Fix because HOME kept having errors when it was installing the update to the device. I ran the scan and fix since the TomTom website support lists it as one of the things to do when the update errors out. Since then, I have read that I shouldn't run the scan and fix because it alters the unit's files. Could this be a reason why it isn't working?

 

[dhn]

Use Explorer to look at the contents of the map folder. You should see a file with an extension of .meta.dct. Do you see it there?

If so, then try downloading and running (3 times) the Clear Flash tool found here:
Clear Flash tool

 

[Roxy]

I ran the tool 3 times and it didn't change anything. It is still stuck on the TomTom splash screen. Then, I ran it 3 more times and still the same.

 

[Roxy]

Since my last post, I reset my device a few times and ran the clear flash tool again. Then, I thought maybe the TT wasn't working because I hadn't installed voices yet so I installed two voices one computer and a regular voice. They installed with no errors. I then was looking around in HOME to see if I would get any errors. No errors, but I used the option "Operate My Device". I have never used that before and if it actually does operate my device I thought maybe I could get some answers as to why it won't boot correctly. So I used that function, it worked but hung a bit every time I clicked on anything. I got as far as the options screen with "Navigate to.." After that I properly disconnected the device and tried to boot it. Now, it doesn't get stuck on the TomTom splash screen. It now gets stuck on the Legal Notice screen about how GPS devices can be inaccurate. I hit "I agree" then it hangs and after almost a minute it just reboots itself and the cycle continues unless I turn it off.

When I installed the voices, I let HOME download and install them via WiFi. I thought that since the files weren't very large they shouldn't have any errors. Do you think this may have created another issue? What should I do now?

 

[dhn]

Well, if reformating the unit (not quickformat) and restoring an Explorer backup didn't help and resetting the unit (holding the power button for about 15 seconds) didn't help and the Clear Flash tool didn't help........

I don't know.............

Maybe delete the loose files in the root of the unit, NO folders or their contents (make sure you've got an Explorer backup first) and then connect to Home to get the application again and reinstall.

 

[Roxy]

Do you think it could have anything to do with running a Window scan and fix on the unit? Every time I connect the unit to my computer it tells me to scan and fix it. Also earlier on before I had a successful format, I was troubleshooting the unit on a 64bit computer. TomTom support told me that their units are incompatible with 64bit OS. Could connecting it to a 64bit computer affected the unit even after a format?

Is it also possible that the BIOS somehow is corrupt? I am just wondering your thoughts on that. In any case, I will try to reformat it, re-download, reinstall, etc and see if that works if not....I guess the unit is DEAD for good. TT Support has been no help and refuses to refund the $100 I paid for a map subscription so I desperately need this to work. I don't think I will every buy another TT again. This is ridiculous all just from trying to update a map.

 

[mikealder]

Have you got Map Share switched on, more specifically the POI share part of map share? If so I would delete the files associated with Map Share POI updates as I have seen these cause constant re-booting with the v855 map, well worth a try.

Connect device to PC and using Home disable Map Share - Mike

 

[Roxy]

@ Mike: I have never used Map Share, so I have it disabled already. However, I do get the message I read about that says "Your map is not up to date". I am just ignoring that since it is incorrect. I am going to try to delete loose files on the TT if that won't work, I will start at square one. Thanks for your input.

 

[Roxy]

I just tried making an Explorer backup and I found out that the cline.dat file is corrupt. I am going to find out if the download was faulty and redownload if not then I will reinstall the maps with a good cline.dat. Do I need this file? Is it important for TT to function? I don't understand why my TT map downloads keep having errors. I am downloading them hardwired with no anti-virus software running and I manually installed the maps.

 

[canderson]

I just tried making an Explorer backup and I found out that the cline.dat file is corrupt. ... Do I need this file? Is it important for TT to function?

You bet. It represents the roads you see when you see a TT map.

No idea why the download is becoming such a problem for you. I'm beginning to wonder if you're having USB issues or internal TT memory issues. The copy wouldn't have done any better in the PC to TT direction if the file was already corrupt on your PC.

 

[Roxy]

I ran a test of the zip file with my map name and WinRar didn't find any errors? Do you still think I need to redownload the map?

 

[mvl]

I'm most concerned about the ability to copy files reliably onto the device.

Can you rule out a few things first:
1) hold the power button forever (it will restart) and keep holding the power button. A black text screen will eventually show up. Confirm that the "Bootloader" version is 5.5136. If it's not 5.5136, post back and don't proceed to the steps below

2) do a chkdsk /r on the drive. How long does it take to complete? Did it report bad sectors?

3) if you get bad sectors above, try a new USB cable and see if you still get the same problems.

You should be able to read/write to the Tomtom drive reliably, regardless of the map or app version, as long as your bootloader version is (5.5136). If you still can't read/write reliably, it would seem like your unit has a hardware fault.

 

[Roxy]

I do have the version 5.5136 bootloader. I ran a checkdisk and it did not report any bad sectors just files and folders particularly my map folder and a data_im2.chk entry with a non valid link. I recently tried to manually install map v.8.5 but it failed so I only have a partial map folder right now. I didn't let windows fix any errors just check it. Should I let it fix the errors? What do you think I should do next?

 

[mvl]

I'd recommend a quickformat, then run "Update my XL" in HOME repeatedly (decline to update voices when prompted), until it has nothing but voices offerred.

Don't restore from the backup as perhaps the backup is bad.

It that works, then install one computer voice (eg: susan)