Low volume on start60

[Davystart60]

The other week I noticed my volume on my start60 had reduced by about 50% for no reason other than the battery was a bit low on it.
Today, sound was fine until I got a warning my battery was low and it again reduced by about 50%.
Is this normal or do I need to return it to where I bought it?
When I got home I plugged it in to charge it up and volume is back to 100%
A bit worrying as I will be using this shortly for a holiday I am going on and will need it working ok.

 

[dhn]

Well, the device should be used when attached to the cig lighter with the cable that came with the device. Reduced sound is indeed a symptom of low battery.

When the device is connected to the car, is it charging properly?

 

[Davystart60]

Yes it charges fine in the car. Just that recently I was using it without charging it connected and only using the battery...

 

[canderson]

Different TomTom units have different strategies for managing low battery power, but the objective is always to provide visual navigation a the first priority. For example, you will lose "Live" services on those units that support it in order to support basic navigation. With the bigger and brighter screen, the Start60 uses a fair bit of power just to keep the display running. You can lengthen the life of the battery charge by dimming down the screen a good bit, but dhn provides you with the best advice -- keep it on the charger when driving! At best, these things might go 2 hours on a charge otherwise, depending upon configuration.

 

[Davystart60]

That's what I thought. I email tech support at TomTom so will get it confirmed I suppose by them. Would be food if owner was warned about this beforehand though. Will either use it fully charged or keep it on car charger.
Pervious model was go910 and I have it for many years without this problem at all and sold it on before I bought this one....
Thanks for replies though as it's put my mind at rest...

 

[canderson]

Even the older models had various power saving strategies. For example, it seems to me that the FM modulator was disabled on the units that had them if the battery started to get low.

I know that most of then shut down the voice instructions if things got really low. Better an earlier drop to 50% than the way they used to do it. "Now you hear it, now you don't"!

 

[Davystart60]

Even the older models had various power saving strategies. For example, it seems to me that the FM modulator was disabled on the units that had them if the battery started to get low.

I know that most of then shut down the voice instructions if things got really low. Better an earlier drop to 50% than the way they used to do it. "Now you hear it, now you don't"!

Well I have got it on charge and tried the voice which appears to have normal volume, so it must be a power saving part of the unit when I have a low battery...

 

[Davystart60]

Still no reply from TomTom tech support though which is terrible

 

[canderson]

We always recommend calling vs. trying to use email with tech support. When/if you do get a reply by email, it is rarely directly responsive to a question, requiring yet more exchanges.

 

[Arno]

What did you say in your eMail?
Usually CS sends a very fast reply, often referring to their FAQ or asking for additional details.
Their answers always have the boiler plate reply that the ticket is closed if they do not hear back within 3 days.

Could it be possible that a reply got caught in a spam folder.