poor gps signal

[scouser51850]

My tomtom xl has a poor gps signal and is unusable, if anybody has any answers,I would be very grateful.


Cheers Alan.

 

[Arno]

All the time or are you inside a building?

 

[canderson]

Lots of questions come to mind.
By any chance have you changed the vehicle in which you are using it, and did the problem begin after that change?
Check the satellite status page in and out of the vehicle. How many gray bars and how many blue ones? Blue ones at what height?

 

[scouser51850]

Lots of questions come to mind.
By any chance have you changed the vehicle in which you are using it, and did the problem begin after that change?
Check the satellite status page in and out of the vehicle. How many gray bars and how many blue ones? Blue ones at what height?

Thank you for your reply. I am using the same vehicle, I have left the unit on for two whole days, and no bars at all, it is taking the updates just fine, so its saying, either poor signal, or waiting for a signal. cheers Alan.

 

[canderson]

Time for a hard reset if you get no bars at all. The "n14644" that you quote is on many TomTom units - it's a regulatory registration number, not part of the model number - so still not sure which model you own. That said, if it has a separate reset button in a hole in the bottom of the unit (it WILL say 'reset' nearby if true), gently give it a poke with a paper clip or similar for a few seconds. If not, hold down the main power button for about 20 seconds until you see the TomTom logo and hear the drums start.

Once your unit has been hard booted via one of the above, let us know if your situation improves.

 

[scouser51850]

My unit did not improve, still the same, poor gps signal, and waiting for gps signal.

Cheers Alan.

 

[canderson]

That's not good. Are you always testing from the same location?

Let's assume your ephemeris files may be bad and misleading the device about where it should expect the satellites to be.

Connect your device to your PC. Allow Home to initialize. When it offers to update things, just hit "Back" to decline all updates for now.
Minimize Home to get it out of your way, but don't shut it down.
Using your PC, delete all files in the 'ephem' folder on the device itself (do not delete the folder, just the files within).
Using your PC, locate the folder named My Documents / TomTom / HOME / Download / complete / ephemeris.
Using your PC, delete all folders inside the ephemeris folder called QuickGPSfix or QuickGPSfix-{number}
Bring Home back into view.
Click on "Update my device" (or "Update my XL", or whatever your version says) in the lower left corner.
You should be offered, at a minimum, QuickGPSfix. Accept that, and click "Update and install".
Be sure to use Home to properly disconnect your device.

Any better?