Reset prob on Do you wish to connect to computer?

[Trapper]

In order to connect my GO730 to TT HOME I need to reset the unit with a paperclip then place the unit in its cradle and then Home launches. When updating Home will automatically reboot the unit, the unit will then ask if 'I wish to connect to my computer' at which point I push the YES button.
After a few seconds the screen goes black and refuses to do anything until I hit the reset again and return it to its cradle.
Likewise if I have been using the unit and plug it into the cradle Home will not launch until I removed it and again use the reset button.

Spoke to TT about this and the comment was my unit was out of warranty and it was a hardware fault that would cost around £90 to fix:rant:

If there is a fix for this problem please let me know, I can use the reset to save that rather expensive repair but maybe there is a simple solution??

Regards

Alan.

 

[dhn]

1. Make an Explorer, not Home, backup of the unit's contents. See here if not sure how:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/t17864-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer-how-restore.html

2. Delete all the loose files in the root of the unit, NO folders or their contents.

3. Connect to Home and install the application offered. Disconnect properly from Home using the Device disconnect icon. If the application installed is not 9.45, then go through the process again.

See if the unit acts properly now.

 

[Trapper]

Thanks for the reply dhn.

Just to make sure I am doing the right thing, I assume that this action needs to be done on the internal memory only and that I would remove the SDHC card before doing as advised?

I have already taken Explorer backups of both internal and SDHC drives, but appreciate the reminder :thumb:.

Regards

Alan.

 

[dhn]

I'm assuming the application is on internal (look for loose files in the root of the unit). If so, yes, the goal is to install the application again to see if that gets the unit to work properly.

 

[Trapper]

Fast reply

If I am not mistaken when I contacted TT about a map update they went through updating my unit via Home (With me resetting when needed) the application was installed to both SDHC and Internal memory. When I do get Home to recognise the TT it asks which drive it should use, either G: SDHC or L: internal.
Whether having app on both would cause a conflict I don't know but TT support seemed happy with it.

Regards
Alan.

 

[dhn]

If the app is on the card, the unit boots from there, just so you know.

 

[Andy_P]

Which is a good reason NOT to have it in both places at once, otherwise it can get confusing when problems like yours appear.

 

[Trapper]

Thank you for your help dhn and Andy.
Okay, I have copied both application and map on both internal and SDHC card to a backup disk drive on my PC. I have then copied both from the internal drive to computer from within TT Home, after this I have removed application and map from the internal drive.
On checking the PC backup files on both internal and SDHC there are some files shown as 'recovered file fragments' which I think could cause problems:
data_im1.chk 6507kb
data_im2.chk 1442kb
data_is1.chk 1384kb
data_is2.chk 1282kb
data_lim.chk 1167kb
data_lis.chk 5000kb
data_ra.chk 75kb
data_sp.chk 20kb
data_ts.chk 340kb

Before I delete these from both internal and SDHC I just wanted to check it is safe to do so?

Regards
Alan.

 

[Andy_P]

NO! DON'T DELETE THEM

Yes, the .chk extension is used by Windows to denote 'recovered file fragments' left over after a repair session on a hard drive, but your TomTom is not using Windows at all.

In Linux, any extension letters can mean something entirely different and TomTom have used '.chk' for lots of things.
For example you'll find several more files like that in your "voices" folder...and they are the voices themselves!
Any "real" (not text-to-speech) voices will be called dataxx.chk (where xx is a two digit number)

Also the file called simply 'data.chk' (which should be in the root directory along with all the ones you listed) contains all the built-in sound effects for POI warnings etc.

 

[Trapper]

Good job I didn't delete them then, could have been !!

Thanks for the warning, I will leave well alone. To my mind Recovered file fragments means just that fragments of something not a whole, but there you go.

Having a new boiler fitted today and the house is in a mess so have delayed attacking my TT till back to normal.

Regards

Alan.

 

[Andy_P]

To my mind Recovered file fragments means just that fragments of something not a whole, but there you go.

It's just Windows being stupid... It doesn't KNOW that a file is a fragment, it just looks at the extension and assumes it must be.

For example, if you were to write a 500-page novel in MS Word, it would get saved as a '.doc' file.

If you then took your completed masterpiece and changed the file name to have .chk on the end, Windows would suddenly decide it was a recovered fragment and offer to delete it for you!

But the file is just the same, and by changing the extension back to .doc, Windows would be happy with it again.

I believe cleverer operating systems don't just guess from the file name, they actually look at the contents of the file to decide what it is.

 

[Trapper]

Silly Windows 7!

Okay, the plot so far.
I have deleted the files not the folders on the SDHC card and allowed Home to update, which it did.
There was no improvement as when Home advised that the unit needed to restart and the option appeared on screen to connect to computer 'Yes' or 'No' the screen again went black on pressing Yes . Bad news so I guess I will have to live with a paperclip close to hand.
I also tried removing HOME and re-installing but this made no difference either.

Any other suggestion would be welcome.

I am going to start a new thread as there is something going peculiar going on with my PC and TT Home program,

"Problem with TT HOME, System Reserved, and drive letters." Will be the title.

Regards
Alan.

 

[Trapper]

No need (I hope) for the new thread mentioned above, for some time I have had problems with TT Home and my Win7 System Reserved, with Home installed I was receiving constant error messages relating to Autoplay and System Reserved and a flashing G: drive letter. If TT Home was unchecked on msconfig startup and services then the problem disappeared.
I uninstalled TT Home, cleaned the registry, temp folders, recycle bin etc then re-bboted and downloaded a fresh version of TT Home. installed this then ran the program. All hell broke loose with error messages right across the top of the screen, relating to Autoplay and System Reserved but this time with a solid G:
I closed TT Home and the error messages then checked Disk Management which showed my System reserved as Drive G: I then launched TT Home again and all was fine.

I have now removed the drive letter G: and will try TT Home again and see if they will play happy families again!

Regards
Alan.

 

[Trapper]

Still not happy

As soon as TT Home was launched Disk Management showed a flashing G: although this time there were no error messages, both internal and SDHC cards were shown in DM.

Closed TT Home and the flashing G: disappeared.

Not sure where to go from here...... any suggestions?

Regards
Alan.

 

[dhn]

Try running Home in XP compatible mode.

 

[Trapper]

Good idea, unfortunately I had tried that with no improvement. I have an old PC running XP SP3 which I think still has TT Home on it, if not I will install it.
If there is no problem there then the problem is with this Win 7 PC.

 

[Trapper]

Well the old PC with XP had an old TT Home that I updated, problem was that Home did not want to acknowledge that my GO730 was attached to the PC!

I think it's time to accept defeat on this and use a paperclip for the time being, maybe have another go later.

Regards
Alan.

 

[- et -]

Well the old PC with XP had an old TT Home that I updated, problem was that Home did not want to acknowledge that my GO730 was attached to the PC!

I have seen a lot of problems of this nature reported on the net that turned out to be the cable, or the specific USB port on the computer. Since it will be a quick and easy job, make sure that you connect to a USB port on the back of your computer, or to a different port if you already used a port on the back.

Also, if you happen to have access to another cable, try again with that cable.

If you had asked me a couple of years ago whether this type of issue is likely to cause problems like you report, I would have laughed. However, I have since seen far more reports on the net than I would have ever expected of cable/port issues causing problems like you have.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[Trapper]

Not something I had thought of, but I will try another lead and port. However in 'My Computer' both the TT internal and external drives were shown so assumed, possibly wrongly, that Home should have found the 730.

Regards
Alan.

 

[canderson]

If you can successfully navigate to the various folders on your 730 and its SD card with your PC, that's a good sign, but not a conclusive one. My old 720 also used to do this (not be recognized by Home) and I did have to hit it with a paperclip style reset every doggone time I connected it to get Home to see it. There seemed to be something happening that was causing the USB identifying information to be incorrect, though that shouldn't ever be possible with one of these units.

It finally straightened itself out one time when I updated firmware that included a new bootloader, though that shouldn't have been an issue, either. Was always a mystery.