Resurrecting a 720

[canderson]

Dollars to donuts we can get that 720 up and running for you - providing it still has enough battery life left to run at all! It's not at all hard to just start over with one of those older units providing you have your map folder stored away somewhere, or can retrieve it from the unit with your PC.

If you're game, why not give it a try here?

 

[RichC]

Holly Smokes! Are you serious? Wow, yes! I'll did out everything and see what I have and reply again. Thank you!

 

[RichC]

Okay @canderson, it looks like I have everything: GPS, cradle, car charger. I can get it to start, but all it does it get to the image of the GO 720 sitting in the cradle. I can not see the device as a drive. I have an SD card installed with music, and that I can view in Windows Explorer (WinXP) as drive F:. Drive G is mounted as the GPS,but if I try to view it I get "Please insert a disk into drive G:" I'm not sure about the condition of the battery, I'm going to let it charge overnight and see what happens in the morning. The battery was fine as I recall. The time it takes to boot up to the cradle is very long: 45 seconds to get to the TomTom logo, another 55 seconds to the cradle; almost two minutes total.

Here's what happened when the GPS died: I had gotten an email in March 2011 that a map update was available (the second map update in my one-year subscription.) When I went to install it I performed the backup first then during the install something happened, I don't know what exactly. I had left the GPS on my desk connected to my laptop overnight to update. When I returned it was hung.

Unfortunately I can not locate that backup. I must have deleted it after some time. My map subscription has long since run out, but I would be happy to renew it if the device can be made to work. I don't know if that's a show stopper though since you mention the need to have the folder.

It's as if the memory needs to be reformated, or something like that. Or maybe something is just plain broken. The fact that it failed during the update always made me suspicious that it was caused by the update (I'm a SW guy), but TT support said otherwise and I figured I'd gotten my money's worth at that point so bye-bye 720, hello 2535.

What do you think?

 

[canderson]

I think we need to move this to another thread. How about I move these last few posts over to another thread in tech support. Once you confirm that you've seen this message, I'll start shuffling thing around.

 

[canderson]

OK. Let's start with the basics first. We need to get your unit recognized by your computer if we're going to have any success with it.

It's not possible to hit the reset button on a 720 while it's on the dock, and the battery may be a bit dead, so let's start by hooking the 720 up to a USB port on your PC with a standard USB-A to USB-miniB cable instead of the dock for about an hour, turned off. That should at also put a little charge on the battery.

After it's had a chance to cook on that cable for a while, use the power button to turn the unit on. Whatever improper state it comes up in, don't worry over that. Now, take a paper clip and gently push the reset button in the bottom of the unit (it's marked "Reset" and is just to the right of the serial number bar code). Let's see if that causes the device to become 'connectable' to your PC. It often does solve that problem.

Let me know how you make out to that point.

 

[RichC]

@canderson, first I want to thank you your help.

I let the unit charge overnight and the battery seems very good. It boots up very slowly to the point where it shows an animated graphic of an SD card with a red X through it. I reset it and it boots to the same point. I then turned it off, placed it in the cradle and turned it on again. I'm connecting it to my old WinXP ThinkPad T40 because I see a drive mounted for the 720 even though I can not do anything with it. Under Win7 I don't even see the device as a drive.

 

[canderson]

IS there an SD card in the unit? If so, do you recall what was on the card? If there is one, remove it and try again. Meanwhile, stick with the XP machine as that removes one variable from our issues.

Were you able to attempt the reset of the device WHILE it was connected to the computer? That would require the use of a more ordinary cable vs. the dock.

Now, when you say that "I see a drive mounted for the 720 even though I can not do anything with it.", exactly what do you mean? You are seeing the 720 as an external storage device, but cannot open it to review its content?

Last - was this 720 ever previously used with the XP machine you are using now?

 

[mvl]

This should be real easy since you have a map subscription.

Just put the SD in the Tomtom, and connect the 720 to Tomtom HOME. Log in with your email, keep running Update my GO and it should reinstall everything on its own.

 

[canderson]

I'm not sure about his connection to his PC at the moment. If he responds that he can't see the contents of the 720 (his comment "can not do anything with it" points to an issue that must be resolved before Home will do diddly), then we have to deal with that first.

 

[RichC]

@canderson, I've tried both with and without the SD card installed. When I have the 1GB SD Card installed it appears as drive F: and I can see the music files I put there eons ago. This card is one I installed in the 720 not long after I bought it, but I never used the feature. No matter what I do I can not see the contents of the 720's built-in memory. I used a mini-USB cable to perform the reset as you described. It seems as though the memory in the device itself is not working. XP assigns drive letter G: to it, but if I select that drive I get the message "Please insert a disk into drive G:".

The XP machine I'm using is the one that I had been using with Home previously, so I know that the 720 used to work with it just fine. Unfortunately I uninstalled Home a while ago when I got the 2535 and realized that Home had no further use.

Just for grins I inserted another SD card, this one is 2GB and was previously used in a cell phone, it also works fine and I can see it in Windows Explorer as well as the files.

If the SD cards work fine, then perhaps I can do as @mvl suggests and try to update from Home? I'd just try it, but I don't want to do something that makes it even worse.

Also, my map subscription is expired. I'd renew it if that makes sense, although I have no idea what it costs.

 

[RichC]

According to the TT web site, I can buy a new map subscription for $71.95 that gets me the current map plus 6 updates. It's a steal! I hope you can help me figure this out!

 

[RichC]

One more thing: I just found that I have a folder on my laptop called "TomTom\Home\FromDevice". In this folder it appears that there are a ton of files (mostly zips), one of which is "North_America_2GB.zip" Does that that contain the map file I need?

 

[dhn]

I would suspect so. when you use Home to do a backup, it does save it as a zipped file. Look at the contents of the zip file and you should be able to figure out what is the most recent map you backed up.

 

[canderson]

@All:
If Rich is unable to see the contents of the internal memory of the 720 in My Computer, Home isn't going to be able to see it, either. So until we sort that out, using Home to manipulate the device is a non-starter.

@Rich
We're going to force Home to reload your firmware if possible. That's a little tedious, but is the easy part. Let's see if we can get this done without having you pay for another map.

dhn is 100% on the right track about the maps. If you do have a backup, let's see how old it is. Your "From Device" is where you have used Home to back up your unit, and that North_America_2GB.zip file is EXACTLY what you need. Open it up with your favorite tool and see what kind of dates the files have internally. If it's recent enough, you can use those.

Now ... moving on to restoring your unit.

NOTHING on your unit's internal memory is visible, and you've got at least some map stashed on your PC, so let's use Windows to format your unit. If that is successful, this will be easy. If your internal memory is no longer functional, it's a bit messier since we'll need to install the entire works on an SD card. FWIW, if the unit firmware is found on an installed SD card, it will boot from that and ignore internal memory, so even if internal is bad, the device can be used.

Remove the SD card for now. Connect up to your PC. If Home should fire up, just close it down.

Use Windows to format your unit, FAT32, and NOT Quick Format. Once you have done this, use the systray icon to properly disconnect your device. Go ahead and turn it off.

Make sure you have Home2 installed. I can't tell if you've done this or not, only that you had previously deleted it. The most recent version can be found here: http://www.tomtom.com/services/service.php?id=16&tab=87

Once you have Home installed, reconnect your unit and turn it on. It should ask about connecting to the computer. If it does NOT ask, use the reset button on the bottom of the unit and try again.

IF the device is recognized by Windows, let Home run. It will notice that you do not have any firmware on your unit. Go ahead and allow Home to install firmware only. It MAY not bring you up to the current level on the first pass. If not, disconnect and reconnect until you are offered 9.430 and it is installed.

Once you have all of that accomplished, you will be ready to restore your map from your PC's hard drive, and your 720 should be functional again. Let us know how you do with the previous steps first.

 

[canderson]

Oh, and since you DID have a map subscription, and it appears to have been during your use of this PC, you probably also have more recent maps available here: C:\My Documents\TomTom\HOME\Download\complete\map

If there are one or more folders inside that 'map' folder, you have one or more of your map subscription maps there, too, and those may be more recent than what you backed up previously.

 

[Andy_P]

Point # 1. Stick with canderson for now, other posters (including me) are distracting.
Point # 2. I wouldn't even bother looking around for saved maps JUST yet. Concentrate on getting the operating system working on the internal first (or if that's died - on the SD card).

 

[RichC]

Following @canderson’s instructions I have:

1. Installed Home version 2.8.3.2499
2. Formatted the 2GB SD card
3. Connected to Home and run the ‘Update my device’ process a few times to get to the latest firmware
4. Used the ‘Manage my device’ process to copy the map (which is dated 12/17/2009 in the zip) to the 720 (along with a few other things that were missing.)
​

It appears that everything is working, but before I do anything else I’m going to make a new backup! The device now shows that I have App 9.430 and Map v840.2562.

I’ll report back after I’ve tested everything.

@canderson, you are amazing. And really, you have all been so helpful. Sincere thanks to everyone.

 

[RichC]

Well, I'm amazed. My GO 720 works like a charm. I had given it up for dead, but there it is.

One more thing: would you recommend buying the map subscription, or am I on borrowed time?

A suggestion to other owners of these older devices: make and KEEP a backup of your device. If you do you'll get a second chance like I did.

And a few more comments that may be helpful to others:

- I tried to format the device itself as @canderson suggested, however all I received was 'Please insert a disk in drive G:', which indicated the device itself was shot. I proceeded with the SD card format and had no trouble getting it recognized.

- I had several issues getting TT Home to recognized the GO 720. This may have been due to the firmware updates, I'm not sure. I found that by rebooting both the laptop and resetting the 720 it frequently reconnected again the first time. Sometimes I had to repeat.

- Be patient. I found many times when I thought the 720 was frozen, it was actually just in a very slow boot. Now that everything is installed on the SD card the device starts, operates, and shuts down just as it did from the internal memory with no apparent speed differences.

Thanks again to @canderson, @mvl, @dhn, and to @Andy_P. I see now why you guys are called ‘Super Moderators'. Outstanding service.

 

[dhn]

Good news. Now, make an Explorer, not Home, backup of both internal AND the contents of the sdhc card.

 

[canderson]

Well, I'm amazed. My GO 720 works like a charm. I had given it up for dead, but there it is.

I'm pleased that it worked out for you. The 720 is a good old workhorse of a unit. Good thing you kept it instead of relegating it to the dust bin.

One more thing: would you recommend buying the map subscription, or am I on borrowed time?

Much depends upon how your driving area still matches up with map 840 (2-1/4 years old). That's a map from quite a while back. From what you said, I have a suspicion that if you look in that 'download\complete' folder I mentioned earlier, you may find something more recent. It sounded like your subscription didn't expire so long back as 2-1/4 years ago, in which case we can load up something that's already there and more recent than the backup version that I think you just loaded.

- I tried to format the device itself as @canderson suggested, however all I received was 'Please insert a disk in drive G:', which indicated the device itself was shot. I proceeded with the SD card format and had no trouble getting it recognized.

I take it your TomTom internal was 'drive G'?

- I had several issues getting TT Home to recognized the GO 720. This may have been due to the firmware updates, I'm not sure. I found that by rebooting both the laptop and resetting the 720 it frequently reconnected again the first time. Sometimes I had to repeat.

I'm not 100% sure what that was about. However, it is not unusual to have to reboot the unit after a firmware update, especially one that changes the boot code on the unit, and I suspect you had more than one update involved to get you up to 9.430.

Thanks again to @canderson, @mvl, @dhn, and to @Andy_P. I see now why you guys are called ‘Super Moderators'. Outstanding service.

Naw, we're only "Super" because we have the power to make horrible mistakes with the message base and user database here if we aren't careful!