Sad old Go 520

[Willumn55]

Hi everybody.
I've run out of ideas on how to get my old Go 520 to work again.
A quick run down on the problem:
First, I use a Mac with OSX El Capitan - all up to date. I have TomTom Home which it says is the latest version when checked.
I was recently offered the GPS rollover update and a one-off map update. For some reason the 4Gb memory card was not recognised by TomTom Home, so I got another one, put it in, same problem.
I followed various of TomTom's procedures to recover everything, including the back-up bits, then got to the bit where I'm told to format the disks.
I did it as MS DOS (FAT) and Master Boot Record for 'INTERNAL' and MS DOS (FAT) - no MBR offered - for the SD card and all seemed to be OK when I did the 'First Aid' check as well.
Now, although both 'drives' are recognised by the Mac, TomTom Home says there is no device connected.
I've followed all sorts of procedures, including a look at the FAQs here - but they all seem to be based on Windows, or just don't do it.
I guess I'm missing something and I'm stumped - and it's been a faithful servant that I still use for local stuff and don't want to loose!
Will

 

[dhn]

Anything here?:

https://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7375

 

[Willumn55]

Thanks but sadly not. After following all the steps on the link I run up against the same result, even after re-installing the latest Home software - 'no device connected' (Think I may have tried that one before)
Will

 

[Arno]

I followed various of TomTom's procedures to recover everything, including the back-up bits,

Did you use HOME for that or did you make a straight copy of the drive to a folder on your PC?

 

[Willumn55]

Did you use HOME for that or did you make a straight copy of the drive to a folder on your PC?

I used Home as the TOMTOM procedure (for the Mac I have) said to do. It wasn't copied to my Mac in any other way.
(you asking that makes me think this might be getting a bit bad.....)
Will

 

[Arno]

Basically this forum has always recommended for devices connected via HOME (as opposed to MyDrive Connect) to make a complete back up to the PC for each drive letter (internal + SD).
Any time HOME makes a back up it over writes the previous one. This could lead to saving a corrupted program.

I think we will have to wait until canderson sees this thread.

 

[Willumn55]

Basically this forum has always recommended for devices connected via HOME (as opposed to MyDrive Connect) to make a complete back up to the PC for each drive letter (internal + SD).
Any time HOME makes a back up it over writes the previous one. This could lead to saving a corrupted program.

I think we will have to wait until canderson sees this thread.

OK, thanks for the reply. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I didn't realise TomTom software (the old stuff) was that flakey. I've had good use from it with never so much as a blink - much easier to use and more reliable than my new Go 610. In my naivety I thought the back-up it made was the 'last ditch' but obviously not.
Will

 

[Arno]

It isn't flakey, Will. It works as designed. Unfortunately the programmers never took into consideration that corrupted software would overwrite the good one and then be restored once the user notices problems.

 

[canderson]

I did it as MS DOS (FAT) and Master Boot Record for 'INTERNAL' and MS DOS (FAT) - no MBR offered - for the SD card and all seemed to be OK when I did the 'First Aid' check as well.
Now, although both 'drives' are recognised by the Mac, TomTom Home says there is no device connected.

So it sounds as though your Mac sees both internal and SD card OK, and can manipulate both, but Home sees neither. That's not a good thing, since it implies that there's something Home does not recognize about your device, even though it is logically connected OK to your Mac.

I do not have a tool to provide to you that will identify the specifics of the USB data sent by your 520 to your Mac ... only for Windows. All USB devices send vendor and product identification information to the computer, and it;'s that information, when discovered, that Home uses to recognize devices that it can work with.

Not being a Mac user, it's hard to tell you how to do this ... you need to uninstall your 520 as a USB device from your Mac. That means uninstalling the driver on the Mac specifically associated with your 520, but how that's done on a Mac, I can't say. Then reconnect the 520 to your Mac and allow the driver (it will just use the standard 'external storage device' driver) to reinstall. While connected, then press the reset button in the bottom of your 520 to perform a restart on the device. Then see if Home will recognize it again.

 

[Willumn55]

It isn't flakey, Will. It works as designed. Unfortunately the programmers never took into consideration that corrupted software would overwrite the good one and then be restored once the user notices problems.

Please don't take offence at my description of it as being 'flakey'. In my simple world it just means that something isn't consistent, or reliable - and in any event, that is what it's turned out to be. I'm reasonably competent with a computer but it has lead me round in circles and I came to find an answer, rather than lose the use of what has been, until now, a good bit of technology.
Either way, it almost certainly started when I took the chance to get the week rollover and onetime map update. It never worked properly after that and Home kept saying there was no memory card and the Go 520 said it couldn't find the satellites, whilst the 610 sitting beside it was perfectly happy with 5 in view.
I'm live in hope that someone might know of a way to resurect it.
Will

 

[Willumn55]

So it sounds as though your Mac sees both internal and SD card OK, and can manipulate both, but Home sees neither. That's not a good thing, since it implies that there's something Home does not recognize about your device, even though it is logically connected OK to your Mac.

I do not have a tool to provide to you that will identify the specifics of the USB data sent by your 520 to your Mac ... only for Windows. All USB devices send vendor and product identification information to the computer, and it;'s that information, when discovered, that Home uses to recognize devices that it can work with.

Not being a Mac user, it's hard to tell you how to do this ... you need to uninstall your 520 as a USB device from your Mac. That means uninstalling the driver on the Mac specifically associated with your 520, but how that's done on a Mac, I can't say. Then reconnect the 520 to your Mac and allow the driver (it will just use the standard 'external storage device' driver) to reinstall. While connected, then press the reset button in the bottom of your 520 to perform a restart on the device. Then see if Home will recognize it again.

Thanks for the response canderson. I can get access to a Windows 8 laptop if that will make any difference. I know for a fact it doesn't have TomTom Home on it. Would I be best installing it straight away, or wait and see if you know of another approach using Windows?
Will

 

[canderson]

Go ahead and install a current version of Home on the Win8 machine first. Then plug in your 520 and see what happens. Win8 will 'connect' your 520 to a 'mass storage device' driver, and should be visible to the OS and to Home when done. You don't say why you had the 4GB card installed, but I assume it was to manage the larger Western Europe map that no longer fits in the 520's 2GB internal memory. Let's start with the card OUT, and just try to get the OS loaded on the device first.

If you don't get good results, then I will provide a utility that will let us inspect the reported VID/PID information from the device to see if there is a reason that Home doesn't recognize it.

 

[Willumn55]

Go ahead and install a current version of Home on the Win8 machine first. Then plug in your 520 and see what happens. Win8 will 'connect' your 520 to a 'mass storage device' driver, and should be visible to the OS and to Home when done. You don't say why you had the 4GB card installed, but I assume it was to manage the larger Western Europe map that no longer fits in the 520's 2GB internal memory. Let's start with the card OUT, and just try to get the OS loaded on the device first.

If you don't get good results, then I will provide a utility that will let us inspect the reported VID/PID information from the device to see if there is a reason that Home doesn't recognize it.

OK, thanks, I'll do that and post the results. It will have to be tomorrow (UK) now.
You are right ref the 4Gb card, it was for the Western Europe map - and the TomTom Go 520 that I have only appears to have 512Mb of internal storage.
Will

 

[canderson]

Indeed. I had forgotten -- it's been a while. The 520 only came in 512K and 1GB. Your serial number must start with "M2".

 

[Willumn55]

Indeed. I had forgotten -- it's been a while. The 520 only came in 512K and 1GB. Your serial number must start with "M2".

Yes, indeed, (now I've got my glasses on) it does start with 'M2'

 

[Willumn55]

Go ahead and install a current version of Home on the Win8 machine first. Then plug in your 520 and see what happens. Win8 will 'connect' your 520 to a 'mass storage device' driver, and should be visible to the OS and to Home when done. You don't say why you had the 4GB card installed, but I assume it was to manage the larger Western Europe map that no longer fits in the 520's 2GB internal memory. Let's start with the card OUT, and just try to get the OS loaded on the device first.

If you don't get good results, then I will provide a utility that will let us inspect the reported VID/PID information from the device to see if there is a reason that Home doesn't recognize it.

Progress:
Plugged the Go into the Windows laptop and nothing was recognised.
Installed TomTom Home2 onto laptop (it took a while 'cos I rarely use Windows and when I last did in a serious fashion, it was XP)
Plugged in the Go and TomTom Home2 didn't recognise it. Reset the Go, plugged it in again, turned it on and Home fired up and recognised it and offered updates.
I didn't select it but it took it upon itself to say it would reinstall the UK and ROI maps - I guess because that's what it was supplied with - ignoring the Western Europe map because there was no SD card?
There were a few hiccoughs along the way with the Go asking me to select language/time/distance units/voice, then going to a blank screen.
Starting again saw Home finding new software at least 4 times, the Go asking me (in Dutch, then next in Afrikanse) if I wanted to connect to the computer, then eventually coming good with what I'm used to seeing and accepted all my usual Home address, etc, etc.
I then put the SD card back in, fired up connected to the laptop, and it offered the Europe maps and latest Map Share info. It took almost 30 minutes to download and almost the same to update the Go.
I'm a bit baffled as to why the Mac wouldn't do it. Perhaps it's a glitch in the Home version for OSX? One up for Windows on this occasion............. and that's a phrase rarely heard around here.
All in all you seem to have done the Wizard's trick canderson and I'm extremely grateful. Thank you very much indeed. I am reunited with an old and faithful servant. If there is anything I can take off the Go to help you add to what's obviously an encyclopedic knowledge of TomToms, let me know.
Thanks again
Will

 

[canderson]

No surprise that it offered multiple forward updates to the firmware. I would be interested to know the final firmware version that it installed, if you have that. If nothing else, it can be found in a file in the root of the device called ttgo.bif (which can be opened with any text editor), and is about 9 lines down into the file following the descriptor called "ApplicationVersionVersionNumber".

Very glad that you are up and running again. Had a handful of tools to try with Windows if we needed them, but it sounds as though you won't need any of them now. Well done!

 

[Willumn55]

No surprise that it offered multiple forward updates to the firmware. I would be interested to know the final firmware version that it installed, if you have that. If nothing else, it can be found in a file in the root of the device called ttgo.bif (which can be opened with any text editor), and is about 9 lines down into the file following the descriptor called "ApplicationVersionVersionNumber".

Very glad that you are up and running again. Had a handful of tools to try with Windows if we needed them, but it sounds as though you won't need any of them now. Well done!

OK, I'll do that tomorrow. I'll try a screenshot of the file you need as it now seems to open the Go directory as soon as Windows 8 sees it plugged in.
This time, 'tomorrow' is because I've been to the pub for a meal and the local pub quiz night - and it involved beer - enough of it to dictate I don't try and find what you want and subsequently mess up all the good work.....................
Will

 

[canderson]

I do recall an evening in Exeter under the influence of Davy's Old Wallop, then trying to write code afterward. Not my best effort, either!

 

[Willumn55]

I do recall an evening in Exeter under the influence of Davy's Old Wallop, then trying to write code afterward. Not my best effort, either!

Following in true West Country dialect:
Yer 'tiz

There is one mod by me and it is the removal of my email address
If it isn't what you need, or there's anything else, just holler.
Will
ps my incapacatant of choice was St George's Day Bitter, by a local brewery called Batemans Ales