Second-Hand Unit - GO 730 Needs battery..Maps???

[musashi77]

Today I bought a used car from someone who through in his GO 730. At first he was relunctant to give it to me cause he has been having problems with it. Being in IT by nature it like a challenge and was happy to take it even knowing it had problems.

After doing some research around the forums here I can now confidently diagnose the problem down to the battery. If I plug it via USB or cradle to the computer it appears to charge with the green light on. However when its powered on, it dies within a few minutes will attached to USB, instantly when not attached.

Now I happy to go down the route of buying a replacement battery and attempt the swap over, however my question is..... Will I be able to easily get maps and start using the unit itself or am I going to have start paying for some maps in order to use it?

 

[canderson]

As to batteries, we have a tutorial here https://www.tomtomforums.com/t14261-720-730-920-930-battery-replacement-tutorial.html

and I've been buying batteries from batteryship.com -- which doesn't help you much in AUS. You'll need to find a source for them there.

Before you start buying maps, we need to know what might already be on that unit... or even on your friend's computer. Once you can get the thing to stay live on the USB cable for more than a moment or two, we can evaluate that.

 

[dhn]

Here's an Aussie location of batteries:

http://www.master-instruments.com.au/products/60185/GPSB-1697461.html

 

[musashi77]

wow! Such fast replies, thanks guys.

I don't want to pay for maps, was hoping to just fire it up and use. Would have to second guess the battery if i was still required to buy maps on top of that. My phone does a good enough job of being part time GPS.

Having said that, I have been able to keep the unit up long enough to make a full explorer back-up, so I have the content, also could probably keep it alive long enough to browse the unit itself.

What am I looking for, have been unbale to find any folder simply named "maps" though.

 

[canderson]

You will be looking for a folder in the root of the unit that looks/sounds like a map folder . We don't know where this unit came from, so the exact name is going to be a bit of a guess. Assuming it's from your area originally, check for a folder that includes the word "Australia" in the name that is largish in size compared to others. Inside that, you should find files like cline.dat, cnode.dat, etc.

 

[musashi77]

Spot on. Exactly how you described it.
Folder named Australia with a heap of files (41) among them is cline.dat and cnode.dat the folder is 122mb.

So Im guessing this is a good sign?

 

[canderson]

Yes. It means you've got a map. How old, on the other hand, might determine if you would wish to update it.

Check the file date on something like the cline.dat file. What do you find?

 

[musashi77]

cline.dat appears to be Sept 2008
There are a few files dates Oct 2011...MapServerPatch.dat, ServerNameIndex.dat, PatchFilter.dat, ServerLineIndex.dat and a few .bmp files.

The rest are Sept 2008...poi.dat, tables.dat, cspeech_AUS.dat, cline.dat, cname.dat.

Not so worried about not having the latest maps, the idea was more to have the GPS available for the very rare occasions that the Mrs needs to drive or odd day trip during the summer etc. Defianlty not a day-to-day need.

So would it be safe to assume that the cost of the replacement battery would be my only expensive in resurecting this unit? it's not going to refuse to work without some kind of update or suscription is it?

 

[canderson]

Given what you have reported so far, the cost of the battery and your labor are all you're going to have invested if you're OK with the 2008 map. In some map areas, nothing much changes. In others, it can be radical. No one will be a better judge of what's been going on in your likely area of travel than you will be.

There are no required subscriptions, and for that matter, no required updates. That said, there have likely been some firmware updates since your unit was last touched. Whether that's something you'll need or want to do is something we can talk about later. You don't even need or want to install the associated "TomTom Home" application until such time as you might want to update the unit.

Meanwhile, we ask that you BACK UP that unit as soon as you get a chance. If you don't have the cable, it's a standard USB-A to USB-miniB style. The backup technique we recommend is at this link:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/t17864-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer-how-restore.html

We find that more direct method more reliable than using the "TomTom Home" application that accompanies these units, and as long as the hardware itself doesn't break (and even sometimes if it does!), access to that backup will allow us to help you out of just about any ditch you could ever find yourself in.

 

[Andy_P]

@canderson...He's done that! :thumb:

Having said that, I have been able to keep the unit up long enough to make a full explorer back-up, so I have the content, also could probably keep it alive long enough to browse the unit itself..

@musashi77.... When you come to fit the new battery, be very careful at two points.

1. When you release the big ribbon cable that attaches the screen to the rest of the unit, be incredibly gentle when prising up the latches at each end. They only need to move up/out a millimetre or so.

2. You'll likely to find the battery is INCREDIBLY well stuck down. Use any tricks you can find in the various instructions for dissolving or softening the glue, but whatever you do, don't lose patience and start levering it up with a screwdriver or similar, because you're likely to damage one of the tiny components on the main board.

 

[musashi77]

OK, all sounds good. As Andy_P pointed out the back-up was done first up. Been tinkering with these kind of things long enough now to make that the first mandatory step before touching anything else.

So from the sounds of it after replacing the battery this device should be fine. Will source a battery. The above site mentioned by dhn is actually located in the same area as my parents so think Ill organise a pick-up when I pay them a visit next.
Thanks for the links and advice.

 

[dhn]

When I finally got the courage to change the battery on my 720, I used a combination of canderson's guide in post 2 along with the video below in order to make the change without having to remove the cable. Saved me a good deal of angst....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcbebExQmx8[/ame]