Tom Tom Died after sotware update.

[unhappytom]

I have a Tom Tom XXL which used to work great. I purchased the Speed camera updates from tom tom. They would email me when new updates were out.
On the last update everything seamed to go through ok. I switched my Tom Tom off and 2 weeks later when I went to use tom tomafter update it would not turn on unless you hold power button for 20 sec. It would then load up and say tom tom but that was it. I tried doing a back up and restore on tom tom home. Still no good, Now tom tom wont turn on.'
I have been in contact with tom tom. Not sure if they will fix this for me under warranty. I am confident if I did not do the update it would still work today.
I also searched this on google. This is a common problem

I will keep you updated on if tom tom come to the party or not

 

[dhn]

Can you connect the device to the computer, or even better, a mains charger for a couiple of hours and then try to turn the device on again?

 

[unhappytom]

update

I have tried charging the Tom tom for 2 days. Still wont turn on

 

[dhn]

The battery may be truly shot in the device.

 

[unhappytom]

Update

It is not a dead battery. After doing the update tom tom would turn on and stay on with no power supply connected if you held the switch for 20 seconds. It would boot up and disply the Tom Tom hands, But would go no further. It was difficult to turn off.

Tom Tom replied by saying no to warranty.
I feel ripped off as there map updates caused the unit to fail. I can no longer use the updates that I paid for if I buy another Tom Tom.

I reccomend that you do not buy map Upadates from Tom Tom as this may happen to you. There customer service is terrible. THEY DO NOT LISTEN
I will be pursuing this with the dept of fair trading. It only costs $36 Aus. For tom tom they will have to go to court on 2 different occasions.
I will keep you posted with the court outcome

 

[Andy_P]

OK, if we've ruled out the battery a a problem, there are plenty of other things you can try to get it working again.

Did you make the all-important backups that we shout about so often here and that (I believe) are mentioned in the front of the user-manuals?

With a decent backup of your system almost every problem is MUCH more simple to fix except for catastrophic hardware failures!

Also, have you looked at these two help articles on this forum?

Old-style TomTom Acting Up? - Part 1 - First Steps In System Recovery

Old-style TomTom Acting Up? - Part 2 - How To reinstall *fresh* Software using Home

They re a round-up of many people's accumulated knowledge and trying the steps steadily (and IN ORDER) can often solve most issues.

 

[unhappytom]

Dont buy A tom tom

Dont buy a Tom Tom. There customer service is terrible. There Map updates can stop your tom tom working. Like what happened to my tom tom There Out of warranty repairs cost more money then buying a New tom tom. They locate there company oversea's so Going to fair trading is not an option.
I suggest You look at other brands. Some other brands even have free updates for life.
I also recommend you Do a google search on how many Tom Toms Die after doing a map update. Good luck trying to find out where tom toms company that charged your credit card for these updates is located?

Matt

 

[dhn]

Address: Oosterdoksstraat 114, 1011 DK Amsterdam, Netherlands
Phone:+31 20 757 5000

Guess you didn't look too hard.

 

[Andy_P]

Did you try any of our suggestions for fixing it?

 

[canderson]

Some other brands even have free updates for life.

Wow! Imagine that!

http://www.tomtom.com/en_au/products/car-navigation/index.jsp

 

[unhappytom]

update

i have tried everything suggested on this Forum. As tom tom refused to fix under there warranty which was caused by there software update that I paid for. I decided to pull the Tom Tom apart. I removed The battery which is ok 3.7 volts as stated on battery. I suspect that an operating file is either corrupted or missing after the software update.

I am very disappointed with the way tom toms customer service is. I have decided to buy a GARMIN nuvi 1450LMT. They are cheaper then tom toms repairs would cost.
Check out yourself $90 to look at the unit and this would come off repair bill. I am sure they would rip you off on this too. You pay your none refundable $90 then they would say it will cost another $50. I do not trust tom tom at all
https://tomtom.teleplan.com.au/
Garmin even have free lifetime Map updates
Buy Garmin at link below $119
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/D9174/garmin-nuvi-1450lmt

 

[canderson]

Garmin even have free lifetime Map updates
Buy Garmin at link below $119
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/D9174/garmin-nuvi-1450lmt

FWIW:

The TomTom Via 260 goes for $139 at Dick Smith, and also comes with lifetime maps at the moment. http://www.tomtom.com/en_au/products/car-navigation/via-260-australia/

That said, I'd be curious to understand how "there software update that I paid for" broke your unit. Software updates are free, can be downloaded at any time, and if your XXL broke, we should be able to put it to rights very easily if you're willing to work with us a bit. We need to know what has been tried and what has not, and we're pretty patient when it comes to resurrecting these silly things.

It's your $119, and it's true that both TomTom and Garmin offer lifetime maps now that make either worth the money, but no point in putting yours in the bin if it can be made to work without much pain If nothing else, you can give/sell it to someone who needs one.

So first... Have you been charging from the PC or from an AC mains adapter? Does the XXL have the green light on the front or orange light on top when charging (I can't recall offhand)? We call that model something else here.

 

[unhappytom]

update

THE UPDATES THAT I PAID FOR WERE THE RED LIGHT AND SPEED CAMERA UPDATES. THEY ARE NOT FREE. There map updates are also not free for my tom tom. Tom tom would send an email every month to remind me to update tom tom. Sometimes while doing these on tom tom home other updates would also be done at the same time. The orange light comes on when plugged into pc. Originally after the update tom tom would no longer turn on unless you held the power button for 30 seconds. It would turn on and load something, then stop with the tom tom hand on the screen. Nothing would work It was very hard to turn off. Took like 10 mins to turn off. After a few times turning it on and off itno loger turns on at all even with mains charger. It is like there was a file missing.
I checked the battery with a DMM it is 3.71 volts. Battery rating says 3.7v

Problem now is when I buy new gps I cant use the updates that I paid for. I really think tom tom should have fixed this under warranty.
I cannot buy another tom tom out of principle. There customer service is terrible and they do not listen.
Matt

 

[canderson]

Ah, OK. When you originally said "software", I assumed that was what you meant. From time to time, TomTom issues new software for these units to fix bugs or update features.

We haven't been very specific with our questions yet, so let me try these and make sure the basics are covered.

First, if you connect the device to your PC and get the light on top, and reboot your unit with a 20 second press of the button (release it immediately when you hear the drums and/or see the TomTom logo appear) does your device connect to your PC? Does it show up as an external disk drive as it should? (Should have asked -- what operating system on your PC?) If so, I think we can recover things.

 

[unhappytom]

tomtom is dead

After the speed camera update tom tom would turn on after 20 seconds, Load something then you would get the drum roll, but that was it. Nothing would work.
It would only ever turn on like this for 5 goes. Now it does not turn on at all. This is why i pulled the Battery out to test it.

If you read the reviews on the xxl on the dicksmith site not many people wrote good reviews. They were all happy with the way it worked like myself. But most seamed to have problem swith them.
I think if I cant fix this will go garman.They have good reviews.
Also thinking about posting my tom tom experience on tom toms facebook page. I will stick to the facts so they cannot take any legal action.
Matt

 

[canderson]

I'm not concerned over what appears on the screen of the device itself, only what the computer sees. That's what's important at the moment. Does it show up as a disk drive when you reset it (20 sec press per above) while it's connected to the PC?

 

[unhappytom]

update

Unit hooked to computer after holding power button on more then 20sec does nothing. Does not show up on computer.
When I first had all this trouble I made a backup of all the data that was on the tom tom which I still have. (244mb)
I am confident if I had not done the tom tom speed camera updates and other updates listed on the tom tom one page. My tom tom would still be working.
I was going to pusue this with dept of fair trading. Because to tom tom is located overseas. There are no consumer protection laws for overseas goods or services.
Matt

 

[canderson]

Wow, that's strange. Doing a speed cam update (or any other update besides new software, which is why I asked about that earlier) writes to an area of memory that is separate from the bootloader area of memory that is needed to make the computer connection. In fact, when you would plug your unit in before and look at the contents with your PC, you weren't even able to see the area of memory I'm talking about. So we are probably dealing with something else entirely that happened coincidentally with the update.

Now that you know how to separate the device, can you check to see what the voltage is on the battery when you try to power the device on / reset while connected to the PC as we talked about in the earlier post? Though the battery is showing 3.7 under no load, I wonder what it's doing under load.

 

[unhappytom]

update

Batt Voltage is 3.51 volts backprobed to battery wires while holding the tom tom power button on. This is with usb cable plugged into pc. Green light is also on

When I did the camera update. There were other free updates that were also done. I also agreed to let to tom tom view my tom tom use this time (In tom tom home it asked if tom tom could veiw some information in the gps. Dont recall exactly what ). I ticked the yes box to allow tom tom to view gps units use.

Still Very odd unit died after doing software and speed camera update.Ok maybe the operating software was free which caused the problem, and not the camera update. Still i suspect these updates caused the unit to fail. If you search this in google it happens to lots of people.
If I was Tom Tom customer service I would have got the unit back to find the cause of the fault. They dont listen. I have the email trail here from them. They give you answers that dont even relate to what I was talking about. Then Fob you off.

Matt

 

[canderson]

There were other free updates that were also done.

Uh oh. Now we're past speed cams and into new territory that we hadn't discussed before. By any chance did your unit get updated with new firmware (TomTom calls it 'application') during this udpate? While EXTREMELY rare, it's one of the few things that can hose up a unit good and proper -- if for whatever reason the wrong version is loaded and contains a bootloader that is not appropriate for the unit, bad things can happen. I think we've heard about this only a couple of times in all the years I've been participating here, and it's usually because the firmware being loaded was hacked.