TomTom 730T totally refuses to get TMC data

[Whizz Kid]

For the last few months, my 730T is constantly searching for traffic data. This applies to any country I am in in Europe. I live in the UK. My other car, with inbuilt TMC has no problem, but the 730T just sits searching, even when I give it a known frequency for a TMC station.
It worked before, and quite well, especially in France. I know TMC data in the UK can be a bit rubbish.

Help! Has something gotten deleted? Should I do a very hard reset?
All help appreciated. I am really quite techie, and really quite mystified by this one.

 

[dhn]

Take a look (using Explorer) at the contents of your specific map folder. Do you see two files: traffic.dat and tmccodes.dat? (You should)

What is the size of the files (They should NOT be 0 bytes).

If indeed they are 0 bytes, restore the files from a backed up map folder (make sure the size is > 0, though in the backup).

 

[Whizz Kid]

They certainly are both 0 bytes! Fantastic diagnosis. Now, what's the treatment, as I don't have any copies of these elsewhere?
Many thanks!

 

[dhn]

See if you have a copy of the map in compressed format here:
C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\TomTom\HOME\Downloads\complete\maps\

If so, use WinRar to extract the 2 necessary files from the compressed map cab file and overwrite the faulty files on the unit.

 

[Whizz Kid]

Well I have replaced the files on the unit. I took the unit out to London yesterday and it still hunted for any TMC data the whole time. Even giving it the correct frequency did not help.
Why did those files suddenly have zero size?!

And, any suggestions now?

Thanks for the expert help.

 

[mikealder]

The problem is down to the crap TomTom Home software installing these two files as part of the map update incorrectly, this issue affected quite a few users accross Europe! - Mike

 

[Whizz Kid]

Great. TomTom is stil by far the best GPS I have ever had (I've had a few!).

Any thoughts on where to go next with this one?

 

[mikealder]

Try using it for a week and see what it can do, once its found the signal subsequent lock on time will be be greatly reduced, if after a week you still have no signal it could be the local transmitter that is down or the receiver might have packed in - Mike