TomTom 910 problem - PLEASE Help

[zerimar]

I don't agree with the "do not use" above. I have often recharged my 910 that way while driving (after accidentally leaving it on) with no problems.

I do agree with the warning about overcharging though.

My unit gets charged with the home dock only when I check and/or do updates, but it gets constantly charged when in the car dock and engine running. I constantly do long car trips, and by long I mean 1000Km to 1800Km and stop only for gas after about 700-800Km.

I guess that it wouldn't harm the battery since the unit is on, but it is important not to overcharge the battery if the unit is off. When I'm not travelling, I sometimes switch on the unit but have it undocked and let the battery discharge and them immediately charge it again. Too bad these units are not like cell phones or other devices that there is an indication when the unit is charging and when it is fully charged.

 

[dave2851]

Here is the latest :

Support called me at 6pm tonight. The problem was with the email address I was signed in under. They had me sign in with my old email address and the update was there. Good news.

However.

After the hour and a half it took to download (and support has long since gone home) , the file completed.

When it went to install, it said ERROR: The cab file contains pna.ini which shouldn't be there - report to TomTom anonymously. So I did. BUT, I have no map. What is this error???????????????????

 

[dave2851]

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I called support again this morning. I told them about the error I was getting. The support person said they had a fix for it and would put it on my account. I will check it out this evening when I get home from work.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Keep us updated

 

[dave2851]

Just spent 45 minutes on the phone with support. The file they sent me didn't work. The support person had me go into the directory where the new map was downloaded, copy the contents to a new folder, then drag and drop that folder (they had me name it north_america) into my TomTom. Didn't work.

On hold longer. She comes back and tells me I need "specialized support" and would have to call back on Monday.

I am really, truly getting fed up with this nonsense.

 

[dave2851]

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....and it continues.....
No phone call as promised yesterday, so I called them after I hooked up the 910 to the computer.

1st phone call - time spent - 1 hour. I get a male support person, give him my incident number. He reads the info, then suggests I send them the unit back AGAIN. I tell him no, I was told a "specialized support" person was going to call me and get my unit working. He says he doesn't think anyone is available. Before I can respond, he transfers me. For 40 minutes I listen to their muzak, with short recorded breaks telling me I am #2 in que. It never changes. After those 40 minutes, I hang up and call back.

I get a female support person who tells me she can help and we will get it fixed. She sends me a different file to fix the pna.ini error, and of course it doesn't work. Then she puts me on hold for yet another 30 minutes, coming back from time to time telling me they appreciate my patience. Finally, she comes back and tells me someone from "specialized support" will call me tomorrow at 5pm to get it fixed.

un...believable.

 

[zerimar]

That's indeed unbelievable. I hope your device gets fixed soon without the need for sending it back.

 

[dave2851]

They didn't call at 5pm as promised. I specifically told them (and they put it in the request) that I had to take my son to Scouts tonight and to please call at 5pm. They assured me they would. And, no surprise here, they didn't.

But wait, it gets better. I called them at about 5:20. Go through the same routine, listen to the lousy muzak while on hold. They apologize (and even that is getting old) and transfer me to "specialized support". It is 5:25pm. I hear that my call is important and I am #2 in que.

I wait and I wait, then I wait some more. At 6:20, it changed to me being #1 in que. 62 minutes (that's right, 62 minutes) later, I hear a click. Someone picked up the phone....and hung up.

I call back and of course "specialized support" has gone home for the night. The regular support person tells me I can.......call back tomorrow for specialized support. Or they will give me an RMA to send the unit back. Now, there is nothing wrong with the unit, they just can't tell me how to activate the new map.

Part of me says to call back tomorrow, the other part says to just give up and send it back for "repair".

ALL of me says I will NEVER EVER buy another product from this company. And I will spend as much time as possible convincing everyone I know to buy a GPS from someone else. They have shown me that they just don't care. Their excuse for hanging up on me was "It's the holiday season, we have been very busy" No, they hung up on me because they work till 6pm and no one there had enough work ethic to help a customer who has gotten nothing but the runaround since this problem occurred. Which, by the way, happened less than 3 1/2 months after purchasing it.

If anyone from Tom Tom reads this forum, know that you have one extremely fed up customer.

 

[zerimar]

That really sucks. I was also quite disappointed when TT rejected me a free or even discounted map upgrade a week after I bought the unit. I never experienced such thing when I had my Garmin. Since I've been living here in Switzerland for many years, my observation is that Europeans in general have no sense of customer satisfaction.

 

[zerimar]

Dave, if I read all posts correctly, you mentioned that you can't activate the new map. In my case there is no need for activation. Are you sure you are using the same log-in account?

 

[dave2851]

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..the saga continues....
They sent me a FedEx label to send the unit back... I did. Late last week I got another refurbished unit in the mail. WITH AN OLD MAP. I call support, and the unit won't connect when I put it on the dock. And then it wouldn't even turn back on. So.....they sent me ANOTHER FedEx label and I sent it back again today. They apologized..again.. They also tell me they will send me one with map version 710 on it. I will believe it when I see it. This is so pathetic, it would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating. Never again. Never.

 

[dave2851]

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Latest update: I received another refurbished 910 last night. It had the old map installed. I connected it to my laptop, and called support. I was on hold for 30 minutes, but I attribute that to people getting TomTom's for Christmas.

When I got a support person on the phone, I gave them my reference number and explained the many problems I have had getting this problem resolved. I then told them I wanted a refund. She asked me to hold on for a minute. When she returned, she had me sign back on to Home. There was a new map there to download. (map version 710.1609)

I downloaded it, and it installed flawlessly. My TomTom version is 7.162. All seems to be working great! After 3 months, 4 different units, 7 different support reference numbers, it is resolved. Whew!

 

[Pedro2NR]

Success finally! Im glad to hear it.

 

[drledger]

Well congratulations to say the least. Persistence does pay off eventually I suppose.

 

[K Moore]

910 Battery Problem

If the unit is dead, can you dock it and show a green light indicated a charge?
if so, try to leave it for four hours only. Yes be strict on this.

Do not use the mount and car charger as a way of charing the unit. It doesn't work.

I hope TomTom gets back to you.

This is a ongoing problem with Tom Tom 910s. On top of that the service from Tom Tom is HORRIBLE to say the least. Good luck!

 

[Sextant]

I don't leave the 910 plugged into the mount in my car over night. I set it on the dashboard. I've heard of problems with the mount eventually breaking so I don't let it just sit in the mount when I'm not using it. This would probably help with letting the unit over charge.

 

[iTijn]

over DIScharging

Back to the original subject. (+background & solution)

I just had the same problem:
TomTom Go910 works with charger plugged in, but not on the battery.
Although the TomTom says the battery is fully charged

What I've analized:
The battery was OVERDISCHARGED.
This should never happen as the battery protection circuitry should prevent this.
(Yes, the TomTom does have such circuitry, though apparently not good enough.)

I took the 910 apart and measured the battery voltage which was 2.63 volt.
Quite close to the Li-Ion minimum of 2.5v. And therefore below the threshold of the protection cuircuitry.

If I may quote the 'battery university' site:http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

At this voltage, most circuits render the battery unserviceable and a recharge on a regular charger is not possible.

In other words: The voltage of the battery is so low that the TomTom doesn't 'see' the battery.

What I did:
Do NOT try this at home!!! Messing around with Li-Ion batteries is very dangerous. and may result in explosions, fire, irreparable damage or personal injury
As the battery was not recognized anymore by the internal charger, I build my own:
A Li-Ion charger is basically a current limited powersupply.
So I took a powersupply out of the lab, set it to 3.9 volt (safety margin of 0.2v) and set the current limiter to 100mA.
(The maximum for the installed battery is 1000mA -> 900mA safety margin)

I let it charge like this for 20 minutes, until the battery voltage was 3.5v.
I reassembled the unit, connected it to the TomTom power adapter. Now the internal charger recognized the battery again and continued the charging process.

What you may conclude:
- I am a fool manually charging Li-Ion batteries
- The TomTom 910 battery protection works. (In such that it doesn't overdischarge the battery below the battery limits.)
- But it does let the battery discharge below a point where the unit can handle the problem.
The last point may be a warranty issue.

Tip:
Recharge your TomTom as soon as possible after a full discharge.

 

[dziadzi]

I've had my Go910 for about a year and have enjoyed every minute.

Now I get the same as Dave. I assumed it was because I had left it in the car and hadn't turned it off and had run the battery down. So I charged it on the home dock (overnight - oops?) but it still showed no charge in the battery.

So I spent $66.00 to get a new battery, which was fitted last night. Then charged it at home, and it will not charge.

Worse, on the home dock, (whether connected to the computer or not) with the green light on, it will not stay on. It shuts down before I can take a look at anything. Highly frustrating. Leads me to think it might not be a dead battery, rather it might be something stupid with the new software?

I'm not interested in going through 20 steps to correct - which I can't do in any case if they thing won't turn on.

I've sent an email, but that appears to be a waste of time. I'll give the AUS people a call.

I thought I read on another thread that the pin connector on the car charger was giving this problem. I have had it happen to me a couple of times and I now make sure the connector is pushed into the holder good and tight.