Tomtom One 3rd edition is dead again in the car

[leemoreau]

Hey everyone,

K I bought a factory refurbished Tomtom One 3rd edition from TigerDirect a month ago. I received it, plugged it in in the house using my USB charger for my blackberry, and then connected to my PC, worked fine charged no problem. Used it in the car for a day on battery, charged in the house again was fine. Next day driving battery starts to flash low, so I plug the tomtom car charger into the car, then I plug the USB into the tomtom. The second I do that, the tomtom turns off. Green light is on but unit is off. I read online the tomtom car chargers have some issues and they fry the units. I call tomtom, pay $12 to send it to Texas after owning it 2 days. They send me a replacement back like 2 weeks later. I get it, works fine on the home charger, I even drove 550km from Montr?al to Toronto using it but this time with my blackberry car charger since I didn't want to chance the tomtom one again. It worked fine no issues. That was a few days ago. Last night I'm driving on battery, getting low, plug the usb in and BOOM DEAD again!!! I'm SO MAD. This is with the blackberry charger too so it can't be the tomtom one. The weird thing is my blackbery charges fine using it, never died. I also used my boyfriends TomTom 910 with his car charger all the way TO montr?al and had no issues didn't fry or kill it or anything. I'm so mad, I have to send it back for another one but I'm not going to try this again. I'm just going to sell the stupid thing and get rid of it. I'm more concerned though if its my car doing it, or the tomtom. The thing is, every other device works fine in my car! I read all over people saying the tomtom car charger kills the tomtom one 3rd edition... I don't know what to do now...

 

[GAW]

Is the unit totally dead - will it turn on at all (I doubt doing a reset will help, but did you try that also) ?

Your boyfriend's 910 has a separate (not USB) charger, so it is less vulnerable to being plugged in. However, mine went out once when it was plugged into the computer.

The USB connection is very sensitive to spikes, and it seems to happen when you plug it in when the unit is on. It should not be the case, but it apparently is (althought I also have never had it happen plugging in my Blackberry while it is on). This may a weak link in the TomTom line.

I doubt it would go out like this if it was off before you plug it in.

 

[leemoreau]

Hmm yeah it's totally dead, same thing happened when I first got it like I said, green light comes on but nothing more. It's strange because never had an issue with my blackberry which I charge almost every day on the car charger, and my boyfriends 910 was also fine as well all the way to Montr?al which is 550km. I'm pretty sure it was on when I plugged it in driving home as well but not 100% sure. My biggest concern is if this is a tomtom issue or something wtih my car. If it's a tomtom issue, I just want to return it to tomtom to get it replaced, and then I'll sell it and buy another brand. I hate doing that because I love tomtom but I can't keep having this happen. I'm not going to keep remembering either if I'm using it and the battery starts flashing, to turn it off before plugging it in.

 

[GAW]

The only thing you might want to consider (unless other forum members have had similar problems and and have a more definitive solution) is to always plug it in before you turn it on. This way, you will never have to do it on the fly.

 

[leemoreau]

That's probably what I'll do, I was going to sell it and buy a Garmin or something but I really love tomtom. My biggest concern is a year from now when I'm out of warranty, not thinking and having it running and then a friend being like oh the battery is dying or something and plugging it in and killing it again. I guess that's unlikely, but I've lent my other tomtom to friends before, I guess this one I just won't, or will have to give a rules book with it

 

[srini_hi]

Can You sell your tomtom one 3rd edition dead gps to me

I have also purchased refub tomtom 3rd edition gps for $90, it was working but unfortunately my LCD touch screen broken.

looking for dead tom tom one 3rd adition dead gps, can you sell to me. I will pay the postage charges & 10$ addition once i receive the gps.

Thanks,
Sri
650-390-7258

 

[leemoreau]

Just an update to this. I still have the unit, not selling it since its brand new and under warranty. I threw it in my desk since I last posted and finally just got around to calling Tomtom yesterday to get it replaced. He was almost done the replacement, and while I was on the phone I saw my blackbery wall charger hanging there so just for fun I plugged it in and wouldnt you know it, it powers right on. So thats TWO power adapters now that have killed 2 units in the same car, so it has to be something with my car, no idea what else. The weird thing though is that the one charger powers my blackberry no problem, just not the tomtom. However yesterday after it started working, I plugged it into the car charger while it was OFF, and then tried to turn it on as someone mentioned, and guess what, its DEAD again, that fried it. I asked tomtom support, he said you can plug it in while on or off that it makes no difference. Im going to leave it a few days see if it comes back on again. Tomtom is mailing me a new charger, but shouldnt matter since Ive used 2 different ones. I really have no idea now.

 

[Grumpy_Aero_Guy]

Just an update to this. I still have the unit, not selling it since its brand new and under warranty. I threw it in my desk since I last posted and finally just got around to calling Tomtom yesterday to get it replaced. He was almost done the replacement, and while I was on the phone I saw my blackbery wall charger hanging there so just for fun I plugged it in and wouldnt you know it, it powers right on. So thats TWO power adapters now that have killed 2 units in the same car, so it has to be something with my car, no idea what else. The weird thing though is that the one charger powers my blackberry no problem, just not the tomtom. However yesterday after it started working, I plugged it into the car charger while it was OFF, and then tried to turn it on as someone mentioned, and guess what, its DEAD again, that fried it. I asked tomtom support, he said you can plug it in while on or off that it makes no difference. Im going to leave it a few days see if it comes back on again. Tomtom is mailing me a new charger, but shouldnt matter since Ive used 2 different ones. I really have no idea now.

I guess it could your car. What year/model vehicle. DO you have any aftermarket electronics in the vehicle.

Have you checked all of your fuses?

You could have a short in the car somewhere that is intermittant. Unfortuneately, these types of thinhs are a pain the the arsch to find.

Can you check the accessory jack connectors. COuld one have them worked their way loose and is shorting the plug intermittantly?

I dunno, I am guessing here.

 

[Buddharay]

Good point. While I previously thought that my TomTom XL was not working, it turned out that the car charger itself was the reason for it not working. In my case, replacing the charger did the trick.

If you find that your car is the factor that shorts out the device, I would suggest USB charging and taking your device on the road.

In some cases you can resurrect your device but if you subject it to repeated frying moments, it will eventually die. Take care of your device!

 

[leemoreau]

To anyone still following this, after it came back on they sent me a new power adapter. I used it in my other car, and what to do you know, unit friend and dead again. Called TomTom, had to pay again to ship the unit to them and get a replacement. Now on my 2nd unit with 3rd car charger, I only charged it for months using the home charger.

I just went to Raleigh for business so I brought it, rented a car, and plugged it in with the new charger they sent me. BOOM unit is DEAD AGAIN. This is ridiculous, I had to go buy a Garmin (Which is 100x a better unit) but I'm so pissed. I've already paid over $20 shipping the unit back twice for replacement, and every time they've just sent me another dead one. I don't even know what to do anymore, I hate TomTom I'd never recommend anyone buys one again after this.

 

[sageuvagony]

If it were me, I'd demand that they cover shipping because I'd be pissed as hell if this were to happen to me.

My PC motherboard fried in January which was in warranty, had to pay $22 for shipping + insurance, then finally 2 months later I received a new board. Well what do ya know.. the new board had a defective PCIE slot and I need both PCIE x16 slots since I run my PC in SLI so I SURE AS HELL was not about to wait another month and 3 days for another board and fork out more money for shipping. I demanaded that they cross-ship me a new board and that they cover shipping. They then finally agreed to send me out the new board first, and emailed me a pre-paid shipping label. I also told them that I was NOT going to wait another 2 weeks JUST for the shipping time alone since I really need my PC running, so they re-mailed me a new shipping label which was for overnight delivery. The only thing they asked for was a credit card so they can keep on file just in case I decided to not ship the board back. They would ONLY charge the card if they never received the board back. The 3rd motherboard (which I'm using now) was perfect and I couldn't be happier.

Their (motherboard company) email support sucks because it takes them 2 WEEKS to respond!! Their phone support sucks because their phone systems are set to automatically cut you off after 15 minutes of waiting on hold (they told me themselves) They claim that the system cuts you off so the customer doesn't have to wait forever on hold. What the hell?!?!?! So you waste 15 minutes of my life each time and have me listen to an annoying recording that repeats every 15 seconds that sounds like a 4 year old is reading off a script telling me to keep holding?? How the hell does cutting someone off after 15 minutes help a customer in any way!?!? I was about to give up and just buy a new motherboard from another company, even though I had 2 years warranty remaining. After more than 30+ calls, everything was finally solved.

Everything started on 01/02/2009 when my motherboard died, and I finally had a good working motherboard in my hands 04/13/2009. Now you can see why I was furious.

At the same time I was fighting another problem with T-mobile for a rebate that they messed up on 4 different times because of errors on their end. Finally after 3 months of rebate hell, I finally got my rebate in the mail. On top of that, they accidentally overcharged my account $103.92 because they improperly discounted my Sidekick phone. That took 3 calls to fix. One of the calls the supervisor promised me they would credit my account right away, noted the account, but forgot to apply the credit. A week later and another call, all fixed... AHHHH!!!!!

TomTom is very friendly and helpful though. I seriously think it's just bad luck with defective units. You will hopefully be good on the next unit.

 

[OC192]

This thread is making a strong case for buying a Garmin. Seriously, you may want to check the voltage at the accessory jack. I suppose it should be between 12 & 14 volts. With a voltmeter attached, rev the engine now and then to make sure the dc voltage is kept regulated to that level. If it passes that test I don't see how it could be your car. The problem would then be from the accessory plug-in device or the gps itself.

 

[mvl]

I've had an experience where laptop batteries died because the charger couldn't deliver enough amps while charging. Enough volts, just not enough amps.

The laptop battery didn't die immediately, it just kept 5 minutes max charge after the low-amp charger, and after returning to using proper chargers every since, the laptop battery died within a week.

I read from some posts that tomtom's need 2 amps to charge properly. It could be that your car can't supply that strength, or the blackberry charger couldn't. That may have put the tomtom in slow-death mode like my laptops.

I've had 4 tomtom's (although no 3rd editions) using tomtom and motorola car chargers for the past 3 years, and none of them had battery issues. One thing I do is rarely let the batter drain less than 75% full. I don't know if that made any difference.