TomTom XL 340.S takes forever to find GPS signal

[jhferry]

I am having the thoughest time trying to figure this out. I have the 340.s and during routing trips this tom tom takes forever to find GPS no matter where I am. If we go in to a store and come out, its lost again taking up to 15 minutes to find a signal. Even during trip, it drops out and I am talking on wide open highways.

We try resetting the thing as much as we can. It has been updated via home. Sometimes during a power down it boots to a blackscreen with a bunch of white text, like a debug screen or something. I read about some sort of satellite coordinate application but that is rediiculous if I need to purchase software for the thing to work.

Any ideas?

 

[dhn]

Have you used Home to update your device and get the latest gpsquickfix file? That may help.

Also, make sure your unit is stationary when trying to 'grab' the signal. And you did reset your unit?

 

[jhferry]

I have updated it in Home, I dont know what a gpsquickfix file is but right now it says there is no update.

 

[dhn]

Use Explorer to look at the contents of your unit. Delete everything in the ephem folder.

Now, in the following location on your computer:

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\TomTom\HOME\Downloads\complete\ephemeris

delete everything in the ephemeris folder.

Now, try 'update my unit' again in Home. See if a new quickfix file is offered.

This file is supposed to assist the unit in knowing where the location of the gps sats will be for the next few days and sometimes assist the unit in grabbing a signal faster.

 

[Steve4449]

Wow, this is strange. My 330XL is having the same problem. It took forever to find a signal this morning, and then all day long it kept losing the signal for no apparent reason. Out for a drive today, and on the 60-minute drive home I let it "navigate" me home and it had me mapped out in a field, on the wrong road (sometimes 1/4 mile off, along with all the commands to "turn around" or some other thing to get me on course) or simply looking for a signal. For the final 20 miles it never did reconnect.

I'll try the fixes here and see what happens.

Steve

 

[jhferry]

Use Explorer to look at the contents of your unit. Delete everything in the ephem folder.

Now, in the following location on your computer:

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\TomTom\HOME\Downloads\complete\ephemeris

delete everything in the ephemeris folder.

Now, try 'update my unit' again in Home. See if a new quickfix file is offered.

This file is supposed to assist the unit in knowing where the location of the gps sats will be for the next few days and sometimes assist the unit in grabbing a signal faster.

You know whats wierd? Windows Vista keeps telling me there is a file system problem on the Tom Tom and do I want to fix it. I keep saying no so it doesnt get bricked but I wonder If I have some corrupted files here.

 

[eldorado]

Just remember one other thing, when you do your updates on the computer and it says completed, before you do a disconnect, look up on top of the screen and look for "DEVICE", click on that and it will say disconnect device, then click on that and then look at your TT and watch the yellow line scroll across the bottom of it's screen, that means all the downloads/updates have been loaded into your TT, some folks have never been told that or even read it in their instructions........this may be a big help also............

 

[mvl]

You know whats wierd? Windows Vista keeps telling me there is a file system problem on the Tom Tom and do I want to fix it. I keep saying no so it doesnt get bricked but I wonder If I have some corrupted files here.

File system problems shouldn't happen.

Why don't you try:
1) backup your tomtom per this link
2) then do a full reformat and reinstall per this link

 

[dervari]

You know whats wierd? Windows Vista keeps telling me there is a file system problem on the Tom Tom and do I want to fix it. I keep saying no so it doesnt get bricked but I wonder If I have some corrupted files here.

VIsta tells me that EVERY time I connect it, even though I disconnect it gracefully. I've tried disconnecting in HOME as well as closing home and doing a REMOVE DEVICE from Windows. It's only on the internal flash. The SD card is ok. If I let it go ahead and scan without fixing, it tells me no problems were found and my device is ready for use.