TomtomXL340S doesnt pick up signal unless driving at 10mph

[aznbetty]

My tomtom has never been able to pick up a signal when in a stationary spot, either indoors, in a car or even outside on a clear day. It only picks up the signal as im driving down the street heading to a destination.

This makes it very hard to plan or coordinate trips with others when i cant even see the route details.

Is this normal for this model? Or are there certain settings or updates that can fix this?

 

[canderson]

Let's be sure we both agree on whether you have a signal before we try to troubleshoot this.

When stationary, tap the little satellite signal strength bars in the lower right. Tap them again on the next screen. How many bars to you see, how "tall", and are they gray or blue?

 

[aznbetty]

on the first screen, the bars are all blue, which is same as the background.
second screen, its gray which is same as background.
and third screen, theres nothing.. and i have no idea what you mean by how tall they are. theres no bars lit up if thats what you mean. third page just shows GPS status which says 0 for both south and west.

 

[canderson]

Guess I didn't do a very spiffy job of explaining that.

In the lower right, you should see the bars (0 to 5 of them). Press in that area.

On the next screen, I think you'll see the battery indicator, and right below that, the same 0 to 5 bars.

This should take you to the "GPS Status" screen. I think we're together so far.

Now, there are on the order of 14 vertical 'slots' across the bottom of the screen, each of which can be assigned to a satellite. When unused altogether, they are white. For each satellite detected, but before the unit is reading valid data for it, a gray bar will be used. Once data is being validly interpreted, the bar will turn blue. In both cases, the satellite number will appear at the bottom of the bar, and the relative signal strength for that satellite will appear above that.

Until you have at least 4 blue bars, the unit will not try to compute a location, and your latitude and longitude numbers at the top will be 0 and 0 as you describe.

Now, out in the clear, how long does it take (in a stationary position) for any gray or blue bars to appear?

 

[aznbetty]

ok, on the screen with the 14 bars. I didnt see any colored bars the first time, but this time it took about 40 seconds to get 1 bar on the left and its grey. the numbers inside it are 27 on top and 05 on the bottom. Only that one bar shows any color.

 

[aznbetty]

also the bar is about 2/3 of the way upwards the entire bar (which includes the smaller rectangle above the bigger rectangle)

 

[canderson]

I'm assuming you saw that single bar indoors and not after a prolonged attempt outdoors.

OK - let's try this to see how it works out. I'm wondering if you have some really bad ephemeris data.

Hook your unit up to your PC. Allow it to connect to the computer. Deal with Home as best you can, and shut it down as soon as you are able.

Using your computer, you'll find that your TomTom looks like an external hard drive. Open up that hard drive and you'll be looking at the internals of your TomTom.

Find a folder called ephem. In that folder, you will find three files with extensions *.tlv, *.txt and *.ee. Delete all of these files. Properly disconnect your unit using your OS's USB device disconnect. If it's Windows, it's the little icon in the lower right of the screen with the green arrow.

Disconnect your 340 and try again - outdoors. It may take several minutes to start to see satellites appear. Let us know how many blue bars you're seeing now.

 

[aznbetty]

There's no folder called "ephem". I found a two .tlv files in the voices folder, and no .ee files at all. I have enabled showing of all hidden folders too.

 

[canderson]

There's no folder called "ephem". I found a two .tlv files in the voices folder, and no .ee files at all. I have enabled showing of all hidden folders too.

So much for my idea of corrupted ephem data. Have you ever connected your unit with TomTom Home for updates???

 

[aznbetty]

no, i have not. i'm usually wary of updates since it can do either good or harm...

 

[canderson]

OK. Back to the original program. When you got that one weak bar, had you left your unit 'open sky' for a period of 10 minutes or so, or was that by any chance an indoor reading? There's nothing at ALL about your unit that should make satellite reception speed dependent, so I'm trying to sort out what else it might be.

 

[dhn]

I don't think I saw any mention in this thread about going here:
c:\documents and settings\yourname\my documents\TomTom\Home\Downloads\Complete\ephemeris\

and deleting any sub folders found there.

Then connect to Home and see if there is a new gps file.

(strange the OP said there was no ephem folder on the unit)

 

[canderson]

I don't think I saw any mention in this thread about going here:...
...
(strange the OP said there was no ephem folder on the unit)

If the unit has never been connected via Home, that folder would not exist on the unit - it is created for the first time during an update when ephem data is transmitted - nor will one be found on the computer, either, for the same reason. Too bad - thought perhaps we might find something there.