Troubleshooting tips for 510 units from woot

[TomTomWooter]

For those who have bought TomTom GO 510 units from woot, don't give up hope. My unit had crashing and rebooting issues and now they are all gone.

I'll try and summarize solutions in one post so bear with me.

Before you do anything, run TomTom Home on your computer and backup your device.
If you're technical, you can go into the disk and save the maps to the computer.

If the device is charged and doesn't start-up, try resetting it:
http://www.tomtom.com/support/solution.php?GID=1&PID=234&SID=0&CID=216&Language=4&FID=7134

If the settings don't get saved when you power-on the device, use the clear flash tool:
http://www.tomtom.com/support/index.php?Language=4&query=clear+flash+tool&FID=6211

If the unit freezes up and reboots once in a while, try backing up, reformatting the SD card, and then restoring everything.
PC users can right-click on the drive-letter (eg. F: or G: ) and format the device. Name it TOMTOM DISK, and then restore from TomTom Home
Mac OS X users can use the disk-utility in the Applications > Utilities folder to erase the TOMTOM DISK. Make sure you format it as an MS-DOS format and NOT MacOS extended or anyting else.

Hope that helps!

 

[jp1216]

Perfect Post!! All 510 owners should print this out. My refurbished 510 from Buy.com is a week old and I've already had all these experiences - but with the help of this forum - I'm still using my 510 without hesitation.

 

[TomTomWooter]

I won't take credit for this post because I've found this information from this site and from the TomTom site. I just thought it would be good to have a single thread for the wooters to look at.

This site is great and so is the TomTom site. (of course, the device too)

 

[jomo25]

Here's another tip for all the Wooters and buy.com refurb buyers...

https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=3481

A flash utility needs ot be used to fix Bluetooth pairing issues many are having...See the thread for details.

 

[DonD]

Here's another tip from a TT CSR that fixed my reset/reboot problems. Mine wouldn't go 30 sec without a reboot/reset. It died at any button push - even at the 'I agree' screen. Here's what they suggested.

See post here

 

[skyhover]

Additional notes for the reformatting and restoring tip

1. Don't simply restore. I tried and my TTG unit worked for a while before it started to reboot again. I guess the problem is related to the maps and simple restoring still restores the problem also!

It's better to call TT CSR to get a new drop of the maps, then install the new maps, although you may lose the map of Guam (any one tried to get it back into the SD card also?).

2. When formatting, the CSR told me to use "FAT32" file system (the default option on Windows XP), instead of the "FAT" which was on the SD card. Theoretically, it shouldn't make any difference though.

 

[MattB]

Thanks for the great info. I just purchased a refurbished 510 from Buy.com which arrived today. The unit seems to be functioning, but I have read all of the bad experiences with refurbished units.

Given the problems, is it advisable not to connect the unit for updates? It sounds like updates have caused a lot of the problems reported. I would rather have an outdated unit than a non-functioning one.

 

[skyhover]

...
Given the problems, is it advisable not to connect the unit for updates? It sounds like updates have caused a lot of the problems reported. I would rather have an outdated unit than a non-functioning one.

I think it's the old versions of TT software that are causing the problem. It's good to update; even if it exposes the problems sooner, it's good.

 

[gregbushman]

restore problem on 510

I formated my refurb from woot 510 and am trying to restore from my original backup, but now tthome says i have a 710, and there is no movement of the % restore, or no movement on my tt. i tried to change devices and it only shows a 710. any help or ideas?
Dang im bummed i did something wrong.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Connect your TomTom to your computer.
Located the backup manually using Windows Explorer.
Your backup should be under My Documents/TomTom/Home/Backups

Once you located the back up, copy all the contents and paste your SD card.
Then, remove your TomTom from the computer and start her up.

 

[gregbushman]

thank you Pedro2NR
I will try when i get home.

 

[gregbushman]

seems to work, thanks again

 

[TomTomWooter]

I formated my refurb from woot 510 and am trying to restore from my original backup, but now tthome says i have a 710, and there is no movement of the % restore, or no movement on my tt. i tried to change devices and it only shows a 710. any help or ideas?
Dang im bummed i did something wrong.

It happened to me as well. Mine still shows up as a 710 but that's not a problem.
Also, the % restore will not move when it's copying certain large files (cline.dat?) and then will suddenly move quickly so be patient. It'll all work fine.
Some .dat files are huge and so the progress bar waits forever.

Try it again and go drink some coffee or beer

 

[gregbushman]

i left it on from 6:00 am , went to work, came home at 4 adn it still hadent moved,, i dont think i can drink enough beer to wait for that..lol
I did what pedro suggested and it works great now.
that is when it said it was a 710 though, it says 510 now,so it would probably work the next time.
Thanks

 

[Pedro2NR]

Glad to hear it worked for you.

 

[radiationman]

What if you don't have a backup?

After 3 hours of fiddling with the unit to resolve Bluetooth issues (got it to function with a Treo 750 ) I had to get on the road and use the unit. It worked fine until we literally entered the city limits of a city where it rebooted every 90 seconds until we got out of the town. Thought it was a fluke as we headed out - until it did it again on the way back.

I flew across country a few hours later - no time to backup the unit, and attempted to use it once we got out of the airport. The unit crashes after 2 minutes and then doesn't recognize the card. After 5 reboots it just freezes and doesn't finish booting. So I'm now 4,000 miles away from the computer base - with an unstable unit. I don't have a backup to try at home because I never had time to do one.

So now what?

 

[radiationman]

Ok so I've gotten the unit back home, and seemed to have improved the situation.

I copied all of the data off the SD card that came with the unit, formatted the card and copied the data back over and the problem persisted. (Still not reading card, or crashing shortly after reading the card)

I grabbed a known good card from my wife's old camera and copied the data to that card... So far success. The unit came right up and hasn't crashed in infrequent usage over the last two days. I haven't taken a long trip yet, just my commute to work and a quick errand - and haven't taken it over to where I had the mysterious repitive reboots. But so far so good...

 

[Legolas]

pna.ini

Has anyone came a cross with this error message while re-installing the US and Canada Map to 510 from Home2 ?

"the archive folder contains this file: pna.ini This file should not be part of this archive : C\Documents and Settings\.....\HOME
Downloads\map\MapofUSACanada\Usa_and_Canada.cab"

Also Home 2 recognizes my 510 as 710.

Please help

Thanks All

 

[cawaller]

I purchased a refurb 510 and I'm having the reboot issues. I have done all the suggested tips (except for replacing the map). Called support 2 times and gave up after 45 minutes holding. Mine only seems to lockup and reboot when I am south of the city I live in. Is there a chance something could be causing interference and thus the reboots in a particular area?

 

[TomTomWooter]

I purchased a refurb 510 and I'm having the reboot issues. I have done all the suggested tips (except for replacing the map). Called support 2 times and gave up after 45 minutes holding. Mine only seems to lockup and reboot when I am south of the city I live in. Is there a chance something could be causing interference and thus the reboots in a particular area?

I think your maps are corrupt.
Try this:
- Backup your device (always) using TomTom Home (make sure you're logged in)
- delete the application and maps from your device using TomTom Home.
- Update your device, but only choose to update the application (ignore the maps)
- Once the application is installed, update again, and this time update the maps.