Weird charging problem Go720

[ScottinBend]

I am having a problem with maintaining/getting a charge on my 720. When in the car it seems to be fine, green light on and it stays on. Now when I hook it up to the USB dock in the house and turn it on it only stays on for a very short period of time, like 2-5 mins. The green light is on the whole time, but it doesn't seem to want to charge up or stay on. When I take it off of the dock it will work for the same period of time and then shut off.

Any ideas?

Scott

 

[dhn]

You are getting twice the power (at least) with the car charger (if a true tomtom, then probably a 1.2V output) than you get using the usb port (no more than .5V) So, it seems as if the battery is nearing its life cycle.

See here:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/tomtom...730-920-930-battery-replacement-tutorial.html

(also, make sure the USB port on the computer is not part of a hub. Try a port in the back of the computer)

 

[ScottinBend]

I have ordered a battery and will replace it, but the problem of it turning off by itself while attached to the home dock puzzles me. One other thing to add, when I have Home running and my 720 connected to it, it stays on with no problem.

Guess I am just trying to get some assurances that the problems are not indicative to the 720 failing.

Thanks

 

[dhn]

If you have the battery saving preference set to turn off when external power is lost and it shuts off in the mount, may mean it's not seated properly and isn't getting the power from the mount.

 

[ScottinBend]

I do have the battery saving feature turned on, but not sure why this would affect the device differently whether or not I have Home running or not.
As soon as I disconnet the 720 from Home it shut's off fairly quickly.

 

[mikealder]

Connected to the PC there is only 500mA available from the USB port to power the device, with Home running the device is acting as nothing more than an expensive illuminated card reader so the power consumption is minimal.
Conversley if its powered from the PC but not actually connected via Home/ Windows the processor in the device will be working at full speed consuming more power.

If the battery is shot there is probably enough power from the PC to power the unit in card reader mode but not for full operation, in the car the device can pull 1,2 or 2 amps depending upon the car charger supplied with the unit which is considerably more than that available from the USB port on the PC. A shot battery will produce more of a load on the charger supply leaving far less for the device to use - Mike

 

[ScottinBend]

That makes sense....thanks.

Hopefully the new battery will not give me any problems on install or use!

 

[mikealder]

Hopefully the new battery will not give me any problems on install or use!

The new battery won't give you any issues as fitting that is the easy part - The more challanging job is removal of the old battery which can be troublesome - Have a good read through the instructions on how to do it that dhn sent a link to earlier in this thread, also take some time to read through the thread as there are a few other tips and tricks that forum members have posted based upon their experiance - Mike

 

[ScottinBend]

Have it bookmarked......lol

Thanks