I'm posting this chronicle of my experience with updating problems in the hope that it will help others. I received the XL340TM as a gift and it came with lifetime maps and traffic. I loaded the latest version of TomTom Home on my 32 bit Windows 7 laptop and connected the GPS. It began a series of updates to the software. The last one resulted in an error, but it (seemingly) didn't leave me with an inoperable unit. I was subsequently able to activate lifetime maps and update the map successfully. I then backed up the unit using TTHome (I know, I should have read this forum first to realize that I should back up using Windows Explorer). However, I later discovered that the unit did not display any computer voices to enable text-to-speech for speaking street names (even though TTHome showed that Susan was installed in the GPS).
I found the thread "Street Names INOP" and followed the instructions of Super Moderator dhn. However I used version 9.056 rather than 9.026. When I came to step 4 and used WinRar to extract the application, I received an error in writing a specific file. When I looked at the file in the unit, it had zero bytes. On subsequent tries, I would receive the same write error. As a last gasp measure, I deleted all files and folders from the unit, ran chkdsk (only error checking; not bad sector scanning), and tried again. This time, I received the write error again, but not with the same file. This led me to use WinRar to extract everything to a folder on my laptop rather than directly to the GPS. After running chkdsk one more time, I copied and pasted the contents of the folder to the GPS. This worked without an error.
I (safely) disconnected the unit from the laptop, closed TTHome, and powered down the GPS. Then, I connected it to the laptop, powered it on, and let TTHome launch. In the update section, I was able to download the latest map successfully. In the Add Voices section, I was able to add Susan as the computer voice. It now appears to be functioning correctly, but I'll be giving it a more thorough test this weekend.
Additional Notes:
1. I have no idea why extracting from WinRar to the laptop and then to the GPS gave different results than extracting directly to the GPS.
2. I looked at the backup made by TTHome and noticed that it contained a file with zero bytes. I replaced it with its non-zero counterpart from the rar archive, but I don't know if I'll ever test it to see if the restore works.
3. I also discovered from the backup that there were rar archives stored in it. In my unit, there were rar files for versions 8.412, 9.026, and 9.056. By the way, the version 9.056 file had a name that included "plus_tts" so I don't think it was the wrong application for this model (as dhn conjectured in the "Street Names INOP" thread). It's possible that these files would have been deleted eventually, but it may also be another place to look to gain space for the next map update.
I found the thread "Street Names INOP" and followed the instructions of Super Moderator dhn. However I used version 9.056 rather than 9.026. When I came to step 4 and used WinRar to extract the application, I received an error in writing a specific file. When I looked at the file in the unit, it had zero bytes. On subsequent tries, I would receive the same write error. As a last gasp measure, I deleted all files and folders from the unit, ran chkdsk (only error checking; not bad sector scanning), and tried again. This time, I received the write error again, but not with the same file. This led me to use WinRar to extract everything to a folder on my laptop rather than directly to the GPS. After running chkdsk one more time, I copied and pasted the contents of the folder to the GPS. This worked without an error.
I (safely) disconnected the unit from the laptop, closed TTHome, and powered down the GPS. Then, I connected it to the laptop, powered it on, and let TTHome launch. In the update section, I was able to download the latest map successfully. In the Add Voices section, I was able to add Susan as the computer voice. It now appears to be functioning correctly, but I'll be giving it a more thorough test this weekend.
Additional Notes:
1. I have no idea why extracting from WinRar to the laptop and then to the GPS gave different results than extracting directly to the GPS.
2. I looked at the backup made by TTHome and noticed that it contained a file with zero bytes. I replaced it with its non-zero counterpart from the rar archive, but I don't know if I'll ever test it to see if the restore works.
3. I also discovered from the backup that there were rar archives stored in it. In my unit, there were rar files for versions 8.412, 9.026, and 9.056. By the way, the version 9.056 file had a name that included "plus_tts" so I don't think it was the wrong application for this model (as dhn conjectured in the "Street Names INOP" thread). It's possible that these files would have been deleted eventually, but it may also be another place to look to gain space for the next map update.
