XXL 540TM won't turn on... which vendors?

[snd8511]

Have the same issue with my XXL 540TM from TomTom. I'm on my second unit already. First unit all of a sudden turned off within 2 hours of opening the box and never turned on again. This one worked for a day and a half before going through the same fate.

On both, I deleted unused voices, then complete update, then used code activation for the maps and updated again before any real use.

If you have the same issues, please post... and add where you got it from, might be a vendor related issue. Mine was from Amazon. I'm extremely tech savvy and have avoided Black Friday sales for a long long long time due to that I noticed alot of vendors were literally pricing down on poor quality items that they originally couldn't sell to clear inventory. I decided to try my luck with a GPS, and this is the first time ever in my 10 years of online electronics purchasing that I have had to file for a RMA(twice now on the same item).

Both Tomtom boxes I received from amazon are only sealed with a plastic sticker, edges slightly worn. Makes me feel if all of us having issues got "refurb" products.

 

[YorkieGirl]

My trouble is that I have a hard time to turn the unit (GPS) off ? I meant to turn the power off. When I turn it on nothing appears except the image of the unit appears briefly then the TOMTOM icon with the circle with two red hands appears and it just stays there. I tap the screen but nothing happens.

When I push the power button all the way down then the unit turns off. But if I hold it for a few seconds then everything starts from the beginning, i.e. what language you want to use, how you like the time appears like 6:00 pm or 18:00, etc. Because of this I was able to change the voice from Richard to computer voice Susan yesterday. Then following the instructions from TomTom Home I planned a trip then watched and listened to Susan in the Demo. The voice was clear and the itinerary was good because I travelled on these freeways many times . Before I knew I could get the unit restart by pushing the power button down and held it down for a few seconds I had the same trouble, meaning when I turned the unit on when it is not connected with the TomTom Home in the computer nothing happened except the appearance of the TOMTOM icon. It looks like that I cannot do anything on the unit screen itself.

Another thing I found out today that I could hear the voice when I watched and listened to Susan in the Demo yesterday because the unit was connected to the computer with the speakers on. When I don't have the computer speakers connected, then the unit has no sound even it is connected to TomTom Home in the computer. I also tried it when the unit was not connected to the computer, still there was no sound. Does that mean that the sound in the unit is out of order or do I have to do something to turn the sound on?

When I turn it on without having it connecting to the computer only the TOMTOM icon with the cirle with two red hands appears then it just stays there. No appearance of APP or Menu. Right after I first updated it the unit could get the satellite signals but now there are no signals.

Without the computer with TomTom Home on, I cannot do anything. Even with the unit connected to the computer, only the image of the unit with the cable connected to the computer appears most of the time. Then when it is disconnected, the image of the unit disappears and the TOMTOM icon appears - no APP or Menu. When it is connected to the computer, I tried to tap on the screen where the image of the unit with the cable is, nothing happens ? then when it is not connected to the computer, I also tried to tap in the screen where the TOMTOM icon is, also nothing happens.

Tried to bring the unit out in the street and have it on, no signals at all. What should I do now??? I am sorry for this long message. Please don?t lose your patience and read it and advise me.

I bought this XXL 540 TM from Amazon on Black Friday!!!

 

[dhn]

There are strange things going on. Can you return the unit?

 

[YorkieGirl]

DHN, thank you for giving your opinion. I will return the unit and will not buy it from Amazon any more. Now I believe in what SND8511 said in his post.

I don't know whether the unit was working by itself at all from the time it was out of the box because it was always connected to the computer. One thing for sure is that ithe sound in the unit is not working.

I am really upset if because of cheaper prices on Black Friday Amazon intentionally sold their defective units.

Many thanks again, DHN.

 

[dhn]

Yorkie, one thing I forgot to suggest.......

When you turn the unit on, if you get to the driving view, tap the left side of the status bar. You'll see a volume slider. It may be set too low.

 

[YorkieGirl]

Thank you, DHN, for letting me know how to increase the sound bar. The trouble was that I could not reach the unit screen at all to do things. It was working for a very short time (one hour or so) right after the map was updated. I took it to the street to see how it worked and it did show the name of my street, etc. I had not done anything to the unit (i.e. updating, etc.) since the time I saw the unit screen working to the time when I suddenly realized that I could not get anything on the screen ? it only showed either the image of the unit if it is connected to the computer or the TomTom icon if it was not connected to the computer. I tapped all over the screen and nothing happened but now I realized that nothing appeared because it was frozen.

I read one of the instructions in the TomTom website saying the screen may be frozen if the power was down so I powered it up for 2 hours+ but it stayed the same.

I packed the unit and have taken it to the UPS store for return.

 

[Smoore]

Same issue

I am having the same problem with this device. I tried to update it for my first use and then it went blank. The green light is on but nothing on screen. Can't turn on ever since. I also bought mine during the Black Friday sale on Amazon.

 

[dhn]

Does the computer see the unit when it's connected?

If so, make an Explorer backup, not Home. Then delete all the loose files in the root of the unit, no Folders or their files.

Connect the unit to Home. You should be offered an application. Download and install. Remove the unit properly from Home using the Device Disconnect icon. See if things are better.

If not, return it. Amazon seems to be shipping out faulty units lately, from all the posts we've been seeing here.

 

[Smoore]

Unfortunately the computer doesn't find it either.

Sorry for the reposts.

 

[gatorguy]

I seriously doubt Amazon is intentionally buying faulty units from TomTom, nor is TomTom intending to put bad 540's out on the market. But there was a rash of bad devices at Walmart last year for the Black Friday deals. They were stupid cheap and people were getting what they paid for. Personally I think TomTom just rushed a whole lot of540's out for the BF deals with little time for quality control. At the very cheap prices they sold for, they moved a lot of them. No surprise that quality suffered to produce so many at a cheap price in a short time span.

 

[coszy]

I am having the same problem with this device. I tried to update it for my first use and then it went blank. The green light is on but nothing on screen. Can't turn on ever since. I also bought mine during the Black Friday sale on Amazon.

I'm having the same problem here.

last time i remember was , having trouble with updating and it freeze,.
pressed the on and off button for +/- 15 second the green light is on and the device restarted. it was ok, i still use it.,.
today, i can't even turn on the device.

and i bought it from buydig.com

help please.

 

[dhn]

Are you sure the battery is charged?

 

[mvl]

Hold the power button forever until you hear a drumroll, then plug into a computer and see if the computer can recognize the Tomtom as a hard drive.

If it doesn't, call up Tomtom and they'll walk you through troubleshooting steps, if those fail Tomtom will warranty swap the device.

Or, return it to the store.

 

[hbmcdrew]

Same Issue

I have the same issue with a TomTom 540 TM that I too bought on amazon on Black Friday. I also deleted voices that I didn't use. The device worked for 2 days and then stopped on the 3rd day. How quickly did TomTom replace your GPS unit?

 

[Q45drvr]

Had the same problem. Got my XXL540TM in early December from Amazon, deleted foreign voices update OS and map, it turned on after update, frozed and died. I contected TomTom and they send me a replacement promptly, so far I had no problem with the one from TomTom. Since I had some experiences with this issue here's what I know. If your XXL540 won't turn on, hold down the on/off button for 15sec to reset it, if your unit still won't come on, it is dead. If you've just got your 540 recently and you had to reset it more than a few times and had issue with frozen screen when turning on or off, it is defective and it won't fix itself. In both cases contact TomTom for warrenty, this is not an isolated issue with the XXL540, and TomTom should be well aware of it by now.

 

[aasgnt]

Having the same issue. New out of the box Amazon.com, plugged her in, removed some voices to make space, and updated tomtom overnight.

It asked to reset this morning, I let it. It turned on with the screen sideways, split in half, and flickering. Turned off and back on again, just a white screen.

Plugging it in, and holding the button down for 15 seconds, just brings me to the flickering screen again. Frustrated, had already returned one to amazon 5 days ago with the same issue. GRR

On phone for tech support for over an hour now, and still waiting.

 

[dhn]

Don't suppose you happened to make an Explorer backup prior to updating, did you?

 

[aasgnt]

I did backup my first one before updating, the second one I didnt bother.

 

[dhn]

If you restore the original backup, do the problems continue or go away?

If they are gone, do NOT accept any application updates when you update your unit.

 

[aasgnt]

No couldn't use the backup, its on my other computer.

Called TOMTOM four times today.

First one was a deletion of the software and reinstall.

Second was a check disk.

Third was a format and install.

Fourth was hey our computer system is down cant find your info, I'll write down your email address and send you an email so you can mail us your receipt. Its been a few hours since that call, no email yet.

Spent in totally close to five hours on hold today, quite literally an all day ordeal.

In the meantime, I'll attach a photo of what it is doing in case I don't get an email back.

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/5955/img1378p.jpg