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

[canderson]

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/5955/img1378p.jpgSpent in totally close to five hours on hold today, quite literally an all day ordeal.

If (and I know this is a BIG if) you are able to get it connected to either of your PCs and Home will operate for you, could you go to the tab in Home that is labeled Help, and select System Information.

Scroll down to "Technical Support Information", and at "*Connected device: ... " under "ttgo.bif file contents", you will see three lines that will be of interest.

a) DeviceSerialNumber=LL....." etc

What are the first two letters that appear in the "LL" position as shown above?

b) BootLoaderVersion=5XXXX

What are all of the numbers there?

c) ApplicationVersionVersionNumber=9XXX

What are all of the numbers there?


Could others also take the time to provide that information, along with any symptoms if we haven't heard about them already?

 

[aasgnt]

1. ???????????? < all twelve digits are this weird y

2. 55279

3. 8550

 

[canderson]

1. ???????????? < all twelve digits are this weird y

Wow - now there's an interesting piece of news. That is supposed to be your unit's serial number. Thanks much for adding the first piece to this particular puzzle. Here's hoping it illuminates something along the way.

Since you can hook up successfully, could we have you take a peek at the actual ttgo.bif file in the root of your TomTom with a text editor of some sort to see if that's how it looks there, too?

Anyone else?

 

[mvl]

Starting around Black Friday, the XXL540 was shipped with slightly newer software, And at the same time, the models started bricking like you're experiencing. There's a good chance the software has a glitch.

The proper thing to do is warranty swap the Tomtom, as no one's found a successful repair solution yet, but while you're on hold with phone support you can try the following:

- backup everything first per this link
- install this application on the Tomtom (it's for a different model, but fixed a separate issue so it might fix this one). To install, use winrar to extract contents of the file onto the Tomtom drive, overwriting when prompted
- afterwards, run clearflash from this link 3 times

 

[aasgnt]

Oh, I'd love to. One problem, when I turned it on this morning all I am getting now is a white screen.

Even the plugged in hold the button (for ever) trick isn't working.......

 

[canderson]

Oh, I'd love to. One problem, when I turned it on this morning all I am getting now is a white screen.

Even the plugged in hold the button (for ever) trick isn't working.......

Granted, you can't actually use the unit or even see anything on the screen when disconnected from your PC, but what mvl is recommending doesn't require that. Can you confirm whether or not your computer (and Home) can see your unit when it is plugged in to your PC? If so, you'll be able to follow his recommendations since we'll be working with your unit solely from the PC side, not the normal user interface on the unit.

 

[aasgnt]

No its not even connecting to the computer anymore.

 

[canderson]

No its not even connecting to the computer anymore.

UGH. Once you've reached that stage, you're beyond hope! Time to RMA that unit, I'm afraid. How did it get worse? We were at least talking to Home yesterday.

 

[aasgnt]

I have no clue. I left it plugged in overnight. Woke up this morning, saw MVL's post so I turned it on and white screen, and no response to button holding. Its giving me a really hard time even turning it off. /sigh

 

[dhn]

Are you holding the button for about 20 seconds or so?

 

[aasgnt]

Been holding it for up to a minute. Just started the RMA on the device, they had no clue what was going on either /shrug.

Thank you for all your assistance everyone!

 

[kool371]

had the sameissue. Same model and bought from amazon to. Bought on black friday worked for the first couple weeks. The first issue that appeared was the traffic receiver after i think about a week wasno longer detected. Contacted Tomtom they had me do all sorts of stuff. Had me uninstall and reinstall the unit application, scan disk, format. The format was the last thing and after the format the unit gave a error. Ithe unit would lock up and had to reset the unit and after every reset had to go through the set up of settings. The unit would throw a error saying cannot save setting file read error or something similar. Tomtom started a RMA to exchange the unit this was a couple days before christmas. I waited till after christmas to send it in as I was getting ready to head out of town for christmas. I had planned on using the unit for the trip even though I would have to reset it a couple times to get it to work. The day I received the email for the rma was the day before I was due to leave and that day I had the unit on and working but later that day it would no longer turn on.
Got back from the trip and sent it in and the same day they received it the sent another out. Got the new one friday ran the updates on it. had a few issues. in tomtom home could not operate the device via home it said that it was unavialbe due to the version of windows, home or the model tomtom I had. I know this was incorrect as the first unit worked with this feature. So I removed and reinstalled the appliacation and ran in to more issues. would turn unit on and tomtom slash would come up for a bit then the screen picture would roll like a video tape dose when the tracking is out of adjustment. it would go from the tomtom splash doing this to the other set up screens and you could not even read anything on the screen. so yesterday on my own tried uninstall the application and reinstalling thinking the instlation was corupt but that did not fix it. Did a format too with reinstall and update still no fix. finaly thought let me try running a restore as I created a back up when I was having issues operating the unit with tomtom home. after restoring the device it finaly works.

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.

 

[kool371]

tomtom replaced my unit fast. the same day they received it they sent another out. was told it could take up to 10 days was very happy that it was that quick.

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?

 

[kool371]

same issue I had with my replacement unit as I said in another reply. Did not call tomtom this time. walked through all the same steps they had me do on first device but what finaly fixed it was I did a restore ot the unit and all fine now.



[ QUOTE=aasgnt;138052]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.[/QUOTE]

 

[canderson]

... but what finaly fixed it was I did a restore ot the unit and all fine now.

That's probably because you did the save before you did that firmware "update" and your restore just took you back to where you were before the "update". If you like the way it works now, avoid the update. What firmware version are you running now?

 

[TomXXL]

Suspect Bad Amazon Vendor

I as well purchased a TomTom 540-TM through Amazon just before Thanksgiving. Used maybe twice. First time had no issues. Second time received many error messages and experienced trouble turning unit on and off. Upon return from trip, I did a complete restore and recharge for several hours on unit. Now it won't even respond to the "Hold the power switch on" solution. I will let it charge for another few hours as suggested on TOMTOMs support page. I suspect that we all purchased from the same Amazon vendor who was pawning off refurbed or damaged units. The serial number off the outer case is : RX6440A03848.

Am in process of getting a RMA number from TOMTOM and replacing this unit.

 

[Drako36]

XXL 540TM no start/shut off, Frozen

Had the same problem as described in many of these treads, mine was defective the first day of receiving from AMAZON since it had the best price of $150 here's the details:

- Bought from Amazon Feb 2011 (I also suspect them to re-sale bad or returned units, hoping they will work)

-Hooked to my PC, updated maps, downloaded couple of more free voices, deleted 1 voice taking too much space, downloaded start up image, set up my unit with personal preferences.

- Once I unplugged it from my PC (using the correct disconnect procedure from TomTom Home), then all the trouble started.

1)While still on, the first problem I noticed is that 5 out of 7 voices I had downloaded did not show on the unit, while when plugged to my PC, they showed up to be there...

2) When trying to turn it off it would NOT, it simply stayed on my start image I had downloaded... The only way to turn it off was to hold the switch for 15s, which resets the unit but a real pain since then you go thru the whole initial menu set up...

3) the same happened then when turning it on, it would start off with a white screen, stay for a couple of sec then would stay on my starting image (or the TT logo), I tapped the screen, NOTHING, just froze there...

I returned it the same day for another unit, will see if the 2nd one will hold on... It seems that when deleting certain none essential files, all these issues pop up... Or that AMZ is simply trying to get rid of bad units, or defective units that somehow made it back on the selling shelves... Very annoying since I like the unit... Will keep you posted on any news with my 2nd unit...

Cheers
Carlo

 

[Rick F.]

"It seems that when deleting certain none essential files, all these issues pop up..."

What 'none essential files' are you deleting? Some of the extenders for files on TomTom are different than what you might think when familiar with Windoz... like 'chk' for example is NOT lost fragments but part of the voice files.

 

[Drako36]

By non essential files I mean like the others and myself state:
- deleting voices you will not need for example...

There seems to be a pattern with problems due to somekind of software glitch. It seems that everyone gets this problem , after they updated their maps and deleted voices they will not need... I find it nuts that some people get the same problems after receiving a 2nd, 3rd unit and still do not work... All this after doing the same procedures, updating maps, deleting voices...

 

[Rick F.]

If you use HOME to remove the unwanted voices, it should always take the right files. Some files are shared with other voices so HOME knows which files not to take and leave on your unit.

When I added the computer voice 'Dave', it was around 45meg and since I already had 'Susan', it didn't need to add them all to my unit. The same thing should happen when removing a voice via TomTom HOME.