View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
futuresbright Occasional Visitor
Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 35 Location: west yorkshire
|
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:11 pm Post subject: Tomtom 720- Is hard drive dead?? |
|
|
My TT GO 720 has just died on me
When i turn it on all i get is a picture of the device, a hard drive in the bottom right hand corner and a big flashing white cross in a red circle.
It will allow me to connect to computer and format drive and then copy my backup files to it but it just will not boot.
I can however go down the SD card route and with all files on it it does boot and everything is OK.
Is the hard drive dead? anyone suggest anything to get it to boot? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
mikealder Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
|
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:09 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Its not hard drive as such, the device contains solid state memory chips that retain (or rather should retain) the files, if its not responding to a format then its probably died.
To keep the device in use employ an SD or SDHC card as the device can support memory cards up to and including 32GB in capacity, with memory cards at very low prices these days its cheaper to fit one of these and carry on using the device rather than scraping the 720 which is still the best hardware produced from TomTom in a long time in my opinion - Mike |
|
Back to top |
|
|
futuresbright Occasional Visitor
Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 35 Location: west yorkshire
|
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
mikealder wrote: | Its not hard drive as such, the device contains solid state memory chips that retain (or rather should retain) the files, if its not responding to a format then its probably died.
To keep the device in use employ an SD or SDHC card as the device can support memory cards up to and including 32GB in capacity, with memory cards at very low prices these days its cheaper to fit one of these and carry on using the device rather than scraping the 720 which is still the best hardware produced from TomTom in a long time in my opinion - Mike |
thanks for reply mike,
Thats what ive done, everything seems ok using SD card, doesnt really matter that main memory has died, was just wondering if there was anything else i could do to bring it back to life? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Trevor1234 Frequent Visitor
Joined: Apr 30, 2005 Posts: 810 Location: Milton Keynes
|
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi futuresbright
If you have formatted and tried unsuccessfully to restore a valid Backup to your 720 there is very little left that you can do.
You have stated that you can run the device from your card and I think that’s the best thing that you are going to manage. Mike Alder appears to think the same and he’s usually spot on. I have a 720 and Tomtom haven’t come out with a better model yet. Lets hope that you get many more years out of your device/card. _________________ Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G |
|
Back to top |
|
|
futuresbright Occasional Visitor
Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 35 Location: west yorkshire
|
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Trevor1234 wrote: | Hi futuresbright
If you have formatted and tried unsuccessfully to restore a valid Backup to your 720 there is very little left that you can do.
You have stated that you can run the device from your card and I think that’s the best thing that you are going to manage. Mike Alder appears to think the same and he’s usually spot on. I have a 720 and Tomtom haven’t come out with a better model yet. Lets hope that you get many more years out of your device/card. |
looks like it will be running from the card from now on!
Makes no difference really, will give it a good trial tommorow and see if there are any issues but hopefully will give me another few years use.
thanks for reply. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
|
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
The internal memory on my 720 died about a year ago, and I've been running happily with everything on an SD card ever since.
The only minor hassle is that TT Home will not recognise the device at all if I plug it in with a USB cable, so I have to pop the card out and put it in a card reader plugged into a USB socket on the PC. Home then finds it and runs fine.
Strangely, Windows finds the SD card OK when it's still in the Go. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
deep_south Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 26, 2004 Posts: 22
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Might be worth doing a "full format", not the "quick one" using Windows Explorer - I had a similar problem a couple of months ago on my TT, and a full format & restore did the trick for me.
I tried to do a new backup first and that failed, which led to beleive the flash memory was dodgy. I was pleased this worked, as it was about a month out of warranty.... |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
deep_south wrote: | Might be worth doing a "full format" |
My memory died slowly over a few weeks, exhibiting more and more bizarre behaviour For a while, I could copy stuff to it AND red it back, until I disconnected from the PC and re-connected, at which point it would forget everything I'd just added, but kept the older files.
Re-formatting got more and more difficult to complete, until eventually Windows wouldn't recognise it as a "drive" at all. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
futuresbright Occasional Visitor
Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 35 Location: west yorkshire
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
tried everything including full formats,quick formats, formatting to FAT and FAT32.
files will write to device but it will not boot.
not too bothered now been running for the last couple of days on SD card with no difference whatsoever.
Sorry Tomtom no more pennies off me for a while yet!!! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Robbo66 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jan 21, 2006 Posts: 37 Location: Surrey
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Andy_P wrote: |
The only minor hassle is that TT Home will not recognise the device at all if I plug it in with a USB cable, so I have to pop the card out and put it in a card reader plugged into a USB socket on the PC. Home then finds it and runs fine. |
I have my device running from a SDHC card and haven't had any problem connecting to TT Home except when I updated Home this evening to 2.7.2.1825 after which it didn't connect. When I tried it later, Home started up okay.
It is strange how two seemingly identical devices behave in different ways. Yours may be older than mine, don't know if that has any bearing on things. Or the make of card may have an affect, who knows. _________________ TT 720 Go
Application version 8.351
WE Map version 855.2884
4Gb SDHC card |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Robbo66 wrote: |
I have my device running from a SDHC card and haven't had any problem connecting to TT Home |
But is your internal memory screwed like mine is, or are you just running off the card by choice?
What I think is happening with mine is that when you plug in the USB cable, the TomTom announces itself: "Hi I'm a TomTom with storage memory, give me a drive letter... Oh and by the way, I've got an SD card slot too. Can I have one for that?"
With dead memory on the TomTom, Windows looks at what's going on and replies "No you're not, sod off...." but then: "Oh, heres an SD card, I'll give that a drive letter if you like.
But Home sits there waiting for the "main" bit of the TomTom to announce itself can't find anything and never gets as far as looking for the SD card.
Just a less robust bit of programming. TT never expected that situation to arise, so never made Home clever enough to deal with it.
AS you can see from the above, my technical understanding of what's going on is completely lacking , but that's how it "feels" to me!
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
Robbo66 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jan 21, 2006 Posts: 37 Location: Surrey
|
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Andy_P wrote: |
But is your internal memory screwed like mine is, or are you just running off the card by choice? |
I am running off the card by choice.
Your reasoning seems sound in that Home searches for a non existent internal memory, and on not finding one, doesn't connect your TT. Mine of course brings up both lettered "drives".
One advantage of updating via a card reader is that you can't accidentally update the wrong memory, as I have recently done, and lose various things. _________________ TT 720 Go
Application version 8.351
WE Map version 855.2884
4Gb SDHC card |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|
Posted: Today Post subject: Pocket GPS Advertising |
|
|
We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
|