Garmin i3 failed - what about the tom tom??

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

I bought a Garmin i3 a few days ago. After failing to work and a long phone call to the garmin help line we were told the unit was faulty and returned it to the shop who replaced it.

The new unit froze about 10 times on out jorney between birmingham and northampton. The next day It froze for an hour and a half and nothing (reset, take batteries out etc) would get it active... and garmin tech help told me that it might take upto one hour to get satelite reception- this unfortunately is what happened it took an hour and a half to find reception ( I do not have a heated screen etc) I was told that the download would sort it out but that the i3 was so new that the garmin tech people didnt really know much about it!!

But I knew that there were problems ( from reading this forum) and waited to down load the upgraded info .

The download was finally done succesfully ( not interupted ) and yesterday I took it with me as I travelled from Northampton to Bristol.
All I can say is that I'm glad I had AA routemaster printed directions and a map. Even having done the download it took half an hour to find satelittes - so the first half hour I had no gps then after an hour and a half I stopped for cofffe - so when I turned it back on I had no gps for another half an hour. It kept losing satelite reception about 10-15 times in the whole journey and its failure in the city centre of Bristol meant that not only did I spend 40 minutess driving around the city but I was late for the meeting!

When it works it is reliable but my experience says that the i3 can not be relied on to work!!

I will be returning it on Monday !

Have others had this sort of experience with the tom tom?

chic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 19, 2005 Posts: 21

sorry to hear about yoour problems m8, i have had my i3 for about 2 weeks now and i have never had a lock up or even lost the satelite signal even once, it only take my unit at the most 1 minute to get a lock, and myu i3 has been faultless, you may have just been ulucky.

alix776 · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:49 am Post subject:

does the windscreen of your car have heat reflective windscreen if your losing locks like that it sound like it. or have you let the unit get a lock before you start to drive if you dont do this usually it will take a longtime to get a fix have you done a master reset ive used mine itesivley this week and it hasnt locked up once and deliberately made it reroute on a number of occasions up to ten times
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

No I think my car (zafira club) has an ordinary windscreen. Is there anyone out there susing i3 with zafira club??

I have done a reset and this does not help. the unit can not get a lock on a sat' before I drive - I did try sitting still in the car but by track record thi smeans I could be sitting still for 1/2 hour to 1hour before I start - not very helpful!

When it did work yesterday it recalculated the route even when I was following the instructions correctly- this happened about 10 times or more in a 50 minute period.

I definately updated with the download correctly but havent managed to downloads the POI's but i dont think that should affect the gps functioning should it?
Any other suggestions welcome...

pendoggett · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 28, 2005 Posts: 19

Hi Joolz,
I have had different problems with my i3's the fact that after five to six postcode finds the unit will only navigate back to my last find !!

You enter a new postcode thinking right off we go and wrong all does is navigate back to last find which is slightly frustrating to say the least !

I have had this problem with both units and I have spoken via email to Garmin and they say their products are 100 % working correct and I don't
know what am talking about.

Well this forum will prove them wrong as the i3 has an in built glitch\problem with the softwate\hardware and I use the unit with my job and it fails full stop

So the more folks like you post here the better.

All the best and regards

Pendoggett...

alix776 · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 11:29 am Post subject:

right turn the unit on and plug it in to cagarette lighter now keeping the unit outside the car how long does it take to get a lock once you have a lock move the unit inside the car now does the sat signal decrease also are you using normal mode in the gps. if the signal decreases then you have a heat reflective windscreen and youll needs an external arial hope that help a bit
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

Alix
Thank You .
It took 3 and a half minutes to find a satelite.... hurrah! Howevere I have looked in my hanndbook for car and it says nothing about heat reflective windcreen..
anyway so now I have to order an arial????
What do they look like - and wont that attrect attention to would be theives??

are they easy to fit ?

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

Ive had a look for the thread about arials- can someone post the thread / link for me please

:D

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

I have just done a 20 min journey with my daughter holding the i3 in the back seat next to the rear passenger window-- it worked !! and on the return journey (no daughter) I stuck it to my front passenger window ( ot good for safelty useablity etc ) But it definitely shows I need an aerial--
Thaks for your suggestion Alix

Please could someone still post the link to the aerial thread so I can find how to get a chep one...

MELennium · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject:

This is where i bought mine from, only took 3 days to come.
It is only about 50mm x 40mm in size and i fixed mine outside under the plastic grill covers near wipers.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/garmin-streetpilot-i3-antenna_W0QQbsZSearchQQcatrefZC6QQfposZPostcodeQQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQga10244Z10425QQsacatZQ2d1QQsadisZ200QQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ3QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

Joolz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 02, 2005 Posts: 26

I managed to find a place in the car that works-- Its a zafire and if I put it onthe little window between the drivers door window and the windscreen - it works perfectly --
:D

Noakesi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 5

Joolz

I'm waiting for my i3 to arrive, but having had a browse about the forum another member mentioned there is a clear patch (an ozone hole if you will) in the UV/heat reflective coating up and near the rear view mirror; due apparently to the need for potential 'car tagging technology'.

Noakesi

Jani · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 20, 2005 Posts: 3

So I bought also this product. It is not working. It does not even get connected to satellites regular, neither in hand or in car.

If it success (which has happened 2 times in one week test usage), it works with 2.60 SW. Originally there was 2.00 in it and it stucked all time.

Great products.. let's see what is the feedback from local support after investigations.

Skippy · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:33 pm Post subject: Re: I3 sucks

Jani · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 20, 2005 Posts: 3

8O

I haven't yet received my i3 from support.. But Then I really can really say that it is i3 which is not working well. my friend has a medion 240t and he drives with the car with heated windshield and medion is recoverring and getting connection each time and case in one minute.

It seems I am forced to get rid of i3 and move to Medion!

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