720 problems and error message.

oldpilot · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 8

Hi,

Yesterday had an unusual problem with my one week old TTGO720T. I noticed that it wasn't updating the route when I took a minor detour so I reselected Navigate-Home. As soon as I hit the Home selection it froze, followed after 30 sec or so by a self reboot. I tried again with the same result. When I tried to do a normal Navigate command it came back with an error message saying it couldn't find or access the maps! I tried a 'pin' reset but same problem... I refrained from a factory default reset as I had data I didn't want to loose.

Once home I docket the device and reloaded my last data save. Everything back to normal... or nearly so! This morning I had several error messages on the screen saying something like, 'Unable write map data, file fault.' The red message stayed up for a couple of seconds but the machine seemed to work without any difficulty, and still does! However, I am concerned that these problems might indicate a hardware fault, perhaps a section of RAM that won't write properly?

Any ideas?

Old Pilot

if1977 · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject:

If you want to clear the RAM it might be an idea to run the Clear Flash Tool. It is also there to help with map problems also. It will not clear any of your data so do not be frightened to run it. Sounds worse than it is. Wink

_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject:

Do a Windows Explorer backup (as opposed to a "Home" one) before doing anything else. See the FAQs at the top of this forum section for instructions.

Then save all your favourites as a new POI category, and backup the map folder again.

Then try the "Factory Reset"

If none of this fixes it, I'd send it back for replacement.

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:

Do a Windows Explorer backup (as opposed to a "Home" one) before doing anything else. See the FAQs at the top of this forum section for instructions.

Then save all your favourites as a new POI category, and backup the map folder again.

Try the clear Flash, then another reset with pin.
If still no good, then try the "Factory Reset"

Have you added any other content? Filled it up to the top with mp3s? Like Windows, it needs some spare space to work with.

If none of this fixes it, I'd send it back for replacement.

oldpilot · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 8

Thanks for your help.
TT support have also replied with some assistance. They suggest doing:

1. Backup
2. Run the clear Flash tool that they provide (good guess if1977).

If that doesn't work they suggest:

3. Delete Settings.dat and Mapsettings.cfg
4. Do both a Factory Reset and a pin hole Reset.

Now that all sounds fine but I have fallen at the first post, the Backup!

Having previously done a couple of successful backups with TT Home I now cannot as it fails when trying to copy gns/gnsdata. This file is corrupt and wont copy with either TT Home or explorer.

That leaves me with, perhaps, a reason for the problem but also a bit stuck for a cure... any ideas?

Old Pilot

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:01 am Post subject:

Hmmm...
I've got a folder called "gns" and in that folder is one file called "TmcEApi.so"

I tried looking at it with Notepad and there's a lot of jumbled text, looks like a log?

if1977 · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:04 pm Post subject:

After you ran the Clear Flash Tool did you do a Factory reset straight after because according to TT you will not get the full effect of it without doing the Factory Reset straight after. Not sure if it would make a difference oldpilot but might be worth a try if all else fails. Sad

_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

oldpilot · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 8

First I just tried the clear flash tool but the problems remained so then I did the file deletions followed by factory and pin hole resets but that didn't work so I did the whole lot in one go. Out of interest I no longer get the file error messages, the system just freezes when going off the planned route and then does a reset. Following the reset it freezes any time it is asked to calculate a route.

I have yet to get out onto the road to see if it fails again but I can already see that gnsdata is still corrupt despite being previously deleted.

I am about to give up and take it back to Halfords.

For information to those who have an interest in these things... the gnsdata file can be deleted at will as the TT writes a new one. However, I have no idea what its function is.

Old Pilot

Jembo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 11, 2008 Posts: 2

Well, been fighting with this corrupt gnsdata... and have now just been able to do successful TOMTOM HOME backup without it failing.

1. Work out what drive letter your Tom Tom is from Windows explorer eg E:
2. Start, Run and type in CMD to open a DOS window (good old DOS)
3. Type CHKDSK E: /F where E: is the drive letter of your TomTom and the /F switch fixes disk problems
4. You will then be asked to Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)? so enter Y

After doing this, TomTom HOME let me backup... I don't know how many more probs may still be lurking or whether tomorrow will be yet another challenge, but if this doesn't solve it TOMTOM will be getting another 720T unit back which is a shame coz otherwise its been fab.

J

Jembo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 11, 2008 Posts: 2

One last thing. It's 3 months since I bought the unit tomorrow so have defragged the drive as well. To do this successfully, you need to:
1. either get the TOMTOM backup working & / or completely copy all of your TOMTOM directories onto your computer/laptop.
2. Delete the 'Western_Europe' directory on your TOMTOM - reason for this is that defrag will not run on the tiny amount of free space with the maps installed.
3. Defrag your TOMTOM drive
4. Copy the 'Western_Europe' directory back onto your TOMTOM... where you deleted it in the 1st place.

... just finished the defrag... prepare to engage WARP. The 720T is quick finding routes but after the defrag mine is now 'exceeding expectations' & and NO read/write errors (so far)

I just hope I don't have to do this manual file cleaning every couple of months :-(

pdegg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 10

Hi

I've interestingly had the same issue with GNSDATA, and the file is marked as corrupt- so even windows can't handle it directly. Good old CHKDSK sorts it - but odd same file corrupted as yours??

dhn · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject:

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