TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

Scholasticus · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

Ebuyer.com sell 256 MB Lexar SD cards very cheaply. I have used them lots of times and they are very reliable.

liveclive · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

Ive installed Nav 2 and the pocket pc just grinds to a halt. I have tried re-installing the software

and upgrading to 2.05 but the same problem.

I have email tomtom support 48 hours ago and no reply.

Im running this on an an ipaq 5450.

ON a seperate point does ANY routinmg software work

with full UK postcodes?

KInd Regards Clive
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Clive

Colin Pellow · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

Needless to say the system failed after a few hours.

Have now purchased a Jessops branded 128MB CF card, (nearest store and that's all they had!), and installed all the UK maps on this, with the voices in main memory.

Have road tested for 2 days and no problems at all.

The City look-up is considerably faster, than when on the odd occassion the SD card was in a working mode!

The "Stotage Tools" diagnosed the SD card as bad when I had problems.

Will be off to see if I can find a reasonably priced "SimpleTech" or "Lexar SD256-266" card.

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CP<br>

Colin Pellow · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

Have an AXIM X5/400MHz and experienced slow responses, lock up's etc during City search, etc.

TTN2 installed in main memory with Full UK Maps & Voices on a DANE-ELEC 256MB SD Card.

Painfully boring to use due to lack of response during city lookup. Requires many soft resets.

Backed up a good "NavigatorSettings.cfg" and then run the recommended "Storage Tools" download (ref. DavidW 26/5/03) and reformatted the SD card with FAT16/4KB-Cluster.

Reinstalled Maps & Voices to SD card.

System now seems to have a "life" and finds city searches in a realistic time with any amount of characters!!

Will have to see how system performs now in the real world?

Looks more promising anyway.

--

CP

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CP<br>

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I am primarily using my iPAQ3830 for TTN2 use and utilise very little other onboard storage space, as I try to maximise program memory.

I am using a 256MB CF card on an EMTAC sleeve and use the Windows Backup Utility to the CF card to protect onboard data.

Would I be gaining anything by using Pocket Backup or Backup Plus? After a hard reset, the Windows utility is always present anyway to restore the system.

I am of course also wary of the resource overhead with only 32MB to play with.

_________________
John

iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I also receommend Pocket Backup Plus and have now moved to it completely. The new 2.1 version is even better because the backup now becomes an executable file, quite frequently one of my Pocket PC's is left for over a week without it being used depending on the GPS software that's installed so the ROM gets wiped, and Pocket Backup Plus is now the easiest way to reinstall the whole lot from backup without having to reinstall a backup program first.

DavidW · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

It will, I think, come formatted FAT16 with 4KB.

However, the current recommendation from that long Dell thread is to buy SimpleTech - they seem to be the best brand right now (though with the caveat that my slightly problematic Lexar 256MB and a SimpleTech 256MB have been found in the last 24 hours to have very similar serial numbers).

The cheapest source I know of Lexar SD cards in the UK is www.digital-cameras.com and the cheapest source of SimpleTech SD cards in the UK is www.clove.co.uk. Note that the Lexar supplier quotes prices including VAT (but excluding shipping) and the SimpleTech supplier quotes prices excluding VAT and shipping.

With SimpleTech, you will find in some sizes (though not 256MB) that you can have the card in a Bonzai USB reader for very little more money - check that out here.

I would argue that 256MB is the best size to be buying now - it has space for the full TomTom 2 UK map, a couple of full backups of your Pocket PC (I recommend Sprite's Pocket Backup Plus) and enough space left over for some e-Books, MP3s or other similar data. However, it's a personal choice.

David

Garry Platt · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

DavidW - Thanks for this posting, very informative. If I buy a Lexar 128MB SD Card does it come formatted as FAT16 with 4KB? I'm thinking of getting one if it speeds things up?
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Garry Platt

MrMrM · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

This is getting a bigger problem as packages are being sold with the 3970 128 SD card and TT2

My friend bought his pakage and it was unusable, my old 3600 with a flash card was just fine. We fitted the flash card jacket to the 3970 and it too ws fine. He now has a flash jacket and card of his own !!

The shop never bothered to return calls and they are still selling the same kit !! Flash memory may help anyone with this problem if they don't want to change SD cards and or rom versions.
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MrM

DavidW · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I suspect, from getting involved in the discussion over on the Dell forums and microsoft.public.pocketpc about the SD card problems that particularly Axim X5 owners are having, that the controller chip in the SD card is crucial to performance and compatibility of a card.

It looks as if SD problems stretch right across to Palm OS devices. I suspect it's a case of certain device's SD hardware and drivers interacting badly with certain cards.

Sandisk and Lexar cards can have different controllers in them. Lexar can apparently be either Sandisk or Panasonic (the latter are preferable, it seems, particularly for Axim use, and seem to be most likely in cards with a Lexar part number ending -266). Obviously this means that it's possible to get two cards of the same capacity from the same manufacturer that are quite different in performance on your device(s).

It seems the outright best performing and most reliable SD cards may be those from SimpleTech (such as sold by Clove - note you can get them in the Bonzai USB reader for only a few pounds more than just the SD card).

As I said, my Lexar SD256-266 256MB SD card works fine with TomTom Navigator 2 2.05 when formatted FAT16 with 4KB clusters using 2.10 ROM on the 3970. The same card doesn't, however, work properly in my Dane-Elec 4 in 1 PC Card reader in either a Windows 2000 Professional SP3 laptop, or in my iPAQ's PC Card Expansion Pack Plus.

At the moment, I don't desperately want to downgrade my iPAQ to 2.00 ROM - there's so much other stuff on my Pocket PC that would have to be set up again if I did that.

As I'm likely to be changing to a new desktop PC within the next couple of months and will probably eventually upgrade to Pocket PC 2003 (which is rumoured to be coming soon - even as early as later this week) if an upgrade is possible on the 3970, I'll hold off doing anything for now and wait until a natural opportunity comes along to reinstall everything.

I suppose curiosity may overtake me and I could downgrade the iPAQ just to try things with 2.00 ROM - with a full backup on 2.10 ROM on a spare SD card ready to restore so that I don't have to reinstall everything at this stage.

I do expect a new ROM for the 3970 eventually. HP are, I'm sure, aware of the problems many are having with the SD drivers in the x.1 ROMs for the 3900 series, though I'm not aware they've said anything publicly about this. Hopefully there will eventually be an upgrade available that solves the problems many are having with the 2.10 ROM.

Meanwhile, SD compatibility does seem to be an issue. It looks as if the SD Card Association is taking some interest in the various interoperability issues judging from the long thread in the Dell forums.

At least us 3970 users just suffer from slow speed in certain configurations. The Axim X5 users are getting a lot of corruption requiring reformat if they have a card the Axim doesn't like. That's not that great when you're a long way from home and need help to get there!

David

GFawkes · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I had the same tedious slowness on my IPAQ 3970.

I also have all the GB Maps installed on a 128mb SD card.

I first tried formatting to 32k clusters and FAT32, which made a small improvement.

However, downgrading the ROM from 2.10 to 2.00 (Leaving the SD card formatted to Fat32, 32k clusters) made a huge difference. The searches are no longer painfully slow, and the Map refreshes are much faster.

DavidW · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I don't find 32KB clusters are needed - I have my Lexar 256MB card formatted FAT16 with 4KB clusters and it performs acceptably in my iPAQ 3970 with ROM 2.10 (no sign of needing to downgrade to 2.00 to get TomTom Navigator 2.05 to work - the city and street lookup is slow, but I think that's true for everyone).

If I format the card with FAT32 and 512 byte clusters, it crawls!

32KB clusters would lead to an unacceptable amount of slack space in my setup. I always use a backup FAT.

One tool to format SD cards in a Pocket PC (and the only one to my knowledge that offers defragmentation) is StorageTools. You can download it and, if you choose, purchase a registration code here.

David

liveclive · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

How do your format it and defrag it
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Clive

clem · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

have you tried formatting the SD card using FAT32 with 32kb chunks? Then makes sure it's defragged. It improved performance for me with a 3970.

liveclive · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: TOMTOM Nav 2 on go slow

I installed the software on the default directory which is Program Files/Navigator the maps are on the SD card.

The green light comes on the GPS device so does that mean that is working?

Does anyone know what the default setting for the cable is?

I do have TomToms city maps on the device and I wonder if that could cause a promblem. Still no response from TOMTOM.

When I launch Navigator the satellite icon appears on the bottom of the screen but does this means it trying to connect to the GPS unit? and if so how do I stop it. I have checked that the tick is taken of the GPS icon in programes but its still locks up
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Clive

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