TomTom GO Failures - Was (TT Go gone phut)

IW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2004 Posts: 17

My TT Go was connected in the car yesterday when I noticed a smell of something getting a bit too hot. I disconnected the 12v. power cord and have subsequently found that the fuse had blown. Unfortunately there are now no signs of life from the Go unit at all.
I contacted my supplier, but because I had owned it for 5 weeks their policy is to return to manufacturer for repair and not replace the unit, which they would have done if I had owned it for 4 weeks. They wanted £8.75 + vat to return it to them and it would take 4-6 weeks for the repair.
I contacted Tom Tom help and after half a dozen attempts got a very helpful guy who has arranged for DHL to pick it up (free of charge) and return it to The Netherlands for investigation. I am going to Germany on 29th. Sept. and would dearly have loved to have taken it with me, but am preparing for the worst.
After a lot of struggling and thanks to this forum I was able to work out that my PNY SV card was useless and that I needed a Kingston SV card, "assembled in Taiwan" to download the Go Maps of Western Europe, which I did successfully. It now occurs to me that if the old unit is beyond repair and I get a new unit will I be able to load the maps into the new one because I have used my activation of them already on the old TT Go.

Dave · Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:59 am Post subject:

Strangely enough I have been getting a lot of comments from TTGO users saying that their units are also going south in a similar way. Mainly smoking and and a bad smell coming from the unit, and quite a few are finding that the unit just dies and won't switch on (no smoking or smell).

This is a bit of a concern, and there appear to be a good number of people experiencing this problem and you shouldn't really be seeing this on a £500 ish product.

I can say that the units we have here are still running fine without problem. There is always a risk of car alternators blowing the units if they spike too much power on a recharge of the car battery, but that's what the inline fuse is for, and I haven't heard of comparable units failing on say Navman, Garmin or Magellan.

This might be going towards a similar issue with the TomTom BT GPS where the charging circuit seemed to blow, and I'm wondering if there might be similar components in GO as with the BT GPS.

In failures like this it's always best to go direct to the manufacturer. You do have consumer rights protecting you and you can go through the retailer, but if you want it done quickly then going direct to the manufacturer will give you a better result. Most retailers do not buy from TomTom or the distributors so sometimes they are 3 or 4 companies down the chain, so they have to pass it up the chain to the company they purchase from, and this can lead to longer repair times. TomTom are pretty good when it comes to failed units, but you just have to fight your way through the support channels to get to it.

Zuke · Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:12 am Post subject:

Mr_S · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 15, 2004 Posts: 6

AlanH · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 42

If I understand consumer law correctly, if goods are not of "merchantable quality" when sold, then the retailer is obliged to either replace a faulty item or offer a refund. The consumer's contract is with the retailer and not the manufacturer, and therefore the onus is on the retailer to make good a faulty item. If an item proves to be faulty within 5 weeks of purchase, you're entitled to a refund or replacement - don't be fobbed off by their small print that wouldn't stand up in a court of law.

gypsy666 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 19

Guys , i got my new unit yesterday , woke fine until i mounted it on the supplied window mount , switched it on , and the screen was just fuzz....

This was definalty something to do with the mounting of it , i.e. just as it clipped in (take some doing that does , bit stiff)

Anyway , i did a hard re-set , memeory out , connected mains , left it on for ages , nothing , just fuzz but sound was ok....

Sat on the phone trying to get hold of tomtom , thinking , i dont want to send it back , only just got it.......

got frustrated , and gave it a slap on its bottom.........it came back on !!!

20 slaps later , and i cant get it to go off.......

so not going to worry about it for now , but here is a tip.....

always poer off the TTG before you mount it !!!!!!

Although they dont say anything about this , i'n sure mine had a bit of a dikky when some contact maybe didnt meet al at once etc.......

Not sure where the slap came in , but i know i never want it to happen again......

used it today , all good , shame it wont show pics of cameras when a route is not planned though.......but the sound it there , so i'm still cool !!

Cee_Jay · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 12, 2004 Posts: 14

AlanH · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 42

I've found that holding down the release button when mounting the unit to the base helps.

Mr_S · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 15, 2004 Posts: 6

Dave · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:47 am Post subject:

Personally I have never used the mains charger I only use the in-car charger and have never had a problem. That's not to say that the in-car charger is okay, as it would seem there are inherent issues here with people plugging in and they start to smoke.

The way I plug in is to have ignition off, switch GO on, connect power cable (no live DC power at that time), place GO on the mount. Sometimes GO switches itself off at this point. Switch back on and then start ignition (or put to point 1 to give power to accessory sockets).

This procedure has always worked good for me and not caused me any problems.

IW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2004 Posts: 17

Being bored and whilst my TT Go is away for repair, I thought I would check the outputs of the 12volt adapter and the mains adapter supplied, both of which claim 5 volt D.C. output.

I find the 12volt adapter to be 12.25 volts D.C., which I assume is my battery voltage, and the mains adapter 5.22 volts D.C. I know this is the open circuit voltage i.e. with nothing connected, but it does seem a bit strange. Can someone else check theirs to see if they get similar results?

Mr_S · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 15, 2004 Posts: 6

IW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2004 Posts: 17

Mr_S, thanks for your concern, I will not plug it in.

I have just received an email from TomTom to say that my unit is ready for collection by their courier and it quotes parts 4a00.001 + 4a00.003, which looking at their repair site and the part numbers it is TTGO Unit & TTGO Cigarette Lighter Cable, so hopefully they will have replaced both.

Zuke · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject:

Now here's

Old_Phil · Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 7:05 pm Post subject:

My car charger shows 5.18 volts no-load when connected to my big 13.8V regulated supply.

	PocketGPS
	Web