Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

I am relatively new to pocket PC's and GPS and am now experiencing some problems which I would hope to resolve.

I have an iPAQ 3830 with an EMTAC GPS Jacket which has a 256MB CF card on board. The iPAQ has a 128MB SD card on board.

I am running TTNav2.02 as well as TTGPS2.02. The program file are stored in RAM and the GB map is on the CF card. There are no other programs stored in RAM.

The EMTAC aquires fixes quickly and seems to operate well.

The system calculates routes fron Navigator quite well, apart from glitches when The car is not parked on a specified road, or there is no firm fix due to prevailing conditions. Also the system re-routes well and the Avoid feature is OK.

I have had two irritating problems reocurring.

1. Whilst travelling with a good fix (say 6-7 sats), the screen will lock for no apparent reason. Exiting the application (possible without a soft reset) via a programmed button and restarting will give an instant sat fix and the system is back on track. However, very easy to miss a road turn-off.

2. The Safety Screen was working well at one point, but now just terminates the application when the set speed is reached. This only happens when speed-switched, not in Hide Map mode.

I have performed a hard reset and have reinstalled the programs (not the maps) but this seems to have no effect. As the iPAQ only has 32MB RAM, I try to allocate more program RAM than storeage. This sometimes 'slips' back to 50:50.

Any help or suggestion would be most welcome.

Thanks

_________________
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: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Have you tried soft resetting the iPAQ just before you go to use it and see if you get the problem then ? It sounds like it could be memory problems, especially if TTN2 is exiting without errors on it's own. Failing that it could be a bad Storage Card, running a check with something like Storage Tools might be an idea.

As the 3830 only has 32mb ram, it is possible it could be a ram problem, Navman SmartST Pro used to have this on the older 3630's. What tends to happen when the memory slider drops back to 50/50 is that there's not enough storage space available, the OS has realised this and auto-compensated, I've seen this happen alot on 32mb systems.

If it's a 32mb issue, then have a look at what directories you have in \program files, if there's any programs that are about 1mb or larger, you can invaribly move these to your storage card, and change the icon in windows\start\progams\{program} and point the shortcut to the new location. A lot of programs even though you ask them to install to a storage card, will still install to main memory which can be a pain. Also clearing files in \temp and if you do a lot of browsing the internet then go into Pocket Internet Explorer and delete the cache in there.

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Thanks for that Dave, I shall experiment.

As the i3830 was bought with GPS in mind, the general instalation is fairly clean with only TT programs in RAM. The free RAM with TT running is approx 4MB storeage and 15MB program. Also, no clutter from temp files etc.

The irony is, that the system seemed to behave pretty well from day one ie, TTN2, and I am wondering whether any of the upgrades could have had an effect. I shall possibly consider going back to the earlier version of the TT GPS driver. I shall however obtain some software to review the storeage cars as you suggest.

Thanks again.
_________________
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

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Dave

Further to my original posting and your suggetions, I have made sure that the system is as clean as possible and have used Storage Tools to reformat the CF card and keep the CF and SD cards defragged.

I am still sometimes experiencing problems which might be associated with route calculation and re-calculation after the system sometimes hangs. This may not be memory associated since I have seen similar recent problems described with users of EMTAC BTGPS on 39** iPAQs.

Also I have experienced fatal exception errors with the application closing.

Sometimes the system will recover and re-route i.e. assuming no fatal error, and I have noticed that the preference setting in Properties to show the route has changed to "Hidden" instead of "Dashed ine Foreground".

To rectify fatal errors it had been necessary to restore or re-install the program. However I have since discovered that the fatal error 'senario' is data-related

I have the whole GB map on a CF card and a London area on the SD card. I found that after a fatal error (I spend all of the in-car time on CF)I could load and operate the system using the SD based map, but if I switched maps to GB on the CF then the system would generate "fatal error" when I tried to load.

The key seems to be a configuration file NavigatorSettings.cfg which is present in the 'map directory'. This file holds the preference settings, and once deleted the system will load and new preferences (the file is regenerated) can be set.

Clearly, NavigatorSettings.cfg at times is being corrupted and causing a problem. This does seem to tie in with the 'self-change-preference settings'.

For what it is worth, it seems that the problems, and those of others may be linked to third party GPS receivers, although there also seems to have been a Compaq ROM issue on 3900+ systems.

As far as memory alloaction is concerned, I have been able to maintain a bias of approx 15MB of free program memory AFTER TT has loaded.

Your thoughts please.

Thanks
_________________
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: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

John, the lockups that people were having on the 39xx iPAQ's were down to the ROM bios being upgraded. If they downgrade to a previous ROM it seems to fix this. I think this was partly because people are using SD cards and there are known SD problems with the latest ROM's.

Regarding the maps, TBH I've never tried to install the full GB map to one storage card and a couple of maps to another storage card. I don't know for sure, but this might what is confusing the program and causing a fatal error as I have never heard of anyone else having this seutp before. The only other thing I can think of is that for some reason there are some older or mixed DLL's on your Pocket PC and TTN2 is expecting newer versions of these and they're not being overwritten. The only other thing at this stage I can suggest which is a bit dire would be to perform a hard reset and just install TTN2 and see if you still get the same problem. It will mean you'll lose any reg codes, programs installed and data though.

Have you tried just having say the country set GB loaded and no other maps on other storage cards ?

I don't think the GPS Receiver is really going to make any difference whatsoever because all the program is doing is receiving data and analysing it, it's not sending anything back, and it knows what format of data to expect.

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Dave, thanks for your very swift response.

The reason for the 'additional map' on the SD was for the convenience of having a map/routing facility without GPS and witout the EMTAC sleeve. TBH I cribbed the idea from another forum member.

I have already performed hard resets and TTN2-only installations. Not really so dire, since I use the system in the main for GPS. I do have Cruxview.exe which is in the Windows "Start Menu", could this cause a conflict?

I shall try running without the London Area map, will temporarily remove the SD card. Its certainly worth trying.

Thanks

_________________
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

JimC · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

[Dave said: QUOTE]

Regarding the maps, TBH I've never tried to install the full GB map to one storage card and a couple of maps to another storage card. I don't know for sure, but this might what is confusing the program and causing a fatal error

[/QUOTE]

I have a 5450 with the same Emtac sleeve as johnmar and have the whole of the UK installed to a CF card and the SE UK installed to a MMC card in the SD slot. I don't have any of the problems described.

_________________
Jim

kartracer · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Quote: Originally posted by johnmar on 07 May 2003

The reason for the 'additional map' on the SD was for the convenience of having a map/routing facility without GPS and witout the EMTAC sleeve.

As you have a 128mb SD card, you could put the whole of the GB maps onto it (this requires about 95mb) and just use the CF card for other country maps. I do this as I also like to be able to use the GB maps without the GPS sleeve sometimes.

_________________
Kam

nicknick · Regular Visitor Joined: 03/02/2003 17:18:53 Posts: 154

I've seen a lot of posts in other PPC forums regarding problems with memory cards from one manufacturer (Sandisk), which seem to produce similar problems (and not just for GPS programs) - and the 128M card is a particular issue (see here http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4031&perpage=15&pagenumber=1 for the view from an Axim Site)

Might be a common thread

NN

johnmar · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

Thanks guys for the various suggestions.

1. Dave, I really couldn't see why having a separate map on a different card would cause a problem. Logically it's only a different location for a separate directory. This seems to be in line with Jim and Kam's experiences.

However, I have now tried running with the complete GB on the CF and no other map on the SD and guess what, for the present at least, the system seems to be behaving itself. Thanks for the suggestion

.

2. I suspect that since this 'multi-location-map-storage' clearly can work for others without problem, my system i3830 has problems related to its restricted RAM. I have found that memory alocation adjustment seems to play a significant role in the smooth operation of TTN2.

3.NN, my CF is a 256MB KingMax, not a Sandisk.

Fingers crossed for now.

_________________
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: Tom Tom or Windows Problem??

From a theoretical software development point of view I can see why, but I do agree, there shouldn't be any issues.

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