My b2 is a mentalist!

mcanny · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 23, 2005 Posts: 7

Hello!

I've had an Origin b2 for around 18 months now and to begin with it was absolutely great, GPS lock by the time I'd reversed off the drive no matter what the cloud cover and held the lock really well.

12 months later things were still OK, the unit remained in it's usual location (hardwired in with the antenna on the dashboard) and worked as previously. Then I didn't drive the car for a month or so, came back and updated the b2 online and since then it's been really rubbish....

1. It won't get a GPS lock - it really struggles now despite all connections being solid and my other GPS device in the car getting one in seconds.

Sometimes pulling the b2 from the cradle and dropping it back in will give a quick burst of 4 or so satellites but it rarely locks onto these and drops out to zero a few seconds later. I've tried holding the unit down, tweeking the connections, cleaning everything and so on but nothing seems to work Sad

2. On the very rare times it does get a lock (once every few months) it sometimes 'freaks out' - you'll be driving along with the display showing current speed as normal and then suddenly it seems to lose the lock and goes back to the graph display. However within a fraction of a second it goes back to the speed, then to the graph, then to the speed, then the graph... you get the idea Smile

It flicks between them for 30 seconds or so and then sits searching for a lock again. When it's doing this it beeps each time so you get a beep beep beep beep beep rather than the usual delayed 'beep beep' with a pause...

3. On a warm day the unit won't power up. I generally remove the b2 from the car when I'm not there but in the recent warm weather it's been acting strangely. I'll get to the car (quite hot inside) and put the b2 in it's cradle only to find nothing happens - it will only power on after 10 minutes of ice cold air conditioning has reduced the temp.

It's been doing this for a couple of months now, I keep updating the database but it seems pointless as it never gets a lock, my car has hard suspension and I know that problems exist with the cradle failing to hold the unit properly but it's the same story even when I clamp it on Sad

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I might be able to do to prevent one or more of these issues? Origin don't seem to want to talk to me unfortunately.

(Luckily I also have an XDA IIi with TomTom 5 and the safety camera database so I do have some protection).

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

Have you contacted Origin? I may have heard somewhere, I'm not sure, that you can phone them to ask them to configure your account to reset your unit the next time you update. Maybe that would fix it. I noticed that the File Menu of the update software has an item 'Initialize Remote'. I don't know what that does, and it doesn't seem to be referred to in the manual.

mcanny · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 23, 2005 Posts: 7

Thanks for the reply, I've tried to get hold of Origin by email a couple of times but I haven't called them as yet - I suspect the chap I got mine from wasn't an authorised seller so they may want to ignore me Sad

I've just done a reset and updated it all again so we'll see what happens....

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

I got my Origin B2 from and Ebay supplier quite a bit more cheaply than the regular shop price, but I had no problem setting up an account for updating, and once telephoned their technical support for spare magnets, and had no problem talking to someone who was quite helpful, who sent me spare magnets for nothing.

mcanny · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 23, 2005 Posts: 7

Mine was sourced from eBay as well - I suspect it may well be a factory refurb but at the time I thought it was a new item Sad

I had some success on a long trip this weekend, the unit seemed keen to get a signal after a reset and update but needed me to push it down onto the cradle in order to work properly, it was still doing it's odd flashing on and off between the 'graph' and 'speedo' screens though - I can't seem to put this down to the lack of hold in the cradle.

I suspect it needs some kind of mod to hold it in place better, I still have standard magnets so that might be worth a go I guess - will try to call Origin to see if they are willing to help me out, Otherwise I'll have to construct something using elastic bands and blu-tac Smile

uk89camaro · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 04, 2005 Posts: 113

mcanny · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 23, 2005 Posts: 7

I spoke to a helpful chap at Origin today (finally remembered to call!) and he's sending me some magnets.

He also advised the remote reset followed by 2 updates to see if it helped with the weird issues I'm having....

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

Can anyone confirm that Origin now have stronger magnets that they will send out if you phone them about it?

mcanny · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 23, 2005 Posts: 7

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