Help Route planning speeds

[Trigrem]

I have a HP3950 TomTom Navigator 2.24 loaded in main memory and GB map loaded on SD card.

Selecting a destination up to approx 50 miles away the route is calculated pretty quicly. If I chose a destination say 140 miles away navigator Veiw from a known GPS position the calculation starts off fast until the last 50 miles and then slows andmore often than not freezes.If I use rout planning between th same destinations the same thing happens until the last 50 miles and then takes anything up to 1 to 1.5 hours to finish, but it does not freeze. Is this normal and if not can anyone help a beginner to sort it out.

Doug
_________________
Slow Learner

[catken96]

I'm not familiar with the HP3950, but that length of calculation is not normal, or desirable. To prove a point I've just entered a route from West London to Everton Rd. Liverpool, 208.3 miles calculated in 19 seconds. Make sure you have no other Programs running-- Tap "Start","Settings","System","Memory", "Running Programs", and "Stop" everything exceptTomTomNav/GPS. This will ensure there is enough memory available for the number-crunching. This is just a starting-point. I'm sure there will be more ideas forthcoming from 3950 owners.



Tom.   

[DavidW]

Doug,



Firstly, Tom's suggestions are completely valid - an alternative to stopping all programs is simply to soft reset (poke the reset button at the bottom of the iPAQ with your stylus) and then run TomTom Navigator.





For more hardware orientated comments, with particular relevance to the 3900 series iPAQs, see in particular my first post in this thread.



I suspect part of your problem is the slow SD memory drivers in the 1.11 (or possibly 1.10 - but if you have that version, upgrade to 1.11) ROM for the 3950.





On top of that it sounds like you have a particularly fragmented and/or slow SD card.



All but the most recent Sandisk cards (including all rebadges thereof) tend to be rather slow.







I'd start by defragmenting your SD card (if you haven't any way of doing that, wipe the card and start by reinstalling the maps). If that doesn't help, you may have to "upgrade" your iPAQ to the 1.00 ROM, which is a pain as you'll have to hard reset and reinstall everything (you can't restore a backup when changing ROM versions).





If you post any markings on your SD card (including details of size and brand) I might be able to give you an idea of whether it's likely to be a particularly slow card.







David

[Trigrem]

Thanks Tom & Dave. I stopped all programs except TT. Planned 2 routes Gatwick to Liverpool 250.2 miles time 4min 32 secs. Home to Keswick 214.3 miles time 11min 10 secs.

I then loked at Davids comments & the thread regarding memory drivers and SD cards.

I have Rom version 1.11, the UK maps are on 128mbSandisk AR 0304 China. I loaded a 256 mb Sandisk AR 0304 Taiwan having Germany on it, planned Dusseldorf to Passau 402.7 miles time 85 secs. Improvement!Then 256 mb Sandisk AR0304 LR Taiwan , with France, Cherbourg to Le-Mans 178 miles time 14mins 12 secs. Oh dear.

Then 256 mb Sandisk AR 0304 LR Taiwan. Route Aosta to Ortona 488.4 miles 45secs. Great then on the same SD card Brugge(Belgium)to Diekirch (luxemburg) 182 9 miles time 41 secs.

This suggests problems with particular SD cards. I am investigating the availability of suitable software to allow me to De-frag the cards also format the cards which was news to me. When I have the software is it best to format to Fat32 and large cluster sizes? Advice would be welcome it is all new to me and a steep learning curve. Thank goodness for the forums.



Doug
_________________
Slow Learner

[nicknick]

On the Dell forums there was a lot of comments about the poor Sandisk SD cards, and the general opinion after lots of posts and discussion was that the only good Sandisk cards were the ones from Japan. If not then it was pot luck whether you got a good one


_________________
Nick

[catken96]

Hi Doug,



Seems as though you're getting there. If you go to www.softwinter.com you can download StorageTools version 1.6, usually you get a free trial period, but you can buy it for under £10.     It's got Format, Scan, and Defrag.



I've got my 128Meg SD card set to FAT16, with 2Kb clusters. Works OK!.



I had recommended an earlier version elsewhere(which I had used OK)but it seems to have caused problems on some kit. This latest version is good value and very useful. By the way, Defragging a storage card can take a while, so if it seems locked-up, just let it run.



Tom.

[DavidW]

Doug,



I'd expect AR0304 Sandisk cards to be slow. The new, supposedly faster Sandisk cards that have a "technology code" beginning with N currently seem to be AR0307NS. Supposedly it's the first letter after the four digit date code that relates to the 'technology' in the card, though it might be your cards do not have those suffic letters.





The performance of your cards certainly stinks - though it's not just the card hardware conspiring here. The duff SD memory drivers in the 1.11 ROM on your 3950 won't help either - but those duff drivers don't hurt the performance of my 256MB Lexar SD card (which is one of the older ones that's Hitachi controller based - these typically perform far better than all but the most recent Sandisk cards).





The Dell Forums comment - there's no such thing, so far as I know, as a Japanese Sandisk card. The "Made in Japan" thing is to do with Lexar branded cards, not Sandisk (I've worked with some of the guys who've been looking into this - particularly Jon aka Happycheesecake).



Older Lexar "Made in Japan" cards are Hitachi controller cards. More recent Lexar cards are usually Sandisk cards with a Lexar label on them.







David

[Trigrem]

Tom & DavidW



Downloaded Storage Tools, thanks, defragged 128 mb UK card, no speed diff.,it was formatted FAT16 16mb clusters, changed to 2mb clusters, checked, no speed diff.Formatted FAT32 16mb clusters, I don't know how long it took, I went for lunch after 14 minutes.

Defragged the 256 mb card with French map, checked same route, time reduced from14min 10secs to 5 minute 15 secs, so some improvement.

It seems I have 2 good cards 2 iffy cards, a 50/50 chance of getting a good one is not a good deal.

Considering Davids comments about branding, and the difficulty of seeing the letter suffixes due to the packaging it raises the question of whether I have gone down the wrong road, I chose SD for the supposed speed advantages. Would I have been better choosing CF route?, are they any more reliable?

Any comments would be appreciated



Doug
_________________
Slow Learner

[catken96]

Hi Doug,



It looks as though your problems are down to the SD Cards then. Sandisk Cards seem to be very variable in their performance. The SD Cards I use are manufactured by Hagiwara Sys-Com, and (fingers crossed) so far so good. I don't have any experience of using CF Cards, so I'm afraid I can't advise on those. However I'm certain that you will get the answers here.



Tom.

[DavidW]

As has been reported in other threads (particularly in the Pocket PC 2002 support forum here), HP have now released new SD drivers for 3950/3955 ROM 1.11 and 3970/3975 ROM 2.10. These should help with the slow route planning.



That said, I suspect slow Sandisk SD cards are still slow - but these new drivers should remove one known deficiency from the setup.







David

[Trigrem]

Dave

Have ROM 1.11 installed during all tests, so I feel you are probably right about slow Sandisk SD cards. will try another brand and recheck speeds, after I have been away.

Doug
_________________
Slow Learner

[Trigrem]

Followed up on Daves posting of 17th May regarding updated drivers for SD cards, found new driver dated 4th Aug 2003. Downloaded and then checked planning speeds to same destinations as in previous postings.

Dusseldorf to Passau 35 secs, reduced from 85 secs,

Cherbourg to Le Mans 1min 45 secs, reduced from 5min 15 secs.

Aosta to ortuna 23 secs, reduced from 45 secs.

Brugge to Diekirch 34 secs, reduced from 41 secs.

And the last test which was on a 128 MB Sd card with GB on it 3mins 40 secs, which whilst not great is a vast improvement on11mins 10 secs.

It seems the new drivers are a worthwhile download, showing a great improvement on the two worst times. but still suggests there ia a great variation in Sandisk SD cards as suggested by Dave.
_________________
Slow Learner

[DavidW]

Well, those results are certainly better and a worthwhile improvement!





Reports indicate that there are now 128MB Sandisk cards with the N technology code about - and that they perform much better than the cards with older technology codes. They're not AR0307NS (that's been seen on 256MB cards) - but they perform similarly to the N 256MB cards.





It's up to you whether you want to try to get an RMA from Sandisk to exchange the cards. 128MB cards new are not expensive now - though if you buy Sandisk or another brand that could be rebadged Sandisk (Lexar, for example), you may have to wait a while to be fairly sure of getting one of the new N technology code cards as I suspect there's a tremendous number of old cards still out there. I don't know whether it's impossible to tell what's inside without opening the packaging as I'm not familiar enough with Sandisk packaging.



One way to distinguish with Sandisk cards is if you can buy one 'guaranteed' as compatible with a Dell Axim X5 - the Axims really detest the older cards.







David

[Trigrem]

DavidW

Thanks for all your help, I will check up on 128 mb cards bearing in mind your comments.At the moment I am off to France by motorhome so will be checking out how TomTom behaves over there.

Doug




_________________
Slow Learner

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!