Tomtom Go 700 battery replacement.

twyfordbridge · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 13, 2007 Posts: 1

Hiya,

My Tomtom Go 700 will be 3 yrs old in Nov.

In the last few months it has taken ages to boot up and only holds its charge for a very short time (not long enough to programme in a few destinations). It worked reasonably (on mains power) if left plugged in for 20 mins before trying to swith it on.
The internal Lithium rechargable battery was obviously exhausted.

Tomtom online help were no help to me at all, but then I found a website, http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk where I guy called Ed Chapman had found a replacement battery for the Go 700. Ed wrote a piece on their website saying how he successfully changed the battery.

I contacted the website and ordered the battery myself (£10.99 incl vat and postage). The battery Ref was LIR-18650-FT.

I opened up my Go 700 and realised I wouldnt be able to do the job myself (all the screws are Torx type) and I could not even find my way deep enough to even see the battery. My brother in law is a mobile phone repairer and is used to working on small components so I went over to him with the Tomtom and new battery to see if he could change it.

At first, it seemed as though the new replacement might be physically too large, but after about 20 mins he had removed enough internal parts (all connected by tiny push connectors) to get at the battery. fortunately is was exactly the same size, the only difference being that the original had long side leads for soldering, the replacement had short leads wich had to be extended by addaing some small guage wire. The whole thing was reassembled (quicker now as he knew his way around the bits) and the whole job was done in 35 mins.
So these batteries can be changed - I watched every stage of it with my fingers crossed! - I would not recommend that you have a go yourself, but if you have a friend who likes playing with electronics and has the right tools, ie Very small pointed pliers, torx drivers and a decent small tipped soldering iron, he shouldnt have a problem (good eyesight and nimble fingers help). The most difficult part was removing the small PCB from the internal metal chassis. You could see how it clipped into place, but it needed just enough force to get the clips open - too much would have broken them.
There was already enough power to just about turn it all on. We then put it on mains charge, had a couple of cups of tea and then checked it. It was almost fully charged. It worked great and picked up the satellite reception quicker than normal.
By the time I had driven home (20 miles) the in car charger had fully charged it and I have now had it on (off charge) for 3 hours and there is still power left int. I'm well pleased.

I have taken a photo of the Tomtoms original battery as removed (see below). It is made by Samsung but you will note that the last digits after the numbers are slightly different.

There must be thousands of Tomtoms with internal batteries out there which will be coming to the end of their life soon, why didnt Tomtom use an easier removable type with a slide off lid - perhaps they thought we were all stupid enough to throw it away and buy a new unit every few years!!!

Edit Once Mike Alder to add the photograph Richard wanted in the OP, and to remove the public e-mail address from the post

mishmash · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 25, 2006 Posts: 8

Hi All. I have managed to replace my Tom tom 700 battery today.I got the correct battery off ebay. No soldering needed as fitted with correct socket and same size battery. This one.
Inclueded were two torx screwdrivers to do the job, but save yourself hassle and frustration and send it to some where that changes them everyday. Here is one http://dropvault.com/ as the £25 I saved was not worth the agro. I can manage allmost anything but this requires babys fingers and a safe crackers steady hand. You have been warned.
Link edited for clarity - Oldboy

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