All Frozen Up - Help Please.....

fatchef · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 19

Hi All
Been following Satmap progress on these forums for a few months now - decided it was time to buy and now the owner of a unit purchased on Fri at the Outdoors show. Been having a little look fri/sat and now back home time to have a proper play and check it out! Very Happy

ITS FROZE

Just stopped working, off button doesn't even work! Took batteries out (just the ones it comes with), left for a few hours, turned back on - comes on ok but then just freezes up....

Any ideas please.....?

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:53 pm Post subject:

Remove the batteries for one minute and any map card you might have inserted to the device, but the cells back in and switch it on, how far does it get when booting up, if it starts up this time try inserting the map card with the device switched on and does it detect the card etc - Mike

fatchef · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 19

AshTwoPointZero · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 4

Hi Fatchef,

I am having exactly the same problem this morning. I bought mine yesterday at the Outdoor show in Birmingham.

Here is what I have managed to work out so far...

If I start it up and do not press any buttons it happily gets a lock, but as soon as I hit the "Page" Button or "Lock to GPS" button the unit freezes. Only taking the batteries out will un-freeze it.

The same thing happens with or without an SD Card.

If I insert an SD card AFTER I have started the Satmap, I get the "Map Packs" page. From there I can view the map in planning mode and get to all of my settings etc. However, as soon as I press the "Lock to GPS" button the unit freezes again.

I've tried clearing my Routes, Track, POI's etc and I've reset all of my settings to their defaults, but still no change. Whenever I hit "Lock to GPS" the unit freezes. Interestingly, when I scroll the map in Planning mode, I can see my current GPS location as a Blue dot.

I'll let you know if I learn more, but at the moment I think it's a call to their support people tomorrow morning.

fatchef · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 19

Oh Dear - it's not looking good is it Sad

You've got further than me though - I CAN'T ACCESS anything, just totally frozen!

This happened hours ago - i went out for a coffee to chill out before i launched it across the room - so i'm guessing no more time is goona heal it. I'm not far from their HQ so might take a trip over there tomorrow, they seem a friendly bunch....

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject:

I doubt very much that this will cure the fault(s) but have either of you tried a fresh set of batteries in the unit since this started happening? - otherwise I am afraid its a call to SatMaps Customer support in the morning - Mike

AshTwoPointZero · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 4

Hi Mike,

I'd been trying it with a set of Energizer Lithiums that had been used for about 3 hours, and a new Li-Po that had been on charge all night. Both of which had still frozen the unit when "Lock to GPS" was pressed.

However, I've just plugged the unit into the mains to recharge the Li-Po and would you believe it? The problem seems to have gone away! It's now working perfectly on mains.

Update: I've just put the old Lithiums back into the unit and it's still working ok. It seems that just plugging it into the mains for a few minutes has "fixed" the problem. Most odd, I can't make sense of it.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. Seems to have worked!

fatchef · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 19

AshTwoPointZero · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 4

I have to admit, it doesn't fill me with much confidence in the product. I also bought an SD map card yesterday, which luckily I checked when I got back to the car. The card was blank - it didn't have any maps on it at all. I went back to the show and they changed it without a problem, but it's still worrying.

mikealder · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:18 pm Post subject:

fatchef, Can you try with a new set of batteries fitted it doesn't have to be a rechargable pack - Mike

bryanwal · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 15, 2007 Posts: 26

this is strange,iv'e had my unit since launch day just updated to latest software.sat lock is much quicker less than 1 minute in my back yard ,where previously struggled to get lock.went out for walk unit froze at 1.4mile ,previously iv'e never had any probs with unit.i had to switch off and restart unit,it seems to have worked ok for the remainder of the walk

fatchef · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2008 Posts: 19

Just tried new set of batteries Mike - nothing! Sad

Just the same as it was before

Jason

Physicist · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:54 pm Post subject:

If these are not 'one off' faults on a few units it does raise the question as to whether Satmap really have got the problems sorted out. Who wants to buy a product (other than a few devotees) that requires you to go through all sorts of carry ons (remove card and battery, etc) to get it to fire up properly?

I couldn't help smiling when I read on their webpage that the new power management 'may improve the signal lock under difficult conditions such as tree canopies'. Such conditions are not difficult for recent Garmins and Magellans! And it is only a 'may' .... I can't see how reducing the power consumption can improve the reception. I think it will require a better aerial to turn the 'may' into a 'will'. I realise that there are some owners whose sets never lose lock outdoors (and whose batteries seem to go on for far longer than anyone else's) but I have not been so lucky with any of my three A10s.

Fraserp · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject:

When it locks up, is there not a reset button\ hole that you can click? That may give the device a kick?
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robs1972 · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:10 pm Post subject:

In the original manual the cause of freezing was put down to a power issue or corrupted data. Are all the connections under the battery cover all ok? Is it just when you press that button it freezes or just everytime that it is labelled Lock To GPS?
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