TomTom 930 battery life woes

[NickG]

Hi,
Pretty much since I've got it, I've been having problems with the sound and/or battery life on my TomTom 930.

First of all it started off as a sound problem. If I was on a computer generated voice, then the sound would stop playing if the battery was below about 40%. All you'd hear is a faint click when it would normally 'talk'. TomTom released a "fix" for this problem, but in actual fact, it seems all they did was to turn the TomTom OFF prematurely, at the point that this problem would start happening. So now my 2 hours battery life is down to only about 1 hour if I'm lucky. They're refusing to acknowledge that this is not an acceptable solution or replace/repair my device. They simply say that I should always use the device on a power cable at all times. A different TomTom employee told me that there was a design flaw and the battery in the device cannot supply enough current to power the device when the battery capacity drops below half and it's trying to play the computer voice sounds. The software fix simply stops you using the device in the bottom 50% of the battery life - instantly halving the battery life. Evil!

I wonder if I have grounds for an exhange on "not performing as advertised" or "not fit for purpose" when it actually works OK on the power cable?

Does anyone else have the same problem? How do you find the battery life on the 930 with the latest software installed if you're using the computer voice?

Thanks,
Nick

[mikealder]

Nick, the device is supplied with a car charger and the instructions for use show it plugged in so if you are looking at getting it exchanged because you don't want to follow these instructions then I doubt you will have any case worth answering.

At the end of the day if you don't want to use a power cable with a GPS device running in your car swap it for a paper road atlas, ALL units need power from the car to work correctly.

Each time you test the battery life for duration you will get different results due to the different routes, amount of instructions etc and even temperature will have a bearing upon duration, if it manages over 90 minutes I would say you have a good device - Mike

[NickG]

On TomTom's website is clearly states:

"Battery lithium-polymer (up to 5 hours operation)"

As I never do 5 hour journeys, I took that to mean I would never have to use the device with a power cable and I think that's a pretty fair assumption bearing in mind the statement above. Contrary to what you say, the instructions do not say that you HAVE to use it with a power cord and they also mention the device can be used on battery power. As you said yourself, it's a "charger" and not a power supply. If it doesn't need charging, you shouldn't have to use it.

Fundamentally, the device is achieving nowhere near the claimed "up to 5 hours" battery life and TomTom have admitted the fault! All I was trying to find out is how common this problem is and if anyone's had any luck getting their device fixed/exchanged.

[Darren]

Although these devices will operate on battery, they are intended to be powered for normal usage and many TomTom's have had issues such as distorted sound etc when operating on battery as you describe.

I'm not sure where you stand as regards this issue but I'd agree with Mike that they are intended to be powered from the vehicle in normal usage. Can I ask why you don't? Is it a physical issue or just a preference not to have your car littered with wires?
_________________
Darren Griffin

[NickG]

It's mainly because I my old TomTom 910 would run perfectly for 3-4 hours (also with a computer voice) that this is what I'm used to. When I "upgraded" to the 930 I assumed it would be no different, or even better. The position of my power socket means the tomtom power lead is in the way of the gear lever and I find this really irritating and a distracting annoyance. I didn't have any issues with the 910 for many years (until it was stolen) and I never used it on mains power.

I guess if the battery installed really doesn't work, I'm going to have to come up with some kind of hard-wire solution or an alternate socket somewhere it's not in the way.

I also don't like wires (hence my discussions with you about hard-wiring the RoadHawk on another thread) I've found out there's a retrofittable sat-nav tray for my car, with power available below the dash, so I might go down that route. Not very confident about cutting up my dash board on a brand new (leased) car though!

[Darren]

[NickG]

The stupid thing is, the 910 battery is hardly any bigger (by volume) than the 930 battery. There's absolutely no reason why it should be so much worse. Also other manufacturers seem to have GPSs with 4 hour battery life - so why can't TomTom manage it anymore? A PDA can run for 3-4 hours running TomTom and the batteries are half the size of the one in a TomTom 910.

[NickG]

Also, as TomTom have admitted a problem with the device, they should fix it by fitting a beefier battery (which was done on later 930's apparently), or swap mine out for one of the later models. It seems stupid I've got to put up with a device which physically just switches off as soon as it notices it's own sound isn't working anymore. If I switch to a non-computer voice, I can get 3 hours battery life out of it, but half the reason I paid extra to get the 930 was for computer voices which I find very useful. If other 930s work, then I don't see why mine can't be made to work through repair or replacement.

[mikealder]

The battery life is far lower than the silly claim of 5 hours, how that was achieved is beyond me!
I have recently changed the battery in my 720 and a mates 530 which has significantly improved matters, my 720 was down to around 15 minutes when not connected to a power source! I have seen plenty of others with battery duration issues, and I would agree once its below an hour its not much use.
Big problem is changing the battery due to the stupid design, it is possible with care, I am not even too sure TomTom change batteries on the x20/ x30 devices if they are still under warranty its probably easier just to issue a new device - As for a larger capacity cell there simply isn't room within the case - Mike

[technik]

[Andy_P]

Every time this comes up, there are several posts saying something along the lines of "the device is intended to ALWAYS be used with it's car charger".

I'm not sure why you stick up for TomTom when this patently WASN'T their intention - why else is there a setting to calculate a walking route?
I suppose they will have to use their usual solution when they can't get a feature to work properly (eg the FM transmitter or mp3 player) and just drop it from the next model!

[M8TJT]

[MrT]

[mikealder]

Recently when something has been known to be problematic such as mp3 and FM Tx they are simply dropped/ removed from the next new model range.
I think this is what Andy is refering to, if they could drop the battery they would do! at least on the x40/ x50 the damn thing isn't super glued to the PCB so they have learnt something:



- Mike
Edit once to add the picture which I had lost on the computer!

[M8TJT]

Did you both miss my ' '

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