Is my Tom Tom One faulty? (intermittent gps signal).

Boomer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2005 Posts: 18

I first noticed a problem with my ONE the day I brought it almost 2 weeks ago. The problem relates to the gps signal. I shall explain its behavior.

The first time I used my ONE, I placed in my car windscreen and switched it on. After about 20 minutes I was still receiving the gps signal not found. I thought the problem was car, so I stood outside the car, after about 5 minutes still no signal. I then drove to another area, (I live near country and chose a spot with no buildings, just fields), no signal, so held out of car window, still no signal. After 45 minutes I checked the GSP reception and not a signal satellite was found (not even grey satellites) I was about to return to Halfords and complain it was faulty, when suddenly it fired into live, and worked perfectly. I thought this was strange that the gsp’s would suddenly go from nothing to maybe 6 or more satellites.

In the meantime the unit worked fine, just trying locally etc. Anyway the first real test of the unit today, as I drive from Crewe to Peak District.

The unit worked perfectly for about 5 miles, then suddenly I lost all gsp and updating of the 3D display froze, however I could still use the buttons as normal (the unit has not froze just the updating of map). I checked the signal strength and it was ‘stuck’ on 4 bars. I drove like this for maybe another 5 miles, and at first I thought the unit was still working.

I pulled of the road – to where the unit was trying to take me (was on M6 and knew junction), turned unit off/on and no gsp signal. I stood outside car, and again nothing. So I kept driving (without any signal) to where I thought I was going. Got lost, then after about 30 minutes the unit fired back up.

The unit was working perfectly for about 10 minutes. I was on the M60 going past a speed camera, the unit called the camera out with in 5 yards, next moment (maybe 2-3 seconds) the 3D view froze (just like it did on M6). I was lost again with no signal.

I drove maybe another 30 minutes, then suddenly it fired back up, it’s signal going from 3-5 bars – it worked perfectly and I arrived at my destination. The 1:10min journey did take almost 2:30 hours!

Anyway coming home tonight, tried unit and no GSP signal. Now this is strange part, someone who was at this location had Tom Tom software his PDA, he tried to connect and received a signal in 20 seconds (using internal aerial both standing outside car). I had to drive 20 miles following someone home (it was a car meeting), I drove from Peak District to Buxton and all the time no satellites where found – not even the orange/black circle was spinning. Then after 20 minutes of driving like this did the unit receive signal and I suddenly counted 10 satellites. Why would the unit suddenly go from zero to 10 satellites?

So tonight the unit it working perfectly again. Has anyone experienced anything similar, and do you think my unit it faulty.

Sorry for long post, putting down exact events of what happened.

alix776 · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:06 am Post subject:

go to the gps screen with the one in the car window and see how blue bars there are then with the unit still plugged in move it so its clear of the car and see if there is a difference in how many blue bars you can see if there is you have a heat reflective windscreen
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currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

Boomer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2005 Posts: 18

I have a solor windscreen.

However the long periods of no GPS also happends standing outside the car with unit in hand.

alix776 · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

how long a period with it in your hand and had you had it on for a while or just turned i on
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

Spudson · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:16 pm Post subject:

Boomer,

Did you give the unit the time to orientate itself to your geographic location?

When you first use a GPS unit, it usually needs a little bit of time to workout where in the world it is - and it needs to remain perfectly still. Just imagine if you were trying to find where you were, on a ball that is 18,000 miles round??? I found it best to leave it on the garden furniture in my back garden for about 5-10 minutes.

Once it knows within a small sector where in the world it is, it then retains this information so that the next time it tries to plot it's position, it does it quicker.

So, once it knows where it is, the screen will change and you'll be able to navigate to where you want to go. Problem solving:

If the unit doesn't find a fix when you've left it stationery for a sustained period of time in an open location (ie it has a clear line of sight to the sky), you might want to think about asking for a refund.
On TomTom All-in-One devices, when you go to the "Status" section, it'll show whether it's receiving information from the satellite by showing grey bars. When it has locked on, the colour changes to blue.
So, if you find a fix, you're on your way. If, when you're on your way, you cannot get a fix in the car, it maybe because of the windscreen that is fitted (I think - athermic is the term). Go to the search section and type this term or even just windscreen in and you'll find answers to this issue.

Hope this helps & welcome to the world of GPS!!

Cheers

S

Boomer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2005 Posts: 18

Update on this.

The unit was faulty, and managed to swap the unit with another at Halfords. They were reluctant so told them the trading standards laws...

Anyway what was happening on my unit was 'Can't detect GPS Device' message. I have discovered that this is because the internal GPS Device was sometimes not working. 'GPS Signal not found' is then the GPS hardware is working, but no signal.

When I first got the unit, I waited 45 mins with the GPS Device message, as I was new to GPS I did not realise there was a problem. I switched my new Tom Tom ONE on for first time and the previous 45 min wait, was only 20 seconds on this device!

It also explains why when looking at satallites, the disk was not spinning, and not even grey satallies were showing (why search for sats when the internal GPS is reporting a fault!). It also explains why when driving the screen lock ups, and the sudden total loss of any GPS signal.

Also this new unit is pulling in signals stronger. Standing outside of car, I can see full blue bars for first time, moving the unit in front of solor car screen the bars drop between 20-30%.

So if anyone is getting the GPS Device not found message for long periods, along with strange behaviour, take your unit back cus it's probably fecked.

Jason

oszim · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 19

Good Post Boomer
I found your post very useful in trying to make sense of my similar experiences after owning unit for less than a week.
Initially mine seemed to work fine, but having once faltered, it now has started to fail to locate valid signal several times, whether in or out of the car. I've since completed several half hour + journeys displaying blue screen.
The only way I've managed so far to overcome problem, is to go outdoors turn off unit, eject SD card and reboot. I then get Tomtom drum roll the loading bar graph and then a valid signal is obtained. I have yet to try it in the car. So will give it further trials, but suspect unit or SD card is perhaps faulty.

Boomer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2005 Posts: 18

Oszim,

Are you getting the 'No valid GPS Device' message for long periods. If your getting this, you have a problem similar to mine. The No valid GPS Device message should only show for 2-3 seconds max when the unit it switched on.

oszim · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 19

Thanks Boomer
You were absolutely right, I eventulally followed your example, returned my unit explaining the problem and got it replaced without any fuss.
I did first, however, try unsuceesfully to resolve the issue, thinking that local conditions may have applied, but using TTone alongside my 5 yr old handheld Garmin Marine navigator, which worked fine, forced me to conclude my unit was not interpreting the signal data correctly, hence I got no blue bar graphs in ' GPS config mode', although the channel graph showed that several satellites were above the horizon.

Thanks again for going to the trouble of sharing your difficulties in such detail, that made me realise that I too had a similar problem. Whicn in my case was an intermittant functional error, sometimes working but increasingly got worse and led me to lose confidence in the unit.

Boomer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 26, 2005 Posts: 18

Oszim, only glad to have helped.

Boomer

227BHA · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 11

Could somebody tell me if mine is acting normally or faulty?

It never cuts out for great lengths of time like the previous posters but when I switch it on it can take anything from a few seconds to 2-3 minutes to locate a signal.

Once a signal has been found it holds it well with 3-4 bars most of the time but it can be annoying on the occasions when it takes a couple of minutes to locate a satellite - is this normal??

Darren · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:01 pm Post subject:

It is normal. There are many factors that can influence GPS reception. best advice is to wait for the fix before moving off.
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Darren Griffin

227BHA · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 11

Thanks - thats what I figured.

Just wanted reassurance, being a GPS virgin!

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