TomTom - Batteries and Storage Capacities

[Skier]

Morning All,

I currently have a TomTom One XL that I like as it allows me to use an SD card to run the Western Europe and USA/Canada maps side by side on one card without having to mess about with a computer to swap maps about. Does the capacity (usualy quoted at 4GB) of any of the current models e.g. TomTom Go Live 1000/1005 (or any other) allow you to load both these maps at the same time? This is a key requirement for me and given that:

1. I can't find information on the installed size of the maps applicable to these models
2. None of the current models seem to have an SD slot

this could be a show stopper for me.

Every TomTom (3 of them) I've ever owned has started out with a decent life when powered on battery alone but this very rapidly dropped of to just a few minutes meaning that in reality the device has to be constantly plugged in to the car's power supply. Additionally, when supposedly fully charged and left in the car for a few days the battery charge drops to zero such that before the unit will power up it must be plugged in. Many others I've spoken with have similar experiences; has TomTom resolved this in recent years?

Regards and thanks in advance.

Skier

[motco]

When the battery is totally cream crackered it won't even boot up, I find. Remove the battery altogether and run it on the car battery and it'll be fine. I bought a replacement battery from somewhere and it was worse than the original.

[John_W]

I'm now on my third battery for my TomTom One in a 5-year ownership. I don't know what they do to design them to destroy batteries. I have a cheapo Garmin which is four years old and is still on its first battery and still works for 2 hours without a charge.

I also have a TomTom One XL which I bought 10 months ago and its battery expired a couple of months ago (it has to be plugged in all the time). Its latest trick as of this weekend is that it refuses to pick up any satellite reception. It just says "poor satellite reception" and tells me I'm still at home, even after rebooting it. However I drove to Edinburgh and back this weekend and have the hotel bills to prove it.

Maybe it's time I gave up on TomTom.

John

[motco]

John_W said:

I'm now on my third battery for my TomTom One in a 5-year ownership. I don't know what they do to design them to destroy batteries. I have a cheapo Garmin which is four years old and is still on its first battery and still works for 2 hours without a charge.

I also have a TomTom One XL which I bought 10 months ago and its battery expired a couple of months ago (it has to be plugged in all the time). Its latest trick as of this weekend is that it refuses to pick up any satellite reception. It just says "poor satellite reception" and tells me I'm still at home, even after rebooting it. However I drove to Edinburgh and back this weekend and have the hotel bills to prove it.

Maybe it's time I gave up on TomTom.

John

Remove the battery as it's dead anyway, and it will boot up. The dead battery is stealing the current and preventing sufficient voltage for the device to work properly.

[John_W]

motco,
Thanks for your suggestion. I removed the battery and tried again. Alas, still no signal, but thanks for trying to help.
John

[motco]

John_W said:

motco,
Thanks for your suggestion. I removed the battery and tried again. Alas, still no signal, but thanks for trying to help.
John

Sorry to hear that John - it worked for me when I had a duff replacement battery that seemed to stop it receiving. Sounds as if it's a Norwegian Blue parrot...

[waremark]

Skier said:

Morning All,

I currently have a TomTom One XL that I like as it allows me to use an SD card to run the Western Europe and USA/Canada maps side by side on one card without having to mess about with a computer to swap maps about. Does the capacity (usualy quoted at 4GB) of any of the current models e.g. TomTom Go Live 1000/1005 (or any other) allow you to load both these maps at the same time? This is a key requirement for me and given that:

1. I can't find information on the installed size of the maps applicable to these models
2. None of the current models seem to have an SD slot

this could be a show stopper for me.

I have a Go 950 with 4GB internal memory. It came with full Europe and US. After the introduction of 'enriched mapping' full Europe and US no longer fits. I had to remove US to get full Europe. I have not been back to the US since, but if I do want the US mapping back I expect to be able to reload it - using the card slot which the X50 range had.

My 18 month old X50 still has reasonable battery life. My previous X20 is still in use with a replacement battery; the replacement's life was very rapidly down to a few minutes.

[Nords]

The 4Gb will take both maps, but Tomtom will make the maps 'richer' over time, with Europe taking 6Gb. Their solution will be to split Europe into N, S, W and E or maybe just two sections which will have to be downloaded to swap over...

[waremark]

Nords said:

The 4Gb will take both maps,

Not my experience, see above.

[eybic]

The main issues with the batteries is that even when switched off the unit apparently still uses power which is supposed to help with it finding satellites quicker when switched on.