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Request for Freeper Help - Major GPS Screw-up
Vanity ^ | June 24, 2015 | goodn'mad

Posted on 06/23/2015 9:46:40 PM PDT by goodn'mad

Requesting help from Fellow Freepers. Major screw-up. Flew in from S. Korea and tried to update my TOMTOM GPS in order to help me find my way around the Sumter, SC area.

To make a long story short....I think I corrupted and/or deleted files actually embedded on the GPS. Now can't get it to do anything.

Does anyone have a link to software that can restore the GPS to factory settings? I'd be happy with that. Or, maybe a POC of someone who specializes in restoring GPS devices? Thought they would be plentiful but I guess not.

The GPS is a TOMTOM XL 310. Older model. Hardware is cherry and barely used. The software is totally hosed. Hate to throw it away. Or, is this the only option? I feel like a dunce. When it comes to computers and handheld devices, maybe I am. Thanks.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Travel
KEYWORDS: gps; help; tomtom
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To: Fungi

Yer cuttin’ me off??? It’s not even......some time of the night! Thirty.


21 posted on 06/23/2015 10:15:57 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Texas Eagle

I like that. Lots of “wise acres” out there. Tks.


22 posted on 06/23/2015 10:20:04 PM PDT by goodn'mad
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To: Texas Eagle

Ok, have another on me....................


23 posted on 06/23/2015 10:20:31 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: goodn'mad
Welcome. Looks like you got off lucky. Doesn't seem to be as many friendlies as usual.

Either that or some people are just losing their touch.

24 posted on 06/23/2015 10:28:03 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Fungi

25 posted on 06/23/2015 10:30:09 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: goodn'mad
"Flew in from S. Korea and tried to update my TOMTOM GPS"

Did you know about the geomagnetic storm? It was a G4 last night. Little less intense now but continuing.


26 posted on 06/24/2015 12:27:50 AM PDT by familyop ("Baxters over there, Rojos there, and me right in the middle" ("A Fistful of Dollars").)
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To: goodn'mad
When a GPS is moved a long distance while it is powered off, it needs to get the almanac from the satellites. The almanac download can takes about 12.5 minutes. This is called the time to first fix. The unit stores the almanac across power cycles so you normally see the unit come on "instantaneously" (on the order of 20 seconds).

So what you should do is put it powered on outside with the best "view" of the sky possible. For example, in your car in a parking lot with minimal trees and buildings around. Power on the unit and wait. You can select the satellite status display and see that the sats that are in use. See your manual, but the display looks something like:

If you try to do this inside or under trees the unit may never get the needed data and will not function.

Hope this helps. I've had this happen multiple times and you just have to be patient.

27 posted on 06/24/2015 2:29:03 AM PDT by Crazy Jim (There are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns. - Donald Rumsfeld)
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To: Crazy Jim

It may have a perfectly good almanac stored. (The almanac is a long term, low precision ephemeris.) When it powers up, it assumes it is near where it was last powered off. When I fly out of state, it can take a while before my TOM-TOM comes around. It that’s all that’s bugging it.


28 posted on 06/24/2015 3:14:30 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: goodn'mad

I thought modern people used GPS systems on their cell phones today? I had no idea that there were some actual people still using pure crap like Tom-Tom.

Back in the past I had a Tom-Tom system and operating it was very akin to working a 1972 IBM clone. When navigational systems came out on cell phones it totally obsolesced Tom-Tom and better yet....easy to use and much more accurate.

I don’t know how many times I almost crashed my truck while trying to adjust something on the Tom-Tom and worse yet, having to pay for map updates every time you turned around.

Throw that thing away, come into the modern world. As they say in the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”...”Come on in, the water’s fine!”


29 posted on 06/24/2015 3:28:49 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: DH

Correction: 1982 IBM Clone


30 posted on 06/24/2015 3:30:47 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: Vendome

Husband had bought a GPS thing a few years ago. We were somewhere down in Alabama; blindly following its directions. It had us going down an old road that quickly turned into a dirt cattle trail that turned into pure mud at one point. I can’t remember just how we got out of that one. Aliens I suppose; or maybe husband managed to turn the car around. - We did get to our destination; which was a place we had, ironically, been a few years before when it was under some other name. - I did manage to use the restroom before I busted; although it was not a terribly welcoming situation.


31 posted on 06/24/2015 5:13:11 AM PDT by Twinkie (John 3:16)
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To: DH

I bought a Magellan way back when it only gave lat/long coordinates. Now they practically give GPS’ away in Cracker Jack boxes. I also spent hundreds of dollars on a red LED watch in the 70’s which you could not see in daylight.

I am not getting an apple watch. Ever.


32 posted on 06/24/2015 5:14:41 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: Twinkie

;-)


33 posted on 06/24/2015 8:30:31 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: goodn'mad

Wow you went from South Korea to South Carolina using your GPS. You need to stop looking at the GPS screen and look around from time to time! : )


34 posted on 06/24/2015 12:36:26 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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