GPS Problem

[Marshall 357]

I bought a Tom Tom GPS it was working fine until last month. It keeps searching for a signal,I guess it cant find one because its not working. Anyone having this problem or is my GPS bad?

[VAdoublegunner]

Had 3 Garmin's being used yesterday on a Ches Bay seakayaking trip. All worked fine.

[rburg]

Call TomTom's customer service. See what they have to say. In the mean time, plug it in, with full access to the sky. Not inside your car unless its on the dash. Leave it sit for a few hours running and searching. Sometimes it takes longer than you'd think to find itself.

[Duster42]

I just bought a Garmin GPS two weeks ago.
Garmin uses U.S. satellites that are centered better over the United States.Several friends of mine have had their Garmins for a few years and have never had any problems.
Three different places told me to stay away from the Tom-Tom and Magellan GPS units as they use European satellites and lose the signal frequently.

[scooter123]

Originally Posted by rburg

Call TomTom's customer service. See what they have to say. In the mean time, plug it in, with full access to the sky. Not inside your car unless its on the dash. Leave it sit for a few hours running and searching. Sometimes it takes longer than you'd think to find itself.

What he said. In addition some GPS units have a feature that lets you input the approximate Lattitude and longitude with can greatly speed up the process. Nearly every GPS unit uses the last known position to drive the "lookup table" that tells it which sattelites to look for in the sky. When it doesn't have that information because it was powered down too long, it has to "poll" every satelite in the system and that takes time, sometimes a suprizingly long time. My Garmins usually take 15 to 20 minutes to execute a cold start and driving whilt it's searching can extend that time.

BTW, most GPS units now have an internal battery to store the last known position and waypoints and this battery is recharged when it's hooked up to a power source. If you are constantly unplugging your GPS, doing this can cause some units to lose charge in that internal battery because that recharging cycle is many times done when it's idle (ie. when you turn it off). It's also possible that the internal battery in your Tom tom has failed. In any case, if you had any routes or waypoints stored, check to see if they are still in memory, if not, you have another bit of information for when you contact the manufacturer.

Finally, one other tip. Turn the radio OFF when starting your GPS. I have an older Garmin that will actually warn of interference signals and I discovered that the radio on our company truck would interfere with the GPS when tuned to a couple of specific frequencies. When that happens, I just change stations. However, I doubt that your Tom Tom has these older features, they have probably been dropped in an effort to make the newer consumer models "idiot proof".

[LESMITH]

I have a TomTom XL340S and used it yesterday without any problems.

[Joni_Lynn]

Originally Posted by rburg

Sometimes it takes longer than you'd think to find itself.

So in other words you're saying it's like a teenager? Or would that be more like a hippee?

[rchance]

Why do you need a GPS anyway? Did you forget where the grocery store is?

[TOM BECKWITH]

Just back from a PWC run from Pittsburg to Louisville. ( mostly drive the chase truck these days). The Garmin GPS was super in finding ramps, motels, and eating places. Thinking about one for the wife for yard sales, etc. Suggest a 4" screen and one that talks. Often Sams, Best Buy, etc will beat the internet prices - any one suggest other sites for info/compare info????

[m1gunner]

Originally Posted by TOM BECKWITH

Just back from a PWC run from Pittsburg to Louisville. ( mostly drive the chase truck these days). The Garmin GPS was super in finding ramps, motels, and eating places. Thinking about one for the wife for yard sales, etc. Suggest a 4" screen and one that talks. Often Sams, Best Buy, etc will beat the internet prices - any one suggest other sites for info/compare info????

If you have a GM vehicle with On-Star, you can interface the GPS unit in the onstar with a laptop and have the neatest onboard nav system around.

[sigp220.45]

I have two Tom-Toms and a Garmin, and all are working fine. If anything, the Tom-Toms lock on quicker than the older Garmin does.

I still keep an atlas in the car, but I haven't had to resort to it since getting the GPS.

[MK]

Originally Posted by Duster42

I just bought a Garmin GPS two weeks ago.

Three different places told me to stay away from the Tom-Tom and Magellan GPS units as they use European satellites and lose the signal frequently.

Dunno, I use an older Magellan Meridian handheld, and mine uses overhead birds
if they are there. There is a nav screen that shows where in the sky they are.
I don't think mine uses many EU birds unless it locks onto one low on the horizon.
One thing I've noticed is that I seem to see more overhead birds and better
accuracy in the day, vs at night. It works fine at any time of course, but if
I look at the sat screen, I usually seem to see the highest number of high
overhead birds in the day. Dunno if that's by design or just a fluke..
Naturally the accuracy seems the best when I see lots of overhead birds
when I'm doing something like measuring a distance or whatever.
I don't think my Meridian has ever lost usability due to losing signal from
the birds. Even when in a car or truck with a roof over my head.
Once it's booted up and running, it's good to go. I've never lost it once
it is up and going.
Tree cover seems to have little if any effect at all. Mine varies time to
startup just depending on how "cold" it is.. But I don't think it's ever much
longer than say 5 minutes or so most times. It is slower if you are in a bad
spot, but it's never failed to start eventually no matter where I was.
If it's still fairly "warm", it's pretty fast.