GO 950 Live keeps shutting down

[paulre]

My TomTom Go 950 Live has recently started shutting itself down, while driving and apparently connected to the power. It seemed that the battery was not charging. I suspected the lead connecting the windscreen dock to the cigarette lighter, but when I used a different USB connection to the car radio, it still keeps shutting down. The battery saving option was recently set to "Switch off when external power is lost". However, I have now turned this option off and reset the unit by holding down the power button for a few seconds. While driving, it still displays "Shutting down your TomTom Live in 10 seconds" every 2 or 3 minutes. However according to the battery icon (when the power is disconnected) the battery is nearly fully charged. Any ideas?

 

[dhn]

When you reset the unit, did you hear the drum sounds on the unit? Or does that model have a dedicated reset hole?

 

[paulre]

It makes the drum sound - no reset hole as far as I know.

 

[dhn]

You may want to check the ciggy outlet itself for sporadic power....

 

[Andy_P]

Are you using a proper TomTom charger and the original lead?

I ask because your situation sounds like what happens when you physically connect a unit to a computer and DON'T go into "connect to computer" mode.
#It does that in order to help charge the battery quicker when on the PC.

A car charger uses different passive resistances across the data lines in the USB cable so the unit knows not to switch off after a few minutes. Using the wrong sort of USB cable has been known to confuse it.

 

[paulre]

You are right - I had assumed that connecting to the USB port on the car radio was going to work as an alternative power source to the cig socket, but I tested the lead connected to my laptop and it seems that it will always shut down after a minute or two when it thinks it is connected to a computer. So now I suspect the original lead - will get a replacement and see if that fixes the issue. If not, I guess the next thing will be to try a replacement battery.
I believe the battery is OK though, because when charging on the dock the light does eventually go green and then the battery stays well charged for some time during use.

 

[paulre]

I confirmed that the problem must have been the original lead. Used a different USB lead, but this time connected to a USB adapter in the cig lighter socket. The unit now works fine as before, so the only variable eliminated was the lead. Thanks for the advice.
Its a pity that the USB socket on the car radio looks like a computer and there is no way to stop the unit shutting down when it believes it is connected to a computer and not a car power socket.

 

[dhn]

I think you are seeing another example of TomTom's "wisdom" in changing the functionality with the newest application which causes the unit to shut down within 2 minutes when connected to computer power and the unit senses no activity()

It used to be about 30 minutes on my 720 when it had the 8.351 app installed. With the 9.430 app on it, the 720 also automatically shuts down.

Very frustrating.........

 

[canderson]

Indeed -- especially when I have a unit plugged into my PC for testing or to work through a user problem when it's sitting here on my desk. Having to cancel the shutdown all the time makes me crazy.

 

[Andy_P]

Maybe a little project for the soldering iron?

A male-Female USB extension lead could be modded to open circuit the data pair coming from the PC, and to put the required resistance across the data pins onwards into the TomTom.

Can anyone remember whether it needs a dead short or some higher resistance in order to act like a car charger?

 

[canderson]

Seems to me an 'air gap' on both of the data leads ought to do it. Hard to say what TomTom is doing, though... there's no official spec for that end of the connection for 'detection'.

On the PC end, the device pulls one of the data lines high with a 1.5K, 'overwhelming' the 15K pull-down on the PC end, which indicates that something is connected.

Then again, TomTom ought to undo this 'feature enhancement', too.