Where to start? - new 720 owner

[STEVESKI07]

Hi everyone. My 720 should be arriving in the mail today and I can't wait. I currently own a Magellan 4040 and its awful. The map zooms out to the entire city by itself for no reason in the middle of a route making it useless, it takes forever to recalculate, it recalculates in the middle of a route (when I stay on the road it tells me to). It's just awful.

Anyways, I've been doing some reading through the forums a little and I see things about upgrading maps, upgrading the software, and enabling the voice recognition through a hack. I really would like to have this feature, but I don't want to mess anything up. I'm going to want to completely set this thing up as soon as I receive it, so can somebody tell me where should I start? Should I install the software and download the newest maps and everything first or make a backup? How do I make a backup? How often should I make a backup? etc..

Thanks,
Steve

 

[dhn]

Hi everyone. My 720 should be arriving in the mail today and I can't wait. I currently own a Magellan 4040 and its awful. The map zooms out to the entire city by itself for no reason in the middle of a route making it useless, it takes forever to recalculate, it recalculates in the middle of a route (when I stay on the road it tells me to). It's just awful.

Anyways, I've been doing some reading through the forums a little and I see things about upgrading maps, upgrading the software, and enabling the voice recognition through a hack. I really would like to have this feature, but I don't want to mess anything up. I'm going to want to completely set this thing up as soon as I receive it, so can somebody tell me where should I start? Should I install the software and download the newest maps and everything first or make a backup? How do I make a backup? How often should I make a backup? etc..

Thanks,
Steve

Before you even start up TomTom home software, connect your unit to the computer and make a complete Explorer backup of the contents to a folder on your hard drive. Make sure you have Windows' folder option set to show hidden files and extensions. This will ensure you can restore from this backup if anything goes wrong. Do NOT skip this step.

Make sure your unit is charged a good 2-4 hours docked and connected to the computer before even thinking about installing the software. Once that is done, go ahead and install the software without the unit docked. Then dock the unit and accept any upgrades of maps, software offered.

You are entitled to the latest map which is 7.15 for North America. If it's offered, accept it and be prepared to wait HOURS for it to download. If not offered, once your TT Software is installed, use the menu option of Latest Map Guarantee and see whether it's offered that way. You have 30 days to get it.

(The way to tell what version of software is installed on your unit is to tap the satellite bars on the main screen once and it'll show. Tap the screen again and you'll see the map and version of it installed.)

If you have downloaded all the updates for software and maps, make 2 backups: one using TomTom home and another using Explorer but this Explorer backup should NOT overwrite the first Explorer backup you made; put it in another folder.

I would suggest you consider the purchase of a 2 or 4 (probably 4) gig sdhc memory card. If you've been reading threads here, you'll observe that maps and software are getting more bloated and pushing the limit of the unit's 2 gig internal. Plus, if you're like many here, you'll soon be browsing the net for locations of more custom poi's (points of interest) files, voices, etc.

........well, you asked.

 

[STEVESKI07]

Thank you very much, that is just what I was looking for.

 

[dhn]

Thank you very much, that is just what I was looking for.

You are welcome.

 

[Robm]

Good luck with it, and welcome to the forums