Anyone got a TomTom Start 25?

My TomTom One is finally playing up after 8 years - suppose I can't complain! A friend bought a Start 25 and was really pleased with it, just under £100 and with lifetime maps. So I bought one. Fool. I used it to get me from North Wales to Somerset and Dorset and back via a couple of places in each direction. I used it last week to go to Scarborough. I'm not happy. It keeps losing the satellites and can three or four minutes to find one. This is not funny when you're just approaching a huge junction and have no idea which way to go or when you're trolling down a country road.

When I mentioned this problem to my friend, he said his did the same but he thought they all did that (poor lad, he had a Binatone before which was pitiful so I suppose this is a step up!). I did wonder if mine was faulty until I found this out. I really don't trust it any more.

I'm not a happy bunny, my old TomTom never lost the satellite in 8 years (oh, it did have a hiccup once when there was a critical update required, but that fixed it) and I'm really upset that I seem to have wasted my money on something that I don't feel is fit for purpose, i.e. to get me from A to B. 

Has anyone else got the Start 25 and have the same problems and is there an answer? I'm doing all the updates as I get the notifications.

Nora

I have a Start 25, never had a problem until I went touring Norfolk, put code in and did a demo  run, half way there it went back to my house, it was the last half that was more important to me, so I went off without using it, used the maps. haven`t tried it since I have been back home, only had mine less than five years, don`t know how long they are meant to last, does anyone ?

In theory, the only thing that should wear out is the battery - but generally this is obvious when it happens, as the run-time away from power drops off. These can be replaced reasonably easily if you seek out the various tutorials on the internet.

However, they (almost) all use a type of aerial known as a patch antenna, and these can partially fail, leading to degraded reception - taking much longer to acquire enough satellites, and losing contact with them under heavy cloud/rain, thick tree cover, etc.

Unfortunately if yours goes bad outside warranty there's not a lot you can do - AFAIK none of the satnav manufacturers supply spare parts, so it's probably just fit for recycling. I have cannibalised two bad ones to make one good one in the past, but TBH it's really fiddly work and probably not worth the aggravation compared to the cost of a new one...

After I wrote the first post, I thought I'd look on Amazon at the reviews. There are a lot of happy people but also a lot of people who have only given the Start 25 one star, mostly because of the loss of satellite signal. I bought it on the 10th April but didn't actually use it until the beginning of June. Think I might write to the seller and have a moan, it's only three months after all.

Nora

Hi , I have a Tomtom start 25.Had it for almost 3 years. Maps are out of date but it still works.
I bought a new one by mistake from Tesco. It was no better than my old one and needed a 1and half hour down load to get started.You have to use a pc (microsoft) for this.
I took it back and had a refund. My battery is weak  and it has some nasty tendencies to go to Motorways when i dont want to.Also finds turnings that are not built yet.
I have a Garmin bought 2 weeks age .This is good but not perfect. Using both as they have different functions.
Garmin was only 90 pound from Comet.
I use maps as well.
For these prices not to bad.


regards


Mike

Got a Start 25 two months ago, been to France, Belgium and toured England with it without any problems at all.

My cousin has come to stay for a few days and she's had a Start 25 since before Christmas. Apparently she had the same problems as I've had and took it back to Halfords. They told her she was using the wrong charger. She had two with hers, one "normal" one with a cable, which was the one she was using, and one larger one more like an adaptor with a cigar lighter socket in it and two USB sockets on the side. That's apparently called a high speed charger. She says that, since she's been using that, the TomTom has been fine. They're £20-odd on the TomTom web site which is quite a layout if it's just coincidence and doesn't cure all ills though.

Nora

Hi Nora,
Would she not kindly lend you hers for a little while to test? OR if it says what the output is, you could probably get an equivalent one from Ebay or somewhere? Here http://tiny.cc/af3nix for instance or this one http://tiny.cc/xxboix ?  

Frank
Edit: output is  5V 2.1A

Traficlady wrote:My cousin has come to stay for a few days and she's had a Start 25 since before Christmas. Apparently she had the same problems as I've had and took it back to Halfords. They told her she was using the wrong charger. She had two with hers, one "normal" one with a cable, which was the one she was using, and one larger one more like an adaptor with a cigar lighter socket in it and two USB sockets on the side. That's apparently called a high speed charger. She says that, since she's been using that, the TomTom has been fine. They're £20-odd on the TomTom web site which is quite a layout if it's just coincidence and doesn't cure all ills though.

Nora

I bought a car / vehicle  in charger from a BP station two weeks ago, other garages are available ,   it goes in the cigar lighter, but has 6 different fittings suitable,on the one plug, so can charge multiple items, it is  for Sat Navs, phones, cameras ,mp3 players etc I hadn`t got one for my phone so bought this. £4.99 it will do your Start 25, as I have one of those, a far cheaper option.       

Margaret

Traficlady wrote:My cousin has come to stay for a few days and she's had a Start 25 since before Christmas. Apparently she had the same problems as I've had and took it back to Halfords. They told her she was using the wrong charger. She had two with hers, one "normal" one with a cable, which was the one she was using, and one larger one more like an adaptor with a cigar lighter socket in it and two USB sockets on the side. That's apparently called a high speed charger. She says that, since she's been using that, the TomTom has been fine. They're £20-odd on the TomTom web site which is quite a layout if it's just coincidence and doesn't cure all ills though.

Nora

 When I bought the Start 25 it came with two chargers. One normal item which was just the usual 12 volt cigar lighter to USB device and another, which was cigar lighter to two USB connections, one of which is rated as "Fast Charge". I have never felt the need for a Fast Charge device, but the salesman said it was intended to quickly boost the Tom Tom if I wanted to use it as a hand-held device when going out walking.

Question is, should Traficlady's device have come with the two chargers? (did it come with the two chargers and does the high power device make a difference?)

Mine only came with the one.

Hi ,both the Tomtom start 25  that i used had only one charger.
Dont think the battery fast charger is needed. Mine works for some time without a charge.
The dropping out of sat signals is most likely,if it is not  fixed to the windscreen.

regards

Mike

I've already got an adaptor with multiple sockets because I use a dash cam (when I remember to set it up!), an iPod and the TomTom.

Frank, I'm using my cousin's charger this week as an experiment, even if I know where I'm going, as we go out. Unfortunately it's one of those random things and the TomTom could be fine for 100 miles then suddenly fail.

Mine only came with one cable, with micro plug on one end and USB plug on the other, and the cigar lighter plug with a USB socket in it. It seems the deals vary from store to store. This is the one my cousin has, which is the one I didn't get.

Interesting point about it not being on the windscreen. Maybe I'll try that. It is in the car but not in the van.

I've emailed the people I bought mine from on Amazon but haven't heard back yet. Don't actually think I will as it seems to be a fairly common problem so mine's probably as good as any of them.

Nora

hi,
I always used to have garmin (2720) then my boss bought me a small tom tom about 8 years ago, think it was a "one". I mounted this permanently on the dash of my Peugeot 206 van, next to the radio well away from the windscreen and it worked fine in Birmingham and in the wilds. My next tom tom had a 4 inch screen lane guidance etc. but kept losing its marbles and was returned and replaced with an equivalent garmin. The only problem with garmin is the cost of map updates,
Chris

I have mine on one of those doughnuts  shape SatNav mats it is brilliant never moves and easy to lift off when parked up to remove Sat Nav.

Hi, I still think if it is charged than the next problem is to make sure it can see the available satellites.
My old Garmin  gps12  (1997 model) needed 4 to be accurate.I still have it. 
Well forward on the slopping windscreen low down is my recommendation.
regards

Mike

I've been using my cousin's fast charger for the last few days. With my own charger a message kept flashing up on the screen on the TT saying "charging battery". With the fast charger, it comes up once when I first turn it on. It's behaved impecably! I think maybe it's going to be worth a small outlay to buy one of these, but I'll make sure it's a proper TomTom one and not a compatible.

Nora

Yes Nora.You may have a faulty charger from your results.
regards

Mike

I hope it's that simple Mike.

Nora

This one seems to be the cheapest genuine one on Ebay.

Frank

Thanks Frank , i need a double ,way things are going maybe a triple adaptor!

Mike

Traficlady wrote:I hope it's that simple Mike.

Nora

Well they went to the moon with less than this.    

Mike

They were only £13-something in Currys so I bought one there. At least I've got it and I know it's genuine.

I did have a chat with a very helpful man in Maplin who said it may not help that I have a sat nav, iPod and dash cam all plugged into one adaptor in one cigar socket and all drawing power.

Nora