NAL. Then I disconnected and reconnected again. This time Home prompted me immediately to enter my Activation code, which it had not done before. I did, and it appeared to be accepted. However there's no new indication that the attached device or my account is activated for Lifetime Maps.
- I checked Updates again, and it offered to download a new map update (the one I already updated to). If I say Continue, it then says there are no updates, presumably because my map is already up to date.
- I tried the Enter Activation Code function again, and it told me that my code is already used.
So I'm guessing that my unit is fully functional again, no thanks to TomTom Home, that the maps are currently up to date, and that it may or may not be activated for Lifetime Maps. The unit type on my account page is identified as just XL-S, although Support knows that my serial number is an XL 540TM.
Overall this is probably the worst out-of-the-box activation experience I've had with any device ever, so I'm not feeling very positive about TomTom so far. But my opinion will probably recover a little if it has been activated correctly with LifeTIme Maps and there are no further serious problems. Here's hoping!
Update: I couldn't find any way to check the LifeTime Maps status, so I contacted TomTom support by email. They confirmed within 24 hours that LifeTime Maps is activated on my account. The problem I had activating initially remains unexplained.
I also checked in more detail on the files and folders that went missing from the original backed-up contents, and it looks like the update process removes some unimportant stuff deliberately to save space. The problem I had initially with TomTom Home erasing the contents and leaving the unit non-functional remains unexplained, but it seems to have recovered fully after completing the update process.
I think a lot of this is down to two problems:
- The TomTom Home program obscures what it's doing behind an overly-simplified interface, and provides very poor progress information and error messages.
- The USB 1.1 interface on the XL 340 is extremely slow, making every operation take a really long time - an unfortunate combination with a program that shows poor progress information.
23-10-2012 05:13 PM
Thanks. I had to waste a lot of time and frustration trying to download my free maps and found it very confusing at best untill I used your info.
26-10-2012 06:31 PM
What drives me nuts, is that I'm still not confident that my lifetime subscription is associated with my device.
When I use TomTom Home and from the menu bar I choose "Tools" and then I select "Use Latest Map Guarentee", I get a screen that says my 90 day period has expired.
So, while they have told me that I have the latest map, anytime I drive somewhere and I come upon an incorrect road layout, I can only feel that the tech support person was incorrect.
13-11-2012 06:33 AM
13-11-2012 12:40 PM
Call CS at 1-866-486-6866 and they can activate lifetime maps at their end.
13-11-2012 01:56 PM
dhn,
I appreciate your reply with a phone number to call, and help as a forum moderator. I received this unit last night after a 14 hour shift of storm restoration in New Jersey due to Hurricane Sandy. I do not have the time to call up the number to deal with a GPS that shipped defective, one may argue by design. In the mean time I am back to using my old non Tom Tom GPS and my rooted android phone for gps location in the field.
My other issue is I normally work reliability (of my system in the field), and with a major error that I paid extra for like this Mapping error, I can not have faith with this Tom Tom 550 XXL TM. I mainly wanted to post on here hoping that Tom Tom, the company itself, realizes people are returning this product without use since it is unusable out of the box. This mistake is unacceptable, and I will definitely be passing on my experience to others.
Again Thank you dhn, I see you are a moderator and helping people out on these forums. However, I am still returning this product as I do find it unacceptable I have to call up a number to activate lifetime maps, which the software states that it is not compatible with my device. Besides I already brought my old Garmin to work this morning, because it just works. So, I don’t have the Tom Tom with me, and by the time I get off work at about 9PM tonight, I will not be able to call. The 48 Hour Return period is a far better option than having to call up customer support for a band new product that is unable to be used out of the Box. So much for Tom Tom making a quality product that can be used.
13-11-2012 03:10 PM
I'm not a moderator here but at another forum. Be that as it may, I understand your position and the stress, etc. you have gone through because of Sandy. I hope things work out ok for you.............I don't really see the good in this behavior. I see this behavior as something all children have, but a responsible adult should grow out of, much like how children are expected to develop delayed gratification, or develop perspective-taking as they grow older.

Adults who still take an us vs. them mentality to important issues in life still need to grow up, just like adults who still throw temper tantrums when they don't get their own way. Both are natural impulses, but they are impulses that we need to learn to control by the time we're an adult. It's not okay for people to continue to be like that into adulthood.Why do we need to ban smoking in outdoor areas?
In adults, breathing second-hand tobacco smoke increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and other lung diseases. It can worsen other illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. Exposing ex-smokers to other people’s tobacco smoke increases the chance of relapsing to smoking.
For children, inhaling second-hand tobacco smoke is even more dangerous. This is because children's airways are smaller, and their immune systems are less developed. These differences make children more likely to suffer health problems due to second-hand smoke, such as bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma.
Emerging evidence on the impact of smoking on air quality in outdoor locations, such as alfresco cafes, parks and access points to public buildings, has found that under some circumstances, tobacco smoke affects air quality in outdoor locations just as much as indoor locations.
Creating smoke-free outdoor areas supports those who have quit and makes smoking less visible to children and young people.
NSW Health is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Smoke-free Environment Act 2000. NSW Health Inspectors are authorised to enforce bans on smoking under the Act.
How do the outdoor smoking laws relate to bans by Local Councils?
The Smoke-free Environment Act 2000 brings consistency across the state ensuring that all families in NSW have access to smoke-free playgrounds, swimming pools and spectator areas of sporting grounds. Many NSW councils, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993, have progressively introduced their own smoking bans. Where these bans are in place, they can continue to be enforced by Local Council rangers.
Bans on smoking in outdoor public places compliment or extend many existing bans by local councils under the Local Government Act 1993. Where there is any inconsistency the Smoke-free Environment Act 2000 applies.
For answers to questions on specific public places see fact sheets in nine languages including English.
These devices would supplant gas lasers as far-infrared sources.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Improved quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are being developed as electrically tunable sources of radiation in the far infrared spectral region, especially in the frequency range of 2 to 5 THz. (Heretofore, the wavelengths of QCLs have been adjusted by changing temperatures, but not by changing applied voltages or currents.) In comparison with gas lasers now used as far-infrared sources, these QCLs would have larger wavelength tuning ranges, would be less expensive, and would be an order of magnitude less massive and power-hungry. It is planned to use the improved QCLs initially as the active components of local oscillators in spaceborne heterodyne instruments for studying infrared spectral lines of molecules of scientific interest. On Earth, the QCLs could be used as far-infrared sources for medical glucose-monitoring and heart-monitoring instruments, chemical-analysis and spectral-imaging systems, and imaging instruments that exploit the ability of terahertz radiation to penetrate cloth and walls for detection of contra-band weapons.
The structures of QCLs and the processes used to fabricate them have much in common with those of multiple-quantum-well infrared photodetectors described in numerous previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. In one of four approaches being followed in the present development effort, the focus is upon designing and fabricating the structures to obtain heterogeneous cascades for different electric fields and different wavelengths in order to enable electrical tuning of laser emission wavelengths. Both the variation of the emission wavelength and the targeted range of the electric-field strength for each cascade would be kept small so the spectral gains of adjacent cascades at any given electric-field strength in the target range would overlap. This approach is expected to afford the desired variation of the gain maximum with electric-field strength, so that a change in applied bias voltage would result in a wavelength change.
In the