Hi Folks

Kinda newbie in all this but here what I want to do, I want to update the old Tomtom to the most recent maps I can, and also take the unit to the USA with me on holiday this year, can this be done? or am I wasting my time with such an old unit? I have a class 10 micro SD and adapter and what I was looking to do is put the USA on there, I have a built in GPS system in my car here so I could also put it onto the root of the device as I have no need for it now here in the UK, I managed to update the maps many years ago using Albert's easy activator but it's been so long I'm like a newbie again.

Any input/thoughts greatly appreciated!

Cheers.

Yes, you can certainly update your Go 520 with new maps however it's not so easy to put them in your cars GPS so I'd forget that and just concentrate on the TT for your holiday.

You should start by reading the tutorial here

Hi thanks for the reply and link, I don't want to change the cars sat nav just the TT over to a USA map, so ill have a good read thanks

Oh, I see...I misread that

In that case, being as you have the space on an SD card, you can have two maps on the card at the same time (UK & USA) and use the 'switch map' function on your TT between the two maps depending on where you are. The TT will have a more up to date map than your cars GPS anyway but of course it is up to you.

Btw, the latest 990 series maps are just coming in now so have a look at them too.

Thanks I will do, I'm struggling to download anything here, getting redirected to other sites with the map in 5 parts asking me to pay to download? and these infolinks adds are a royal pain in the A!

There is always a free option...otherwise known as 'slow download' so look for that

Try this for the UK map:

[Please Register or Login to download file]

Hi and thanks for the link, i see the free download option, once i battled my way through all the pop ups that is, ill see if I can source downloads elsewhere, thanks, great site for info but the infolinks and pop ups, plus the downloads split into 5 separate files is a no go for me. cheers

You should really install an adblocker...especially if you're using Edge as you'll find the same popups wherever you go

Good advice cheers, wonder why I didn't think of that earlier

Well I downloaded a map, put it onto the SD card, also put fast activate on the SD and ran it, got an error message upon booting saying unable to use USA map, tried removing the UK map from the root of the device and replacing it with the USA one and ran the fast activate again, now the device wont boot, so I'm now lost completely, I'll reconnect to home and hopefully be able to restore a backup tonight, Is there a walk through/idiots guide for doing this as obviously I'm a nugget!

Ok, restore the backup to get it working again, then put FastActivate in the root and select option 7...post the resulting text up here.

You say you've downloaded a map...exactly which map, and did you check it has a meta code released before you downloaded it as instructed in the tutorial?

So we'll assume you've restored the TT to a working condition:

1. In Windows Explorer, remove your old map folder from the root to a safe place
2. Extract the United_Kingdom_and_Republic_of_Ireland_990_8306.rar map I linked you to the root of your TT
3. Also put FastActivate.exe in the root
4. Download META.txt file from [Please Register or Login to download file] and place it in the root
5. Run FastActivate from the root and select options 2 & 3 (wait until you see successful messages after selecting each option)
6. Disconnect from PC...done

After that is confirmed as working we can move onto the USA map

HI Fred
United_States_960_7075 from a torrent site with the meta attached.
reset tt and tried your map and instructions but now it wont boot past the "sea image" its on older 2007 model 520 Go, ill try and reset again, maybe the issue is that it was already a modded map that was on it from years ago using Alberts easy activator? can you reset these things to "factory settings" thanks for the help thus far!

I restored a the backup and ran fast activate option 7
ttgo.bif:
DeviceName=TomTom GO 520
DeviceVersionHW=GO 520
DeviceSerialNumber=M2xxxxxxxxxx
BootLoaderVersion=55120
ApplicationVersionVersionNumber=9510
ApplicationVersion=1234792.1
CurrentMap=United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland v905.4754
CurrentMapVersion=905.4754

Map(s):
F:\United_Kingdom_and_Republic_of_Ireland_990_8306\

Storage:
Size 488MB, Free 11MB

For some reason it has the new map info not my original map? ill try and restore again as it still wont boot, but I can connect to it through the pc

I put the original map back on and ran fast activate again
ttgo.bif:
DeviceName=TomTom GO 520
DeviceVersionHW=GO 520
DeviceSerialNumber=M2xxxxxxxxxx
BootLoaderVersion=55120
ApplicationVersionVersionNumber=9510
ApplicationVersion=1234792.1
CurrentMap=United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland v905.4754
CurrentMapVersion=905.4754

Map(s):
F:\United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland v905.4754\

Storage:
Size 488MB, Free 51MB

So the maps correspond above, beginning to think its the battery stopping it booting now, ill leave it on charge overnight and see what happens, it was only replaced 2 years ago?

The map United_States_960_7075 is from November 2015 so it is well out of date but it's up to you if you want to use it, I wouldn't but at least it does have a meta code released.

If you want to start again, back it up and then format the drive after which you can install the official Go 520 navcore that you can download from [Please Register or Login to download file]

My instructions from post #11 are still valid so you should proceed with those when it's fully charged

I installed the backup and guess what it was the most recent backup of the device meaning it wouldn't load, I couldn't find the original backup I made either? (from the tomtom home) looks like the older one had been replaced with the latest/knackered one, so I plugged back into the PC windows explorer as a disc drive and deleted everything on the unit, then in may documents there was a folder called home with that looked like another backup, so I pasted all the contents back onto the device, the device now loads I updated from the TT Home and now when I switch on I get asked to set language/preferences time etc then "no maps found" upon reboot it goes back to select languages etc. Im not bothered about what USA map I use as long as its recent so whatever USA map you suggest I'll try, thanks for the help so far!