Why Does Your TomTom Sat Nav Have The Green Light Of Death (GLOD)?

If you have a TomTom sat nav and when you charge it, using a working car or home charger and the unit doesn't power on, when you hold down the power button, but the green charging indicator light is on, then your TomTom has got the common problem which is known as the "Green light of death". The reason why the problem is called the "Green light of death" is because when your TomTom fails to power on, although the green light on the unit shows it is charging, it will always fail to power on. There are many people that own various TomTom sat navs, that are different models and at some stage have experienced the green light of death problem and there is four possible reasons what can cause it.

The first main cause can be if the charger you are using to charge the battery pack inside your TomTom was faulty. The TomTom sat nav requires a maximum of 5 volts, this is to charge the battery pack up, no more. However, if the electronic components that are inside the charger become faulty, they can send 12 volts, instead of 5 volts. When this happens, it damaged numerous electronic components inside your TomTom sat nav, these can be small diodes and resistors, or chips that have been blow, once they are blown and damaged, they are hard to get hold of and are really tricky to replace yourself, if you don't have good soldering equipment and skills.

The second cause can be that the firmware running on your sat nav has locked up because it has been not used for ages. If this happens, a quick repair is to push in the small reset button found on the TomTom sat nav, using a small screwdriver, a pin or the end of a paper clip, on most models it is usually found at the bottom.

The third cause can be that the battery pack is faulty, this usually happens when the battery pack no longer holds charge. If the battery pack is the cause, replacing it will fix your TomTom.

The fourth cause can be that the power button inside the unit that is soldered onto the motherboard is broken or the solder has come of the power button, causing weak connections.

If you have tried the reset method and your TomTom still has the green light, but no power, i suggest you take it to a professional that repairs sat navs, as they will know which part of the hardware needs replacing, without actually guessing like most people do.