tomtom home doesnt recognise tomtom start 4EN42

[9obamartins]

i have a tomtom start 4EN42 and when i plug it into the laptop to do an update it doesnt recognise it , well it doesnt even say theres a tomtom connected , sometimes when i turn on the tomtom it comes up that my maps are older than 19 months old so i want to update them and for speed cameras .
if anyone can shed any light on this i would be grateful , thanks for your time

[Doctor Who]

are you running the latest tomtom home app? have you tried reseting the tomtom usually using a pin on the button situated underneath - is the cable ok ?