Strange GPS Behavior

[NW-Bound]

The hassle of opening up paper maps and squinting to find the street you look for... Argh....

 

[kaneohe]

Called Garmin as suggested by Ron Boyd and others. Got instructions and tried to follow them. Feels like installation on Mac was ok but computer did not see Garmin......kept searching for device. Called Garmin again.......again seemed like they were trying to be helpful and are sending me a USB cable because they think communication was hindered by my using the cable from
my Canon camera.

I don't understand the logic.......I used the same cable to do the original setup of the GPS and it obviously is capable of sending camera photo info to the computer. The Garmin rep said some USB cables only transmit power but not data but I don't think that applies here. Hopefully there is something different about their cable and it does work but I don't understand why it should.

 

[RonBoyd]

Called Garmin again.......again seemed like they were trying to be helpful and are sending me a USB cable because they think communication was hindered by my using the cable from
my Canon camera.

I don't understand the logic.......I used the same cable to do the original setup of the GPS and it obviously is capable of sending camera photo info to the computer. The Garmin rep said some USB cables only transmit power but not data but I don't think that applies here. Hopefully there is something different about their cable and it does work but I don't understand why it should.

This will be a two part response.

We are preparing to leave on a trip and as SOP I update the Garmins (3) with Garmin Express. I grabbed a USB cable and plugged it in. The Garmin would not connect. Tried several times to make it work and while I was "thinking it over," a message popped up -- "This cable cannot charge your device, please use the USB cable that came with your device." FWIW, I believe the cable came with one of the Canon cameras. Anyway, I plugged in a different cable and it connected right away.

Part 2:

The first Unit I plugged in did, in fact, need updating -- two firmware files and one map. I had forgotten that there is a message prior to OKing the update that says it will take two and a half hours. This sometimes (quite often) is the case and the biggest (and most common) complaint about Garmin is how slow their downloads are. Anyway, it has been a while since it has taken that long but it does happen. So block out that amount of time before starting. (You can, of course, use the computer while the process grinds away.)

 

[kaneohe]

This will be a two part response.

We are preparing to leave on a trip and as SOP I update the Garmins (3) with Garmin Express. I grabbed a USB cable and plugged it in. The Garmin would not connect. Tried several times to make it work and while I was "thinking it over," a message popped up -- "This cable cannot charge your device, please use the USB cable that came with your device." FWIW, I believe the cable came with one of the Canon cameras. Anyway, I plugged in a different cable and it connected right away.

Part 2:

The first Unit I plugged in did, in fact, need updating -- two firmware files and one map. I had forgotten that there is a message prior to OKing the update that says it will take two and a half hours. This sometimes (quite often) is the case and the biggest (and most common) complaint about Garmin is how slow their downloads are. Anyway, it has been a while since it has taken that long but it does happen. So block out that amount of time before starting. (You can, of course, use the computer while the process grinds away.)

Ron, thanks for the tips. Didn't realize there were so many USB cable types so maybe there's still hope. Also now prepared for the long update.

 

[braumeister]

Not only that, but perfectly appropriate cables can go bad and need to be replaced. I've had that happen more than once, on various devices.

 

[RonBoyd]

FWIW: Here are a couple (companion?) websites that are useful to Garmin owner's that I visit regularly:

GPS Information.net Forum > • Index page (Also useful for other Brands)

New Items on Joe and Jack's GPS Information Website

 

[Redbugdave]

Another thing to keep in mind...sometimes your unit will act erratically if you are near a Government high security area, or sometimes on a military base. Which makes sense security wise.

 

[audreyh1]

I remember many years ago a buggy update with our Garmin GPS that caused it to completely seize up while driving. Couldn't even power it off. The only way to fix the problem was to send it in! We did get it back after a couple of weeks.

 

[GravitySucks]

Another thing to keep in mind...sometimes your unit will act erratically if you are near a Government high security area, or sometimes on a military base. Which makes sense security wise.

Driving near Fort Meade MD (NSA Land) my Garmin changed to tell me I was about 50 miles off shore Virginia in the Atlantic.

 

[sengsational]

I've convinced my navigator to zoom out and sanity check the route...sometimes it's going to do something really dumb, and I want to know it sooner than later. Never had it tell me to go an hour to make a u turn though!