jhandley

I have tried two other PCs now, one with an actual serial port and one with a USB fitted with a Belkin USB-Serial adapter. Both have functioned well in uploading regions and up/downolading tracks and waypoints. I bought a new 128Mb SD Card at Costco as the old one got fried somehow (my IT guy at work says static might have been the problem). One problem I had was in uploading a 6+Mb region to the MeriColor. MapSend appeared to make the map then stalled before transferring to the GPS. When I tried using a 700Kb region it worked fine. I have not yet tried reading & writing to and from the card, but I think I'm making progress. I suppose I ought to try again with the first PC just to make sure, but it looks now like my problem was with a funky PC. I'll poke around some more and report. Thanks all, for the advice... Best, JRH

I am using a 128Mb SanDisk card. I will try a card switch today. I am, though, using an off-brand reader (a LaCie hex reader) that I originally bought for my wife's Mac. It appears to work OK but I might try another readwe as well. Thanks Best, JRH

I've tried formatting with WindowsXP, and also formatting with the GPS. I have a more serious problem now. My computer will not read the card at all and the GPS will not boot (white screen) with the card in place. I am starting to think I may have had a bad card from the start. I'll see if I can find another card/reader combo today. Thanks Best, JRH

I have an SD cardreader but have not had too much success with it. I have been able to store tracks on the card, and read them with MapSend. I have not been able to store regions on the card using MapSend and have the GPS successfully read them, even after following the directions supplied by Magellan (cut, past, rename, etc.). When I try to load data from the card in the GPS after writing to it in the reader I get messages that the card is not formatted. I've tried the card reader on a different computer and still had no luck. Perhaps my GPS is funky? It seems to work fine except for card & storage realted issues. I appreciate the help & advice. Thanks, Best, JRH

Well, I'm starting to think it's my PC too. I don't have a PDA on this one and I don't think that there is any competition for the com ports, but the thing does go whacky on us from time to time. It may be just a little off. I guess I'll try to get a Serial to USB adapter and load MapSend on my laptop. Thanks for your help... Best John Best, JRH

Hello All, I have been using a MeriColor for a few weeks now and have enjoyed it greatly. I just purchased a copy of MapSend Topo and am being plagued by erratic performance (perhaps mine) with updloads, downloads and communication with my computer in general. The symptoms: -When I try to connect I start by going to GPS settings and doing an autodetect. The GPS is always detected if I have just rebooted my computer. If I detect the GPS on autodetect and then try to test Com1 I get a message that the Com Port is not found. Rebooting starts the cycle over again. -I have successfully uploaded a region and downloaded waypoints and tracks, but only once or twice for each. I have not had any success recently but results always variable at best. What I've tried so far: -varying ComPort settings -Varying NMEA settings (Magellan has conflicting recommendations on these settings on their website) -Rebooting with GPS on or off -Purging any startup programs that might concievably be locing up the ComPort -I have not yet reloaded the software but will try that. -All the diagnostics, as well as my son, say that the ComPort is working fine. -Just loaded v4.01 into the GPS, having started with v3.1 as I recall... Can anyone offer any advice? I am plumb out of ideas. Thanks...