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And along comes this idiot, to un necro a thread. So I have roughly 15 years experience with a 62s and Vista HCX. The Vista wins indoors or with very heavy canopy. It fits my pocket better. IDK what screen Garmin chose for the 62s but the clarity sucks. My Vista hcx is clear and sharp on my motorbike, at night, Turn warnings are easy to see. During this evening my Vista had locks on at least 6 sats, my 62s trailed by at least 1, if not 2 sats. And some 62s locks were pretty low. If I were looking at the used market I'd want another Vista because.

You need to keep holding the page and enter buttons until the reset page shows up. It takes a little bit of time. This page says 5 seconds, http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/secret.htm But just wait.... Tried all the key combos from the link. No luck. Keys seem to work normally during regular use. I really need a hard reset as the unit is flaky and unpredictable.

Hi I tried the page/enter power button sequence to hard reset my Venture CX with no luck I hold down page and enter, press power for a sec and let go of power. I notice the screen flickers just once,barely visible then when I release the page/enter buttons the Venture boots normally. The page and enter keys appear to work normally once the Venture is booted. I can access the diagnostics screen when I hold enter and power up and the Venture passes the diagnostics. Any ideas of what to try next?

I have a new Venture CX with what I think is a flaw in the screen. After applying a screen protector I noticed a narrow band, maybe .5mm wide that runs across the full width of the screen. This band is about 15-20mm from the top of the screen. The band (flaw) appears to be below the LCD plastic top surface. I'm wondering if when I applied the protector and used a credit card to smooth out the bubbles I somehow compressed a lower part of the LCD? And if you're wondering, yes, I pulled the screen protector back and the flaw is in the LCD. Anyone else see or have this happen to them?

I'm expecting a lot more of these sudden sales. Gamin has high inventory levels and the channel is probably stuffed. Anything slower moving will hopefully get slashed from time to time.

And I'll happily volunteer to test the program to pull the software from the unit and dump it into a file. 2.40/2.40 has given me the best of all worlds for MY needs. I'm guessing some Vistas respond very differently with the newer versions, mine might be perfect with one, I don't know. I wouldn't mind playing with newer versions but not at the risk of being stuck with them. I plan to keep an eye on this thread and jump in if we find a program to download the code from the unit. Oh, by the way. Has anyone tried the wayback machine? The internet archives. I can't really figure it out but it's worth a shot to someone with more savvy and patience than me.

doubled by mistake

Well, the Source in Canada (Radio Shack) dumped Venture cx's for $80Us last month. I know it's not a current high-end unit but maybe Wal-mart dumping Vistas is an INVENTORY issue. ANother poster, in another thread, linked to an excellent article that stated Garmin is way over optimal inventory levels on all lines. I expected price cuts across the board to move the levels down. This is, guessing here, one of those cuts to drop channel levels. Right now I'm not so sure it's a price cut that signifies EOL for the Vista series. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Vista Hcx become the entry level etrex in the not too distant future and be kept on for many years like the monochrome etrex has been. Just guessing on my part. But at some point Garmin will ditch the monos for good (if they haven't done so already) and trim the etrex line to 1 or 2 units instead of the (I've lost count) number they have now. It just makes business sense when there's only, what, $50 now at retail between the Top of line etrex and the entry level model?

Ok, I have 2.40 GPS sw on my Vista. Where's a code guru who can write a program to dump the code into a file for us? In my hacking pda days a code guru would surface with a nice little homebrew program to dump a rom/flash chip to a file. Sometimes it was a really ugly affair requiring soldering wires onto a jtag chip on the pda mainboard to dump the code. If we can easily update the Garmin code via USB a code guru should be able to access and dump that code to a file via USB. Let's hope this post flushes someone capable out of the woodwork.

Yes, thanks to the poster who realized since it's all Garmin goods they are the ones left holding the bag... Repeated it again this morning with my Metroguide North America. There are two POIs in town, close to where my friend lives, that show in mapsource and do NOT transfer to the unit. And to my surprise, there's a POI that isn't showng in mapsoirce that appears on the unit. Repeated it on my Venture and Vista. Maybe this level of problem exists in more Garmin products. I don't know without testing them. In any event, to say Garmin GC is and has been top notch and only slid lately isn't a statement I'm not buying into. Perhaps there's been more cracks in their products than we realize and we only see these flaws when two guys get together with a few gpsr units and a few mapsets. We tried all the various levels of zoom and the options of when to see things. Same results. So again, to summarize, our test was hardly exhaustive but in a two block area we found several discrepancies in what mapsource on the Pc shows vs. what the unit shows. I wish I had an easy way to determine the different data shown for an entire region of a mapset. I fear the differences might be huge. That doesn't inspire much confidence in me. Whether they transferred or not verses if they can be seen on the screen is immaterial. The point is, I should see the same data on the PC and the unit and if I don't there's a bug somewhere that needs to be fixed. I like Garmin, really like them or I wouldn't have three of their gprs and wouldn't have spent quite a bit of money recently buying maps ($300 give or take). I do however, expect a product that shows me consistent data on my PC and my gpsr. Until then...I've stopped spending on Garmin products and will sit on the fence to see where they go with quality over the next year or so.

I was at a friends place today. he has a few Garmin mapsets and handhelds. I took my CN NA NT 2009 over. To make a long story short, we spent the day creating and downloading mapsets, We used a variety of mapsets, CNNANT2009, Metroguide NA v8, MGC V4. using mapsource 6.11.1 and 6.13.1 (I think) on a variety of units (map60csx, my Vista hcx and Venture cx.) Many POIs that were shown on mapsource don't appear on the units after downloading. POIs that don't appear in mapsource appear on the units. I'm not talking about POIs among different mapsets. I expect them to be different. I'm saying that using a given mapset you can't predict which POIs that show in mapsource will transfer to the unit nor can you predict We repeated a couple of tests because we couldn't believe that so much stuff was screwed up and got the same results the second time. Anyway, after the experiment I don't know what to trust anymore. My instinct tells me something is wrong be it mapsource or the units. I think it's fair to say Garmin QC has been broken for quite a while regarding mapsource or the mapsets. If the problems reside in the units, well, that's an even bigger QC problem than I thought. Anyone else try this type of experiment? God knows what happens to the streets if the POIs are messed up.

Yes, I realize that there's no Delorme Canadian map support per se but for the price of the Pn20, nothing, and I mean nothing with it's features is available in the Garmin line at anything close to that price. And if I understand correctly, I could make my own maps or download aerial photos of my areas of interest and use them? In any case, to hear people quibble about $50 (spending $150 vs. $100 for a bare bones unit) when they want their first gps is silly. And the PN20 is paperless at that price? Amazing. That's what, at least a Colorado or maybe the Oregon in the Garmin line to go paperless? If Delorme goes full support for Canada I'm in for two, three, maybe even four units. I love my current Garmins but I'd switch in a minute for the Delorme features and price (and support from what I hear, not that Garmin is bad but Delorme is at the next level)

Good grief! Those Wal-mart prices are to me, a Canadian, insanely low. How in the world could a person NOT find the few extra dollars to get the PN-20 or the Vista hcx over a basic $100 unit? I mean, really, you'll burn up any 'savings' from a cheaper unit on gas in no time. Think I'll get a US relative to buy me a PN-20. How could I go wrong having it? Forget all the fancy American based maps and whatnot. It's a great gps, right? And that's what really matters. edit: Those amazing prices make all the repetitive "what gps should I buy" threads look inane.

I don't recall any warning messages about 2025 segment limit or going >2gb. I kept a close eye on the mb's used. I suspect since I'm still new at this I did something simple but dumb. I used mapinstall as I didn't think mapsource could do the upload for me. Perhaps that was my mistake.

I installed several programs on my PC in the following order. MGC 4 Ont sled maps 2007 Caribbean mapset 1.2 & 1.3 update CNNA NT 2009 Ibycus 2.1 Canada Topo After each install I ran mapsource to check that the installed maps were available and they were. I used mapinstall to build my mapsets and waited while they were installed on my vista hcx 2.4/2.4 2gb microsd card. When finished I don't have the Caribbean mapset available in the map setup screen but it shows in the dialog box with the checkmark. If I turn on the Ont Sled maps 2007 the caribbean mapset activates. When I turn the sled maps off the caribbean mapset is hidden. I'm concerned my other mapsets may be screwy and not useful when I really need them. Ideas? I installed 5 mapsets, did I exceed some limit? Any thoughts why one mapset (ont sleds 2007) would invoke and hide the caribbean mapset?

Yogazoo, excellent read. I see very high inventory numbers so I'm expecting some major price reductions on slow movers early in 2009. I'd be happy to score an Oregon for a decent price next year. , heck I'm hoping to score a Quest cheaply, been watching them bobble around the $100US mark. I'd rather see Garmin healthy and hope their recent handheld problems are a glitch. We don't need another Magellan in terms of customer service...

Ok, I'm not looking to bash Garmin. Let's get that out of the way. I'm asking if anyone has studied their 10q filings and do they look good or bad? Will Garmim weather the economic storm and A: spend more to make more (better products, not just flashier buggier ones) , or. B: slash to improve the bottom line (ala Magellan) at customer expense? What are they doing now in your opinion?

Ok, the financial crunch is underway and many corps. are looking to slash costs first and deal with irate customers second. Has anyone reviewed Garmin's latest filings? I'm guessing they're publicly traded. Do they look solid or are they a nice collection of BS? I ask because, if Garmin is borrowed to the max and not doing so well then I expect their customer service to nosedive and become as useful as Magellan customer service. I'm already seeing signs of stress at Garmin what with big discounts on dogs (no offense meant) like Colorados and some steep slashing on car units. I also attribute the painful firmware releases (not really tested properly) to cuts in their programming arm. (get it out the door. fix it later syndrome) I worked in industry long enough to see when the bottom begins to fall out. I think I see that starting with Garmin. What say you?

I applaud your efforts to get the older firmware deposited somewhere we can all get to it. I have 2.4/2.4 and while I have the odometer problem there is no drift issue. I won't consider upgrading my chipset unless I can roll it back. I won't upgrade the software either because I'm not sure what that does without a matching chipset upgrade. Anyhow, I look forward to having the various chipset/software versions available to try.

Dale, thanks for the hard work. I dl'ed 2.1 off the website and installed it without a hitch. Now, this isn't directed against you but it's a question I pose.... Metroguide Canada 4 has better stream coverage than, IMO, your maps and obviously better than CNNA. I know you're wokring with the data you download from some canadian agency. I'm just curious where DMTI gets their data with the really good stream information from? Thoughts? edit: NM. It appears your data for streams and MGC 4 are the same after I looked closer

A few Source stores still have stock on the Venture cx for $99. I picked up two. Maybe not the best receiver but for biking/boating out in the open stuff and car nav pretty good all around unit. Can't recall the item # but a search of the Source website should find it.

Hey Ken, that's amazing! Thanks for doing that. I've learned a lot about what should be in a good mapset lately. Well, in some ways my quest is moot. I sold the Legend C to get a another Venture cx so my worries about limited space and compressed maps are out the window.... However, I did buy a copy of MGC 4 locally (very cheap) and I'll say...WOW! The detail in the MG series is tremendous. So much more than CNNA. MG even has home based businesses listed! Not to mention the great water/creek detail. To my surprise some trails near my house are included. I think I now regret buying CNNA as I don't travel outside of Canada so much of the data is a waste to me. MGC 4 is definitely going to have a permanent home on my Vista and Ventures. Ive plenty of room for both 4 & 5 and many topos on a 2gb card. Since I can install MGC 5 legally on all 3 extrex's I'm buying it as well based on V4 and your review. I think it's a bargain when the costs are spread over multiple machines. Win win all around.

Thanks guys, I asked because I'm selling one of them to a friend and since they're likely the same receiver I may as well keep the cx.

A simple question I think.... Which etrex has the better receiver? Legend C or Venture Cx? Or do they have the same chipset and it's just features (microsd) that makes the Venture better? Thanks

Thanks everyone for the input and hints. We go hunting this weekend for the first time as a group. Hope we have fun.