I have a Garmin Etrex Venture HC and have had no trouble up until today.
When I plug it into my computer's USB port via the USB cable, the GPS unit shows the "plugged in" icon and can run without batteries. But when I try to transfer data between the unit and Mapsource, the unit is not recognized as being plugged into the computer. I went to the interface settings in the GPS's setup menu, and it says "Not Connected." Occasionally, it will say "connected," and instead of saying there is no GPS found, Mapsource will say "A GPS unit was found, but does not have the proper capabilities" or something to that effect. It suggests "Setting the unit's interface to 'Garmin' or 'Host.'" From what I can tell, and from reading the "interface" section in the Etrex manual, there is only one interface option for this unit: "Garmin."
My brother has an identical unit, and his is recognized normally. I have tried two different computers, two different cables, different USB ports, a hard reset (holding the four buttons) of the unit, batteries in and batteries out.
I tried to update the firmware of the unit with Garmin's Updater.exe, but that gave the same message about interface settings.
I am thoroughly confused, and beginning to get frustrated. The GPS is not nearly as useful if it cannot communicate with a computer! Any help would be greatly appreciated.