Tumbleweed and Cactus

I have exactly the same problem. It's widely reported in many forums on the Web. Ironically, the customer service rep at Garmin had never heard of the problem. He had me upgrade the firmware from 2.4 to 2.6, which didn't make any difference. I'm calling again tomorrow. FYI, I've tried it with/without SD and with various map packages. There's no consistency.

I asked the Garmin rep, Why is it that Garmin keeps bringing out new model while keeping the old models in the line. The rep was as baffled as I was. Now there is the e-trex H series that sell for the same price as the non H series, who is going to by the non H series. The dealers won't. One thing I never saw Garmin do is discount one models to get rid of them. Maybe that is why so many on listed on the Garmin web site. They just cannot get rid of them. I spoke with both Garmin and Magellan sales managers when I was at the Outdoor Retailer show a few weeks ago in Salt Lake. I'm not a retailer but teach Geocaching and try to keep up on the products. Here's a few key points that were shared with me: - Garmin sales manager indicated to me that the eTrex HCx series will replace the existing Cx series. And, in fact, they did not have the eTrex Cx line for sale to retailers at the show. I was also told it was likely you would see both HCx and Cx models side-by-side at retailers until the old units were sold out. - Regarding your point of Garmin discounting to get rid of the, it's really more the situation that the retailers have them to get rid of. Garmin was not selling the old units at this recent show. I do find it interesting, for example, that REI is selling the old and new Visa and Legend eTrex models at exactly the same price side-by-side in the showcase. The takeaway here is to make sure your friends all know this and tell others to NOT buy anything but the HCx series. - Just on a Magellan note, the new Triton series is absolutely astounding! This might even get me to consider a non-Garmin product. The series is FAR easier to use than anything at market, it uses third party maps (Magellan is getting out of map business at end of year), and is cheaper than comparable Garmin products. - Yes, there are a ton of GPS receivers at market. But there are a lot of unique applications and users. As a Geocaching instructor, I find it pretty simple to present to my students. I simply recommend the eTrex Legend as a perfectly good unit at $269 or spend $30 more to get the Vista. There's no reason to spend the money on the GPSMap series. Or, I recommend the comparable in the Magellan line. You can make it complicated or make it simple. In my last class of about a dozen, half went out and bought a Vista or Legend, and about half already had a GPSMap, which is overkill -- especially with the HCx series that actually performs as well or better and is smaller.