rocks911

Thanks for the replies. My internal memory had errors. Windows repaired the errors. I updated to 5.0 and I'm good to go. Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

I took the SD card out and it boots in 18 seconds, otherwise it takes forever. I cant imagine what is different that would cause this. The map set I have is large but it's no larger than it has ever been and for whatever reason it takes a lot longer to do anything. Even not map related, for example I accessed the menu to see what version the software was through Setup/About and it froze trying to access the information and the back button didnt work. Eventually the about screen appeared. Without the card no problem Setup/About and information displayed withing seconds, with the card in it freezes is nonresponsive and takes forever once it does respond. The "software" version is 4.20 and the "GPS software" version is 4.52 Do I need to update and if so which do I need to update? I guess I'll have to a master reset. I'm wondering if I corrupted some data by not safely removing the hardware from docking with my PC, would that cause this?

I just powered the unit on. 2 and a half minutes to get past the Garmin splash screen and 4 minutes 15 seconds to get a usable signal I have very little in the way of maps. I have one large (1.2 Gb) image file gmapprom.img on the card (Navigator North American 2010) and a couple GPX files on the card as well. The base map is on internal memory. What exactly is a "master reset"?

I have a 450 I've used for a little more than a year, not a lot, but for about a year. When I need it I insert freshly charged Eneloop batteries and wait for a few minutes to find the satellites. Next I press where to and the thing takes fooooooooorever to come back with any information. When it finally does the next step also takes forever. Every level deeper into a search the slower it goes. I mean I spend 3-4 minutes waiting to find, for example, restaurants in the area. My family and friends laugh at me because my "ancient" technology is soooooooo slow and they typically have the info on their smart phones within a minute. I have a hard time seating the memory card, and that has been the source of past performance problems but even after re-seating the card it doesnt perform as it used to. Does it make a difference how the thing is shelved? When I'm done using it I remove the batteries and disassemble the back, is that not what I should be doing? I loved this thing for most of the last year but within the last couple of months it has almost been not worth using.

I love my Garmin Oregon 450 but have to hold it in my hand to navigate in my truck and the wifes car. Could somebody recommend a good mount? I dont know that a windshield mount is what I want/need because the layout in my truck vs. the layout in my wifes car is so different. Is there a good alternative to the windshield, or is that really the way to go?

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it. I dont do this a lot, mostly when I go on vacation so I cant remember the do's and dont's and just generally forget how to load the thing and unload the thing.

I have several pocket queries on my Oregon 450 that I want to delete. How do I do that? When I connect my Oregon to my PC two drives appear, the Garmin itself (D drive) and the mass storage card (H drive) both have a gpx folder. The mass storage drive has the following directory: H/Garmin/GPX/individual gpx files (I thought this is where the pocket queries are stored so I erased them but when I power up the Garmin they still appear)and then there is the device itself: D/Garmin/GPX/a lot of files, among them GPX files. Now that I look at it, it appears that my pocket queries appear on the device drive, D in the D/Garmin/GPX folder. I guess the mass storage drive is just for maps?

dfx, Thanks so much, yep the card was loose, opened the back and it fell out. Thanks for the guess, a good guess.

"What map(s) do you have enabled?" Map information: Enabled-Worldwide DEM Basemap,NR If that makes sense. I've installed only the 2010 North American City Navigator and Geochaching maps for the Dallas Texas area. I had the option of entering an address abd now that option is gone. I havent changed anything, it's just gone.

So I grab my Oregon 450 to go downtown and I eneter into the "where to" option and look for the address icon but it's not there. What is that all about? I used that function a lot and now it doesnt even show.

DFX, probably right

That seemed to do the trick. I think my wife let the thing run out of juice before powering it off and I think I read somewhere that not shutting it down properly can mess it up, maybe the case here?

Connected my Oregon to my computer. The screen "USB cable detected would you like to go to mass storage?" appears, unfortunately the touchscreen is not working. Thats a problem. I got in through the computer and am reinstalling the mapset now. We'll see

So I've had my Oregon 450 for a couple of months, have geocached and used it's routing capabilities to get to Florida from Texas and back without issue. Lately it has been messing up. Mostly it seems to be a function of using the keypad to search. For example I had to find a specific school so with the unit in automobile mode I went to "where to" and paged through to schools. The school I was looking for was not in the list so I opened up the text entry page and typed in the school name. After a couple of letters the thing stuck on the third letter. The letter was enlarged like when you press a letter it becomes large for a nano second until the letter appears in the text heading but that didnt happen. The letter remained enlarged and for a few seconds nothing happened. Then the screen went blank. The search function is becoming quite useless. Whenever I type a business name, or a school name, or an address at some point before getting a good list or result the thing locks up. The maps are still there navigation still works (for the most part, though that has gotten unreliable also) but searching and expecting a usable result is out of the question. What is up with this? Unfortunately I've come to rely on the thing and it kinda sucks right now. 3 months and 3 hundred dollars in and it's already in this state? Help

Right you are. Thanks for that. I love this board.

"The issue is, you're probably trying to navigate to a geocache"... Actually no, I was talking about navigating with the unit in "Automobile" mode. I was driving back from out of town north on a highway when the unit prompted me to exit and turn right (eastbound) which is the direction I need to eventually go, eventually. The problem is that I needed to drive much further north before going east. I had to turn the unit off because at every exit from the highway it was prompting me to go east. As I had another fifteen or so miles to travel north before going east the unit was not helpful. The best route was to continue north on the highway I was on, then connect to another highway east. Instead the unit was sending me off the highway into suburban streets way prematurely. It would have taken a month of Sunday's to get home navigating through city streets. The route was a no-brainer. 2 highways, 1 exit, then home less than a mile. As always thanks for taking the time to reply.

Thank you so much, thats some good info right there! I've been busy so haven't had the chance to incorporate the info into my Garmin. As an off-topic question...navigating in the automobile mode is pretty sketchy, the unit has me making all kinds of crazy turns. I actually drove a large loop to get to just down the street from me. As that how it pretty much goes? I'm sure its not quite up to the job of navigating as well as a dedicated car unit, right?

First of all let me say thank you very much for all the help on this board, it's made the learning curve more bearable. Now let me ask a couple of questions. I have an Oregon 450 I can already see that I need to be more restrictive in my pocket queries, I dont so much like the micro packages, but also there are other tweaks to my queries to get results I want. So Geocaching.com has developed some new queries for me that I have downloaded. Now how do I eliminate what I dont need from the GPX folder but leave what I need? Should I just delete evrything in the GPX folder and start over? If I do what are the implications of doing that? For example I have a set of GPX files in the GPX folder on the Garmin that I want to replace. I want to replace "my hometown GPX" with "a more restrictive search of my hometown GPX". So I just delete the first file and add the second? What about the finds I have already made, will they show? Is there a place on Geocache.com where I download my finds and notes? I am a premium member. Where are waypoints saved? The waypoints that I have created, where are they found on the Garmin? Thanks in advance

Moving right along in my learning curve, not sure how much more I can take. This better be a fun thing to do because I have a lot already invested and havent left my house. Anyways I requested some pocket queries and hopefully they will be in by tomorrow but for now I'd like to download some to try. I went to the "seek a cache" page and stipulated 10 mile radius from my home. That resulted in 1686 total records. Check all then download. GSAK opens the files and there are 20 waypoints. What happened to the 1686 records? How to get this information from the GSAK to my connected Oregon 450?

Thanks for the quick replies. This board rocks!

Also, system/interface...which option?

Thanks for the replies. The thing is now oriented and my maps are up. Thanks again.

So I purchased an Oregon 450, I've got maps installed and now want to download geocache information. What do I download? I have a premium membership but am somewhat confused as to what to download. Links to "Windows applications " are available as well as "Applications for handhelds" and others, so how to go about downloading what I need for paperless geocaching. Sorry but I'm a way new newb.

Also, I have loaded city navigator onto a SD card but cant find it on the Oregon. I have been playing with this thing for 2 days now and on the base map that comes with the device it shows me to be in Kansas City, I'm not there but rather in Dallas. So far I'm not impressed.

A complete newbie here, zero experience. Just purchased an Oregon 450. The "manual" that came with the device is really a joke, I actually wondered if it was packaged incorrectly, basic instructions only. I also found an online manual at garmin that was alittle more thorough but still way lacking. Can someone point me toward a comprehensive manual/tutorial where I can learn how to use this thing? By the way I did surf the site before asking but didnt find what I needed. Thanks in advance