Doctor Owl

I am technologically inept, so most of the advice here is incomprehensible to me. (However, thanks to everyone and I will copy it and take it to someone who might be able to decipher it for me!) To answer the questions I do know... I downloaded Garmin Express and followed the prompts. All seemed to be going well. I did a safe eject. I turned off the unit. It won't turn on again. I get the very first screen but it doesn't get any further. My computer doesn't recognise it at all. I was talked through a hard boot by the Garmin help desk, which should have restored the settings, but it didn't work. I have been caching with a phone for a week (Oh, the ignominy!) until my new GPS arrived. I have an upgraded model and am still learning how to work it, so the phone is still at hand. When I get time I will have another go at restoring the settings on the Etrex so I can have a backup. But I've learnt a hard lesson and what isn't on the new GPS is not getting put on it!

A fellow cacher told me I could get updates from Garmin for my etrex30. Last night I downloaded the updates from the Garmin site. It killed my GPS. (I had to go caching with a phone. The ignominy!)Garmin talked me through a reset which didn't work and I can't even connect the GPS to my computer to try another fix. The response? So sorry, go and buy another one of our GPSs. Nothing to do with our website. It's sheer coincidence that your unit died after downloading an update from our website. What are you doing with a GPS 2 years old anyway? (Or words to that effect.) Does anyone know what I can do?

Is there an easy way to search for local events using the new filter? My home coordinates are entered, but I get all of the events in Australia - some up to 3,000 km away! The same problem with caches with favourite points and oldest caches. It's rendered the quick searches all but useless. The new system has some cool ideas, but with the current limitations I have just bookmarked the old search engine to avoid useless screaming at the computer. The new system feels like it has been set up solely for people with smartphones, so bad luck if you don't cache that way. Every time I decide to try out the new version I regret it.

I cannot tell you how much I hate the new search function. Yes, there are some nice new features that I might use once a month or so, but my daily searching has now become a nightmare so bad that I no longer use the search engine, I just try and find the cache on the map. Except sometimes I can't - an archived cache that I know the name of, the GC code for and the cacher who hid it, yet it does not come up on a search. To look for a cache I just found 5 minutes ago, I have to do an advanced search because nothing I put in the search engine comes up with anything but a DNF. Unknown cache logging is now a total pain because the original coordinates are up to 3 km away (in Adelaide that's a thousand cache icons to check on the map). Multis are impossible to find unless they are next to the starting coordinates. You either need to issue a users' manual to tell us how to do the things that we used to be able to do so very easily on the old search engine, give us the option of using the old search engine instead of the new one or just admit you stuffed up in a seriously major way and get rid of this turkey of a search engine and give us the old one back.

Are you seriously saying that we can't easily search by cache name anymore? What kind of upgrade is this? I tested the proposals and don't remember anything as lame-brained as this in what I tried. I don't know the location of the cache I'm trying to find. It was just the nearest cache to where I happened to be. I know the exact name. I now can't find it and can't log it. Brilliant!