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Lowrance Driver Installation Problem

Indotguy

By Indotguy
in GPS technology and devices

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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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I recently purchased an iFINDER H20. I have only used it a couple times and it performed very well. I chose to get an iFINDER based on the good reviews of the MapCreate Topo software. Now, my problem is with the Mapcreate topo software and card reader. I have been working unsuccessfully over the past three days trying to get the 2.0 MMC/SD CARD READER drivers installed. I read and followed the instructions. I have uninstalled and reinstalled all the software and drivers at least a dozen times with no success. My PC (running Windows XP) recognizes the Card reader (by the way, the card reader works fine as a regular SD card reader!), the Card Reader driver shows up in the file list and the Mapcreate software works but when I click the MCC Browser or try to register a SD card I get a message saying "the parallel port driver is not installed correctly". I called Lowrance support but they were no help. I have run out of options short of trying to send the stuff back. At present I am stuck with a nice iFINDER GPS with only the Base map which is pretty much useless. Anyone familiar with this problem? Anybody have any suggestions? (besides ordering a GARMIN that is! :D )

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tflight

+tflight

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What did Lowrance say about the situation? It sounds to me like it might be a conflict with some sort of other hardware driver you might have installed. (Even though the card reader works fine standalone.) Is that the exact error message you received?

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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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What did Lowrance say about the situation? It sounds to me like it might be a conflict with some sort of other hardware driver you might have installed. (Even though the card reader works fine standalone.) Is that the exact error message you received?

The exact wording of the message is "MMC parallel port driver is not installed correctly".

The Lowrance support guy was nice but about all he could recommend was to try connecting the card reader to one of the USB ports in the back of the tower which I did. I'm leaning in the direction of a possible driver conflict of some sort as you mention. My PC has a built-in MMC/SD reader. When I right click the new Lowrance Card Reader drive ( Removable Disk K) and do a check of the hardware/driver properties the only drivers listed are Windows System drivers. I do not see the new driver I installed.

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megamapper

+megamapper

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I have a Lowrance PhD and the Mapcreate 6 topo maps.

I am running Windows XP Sp1, and the Mapcreate 6 installed 'wonderfully'.

 

While, I can't see exactly how to help your situation out, I figured a quick post that others with XP are not having the difficulties you are. I'm sorry to hear about the Issues.

 

 

Regards,

---- Robb ----

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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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I have a Lowrance PhD and the Mapcreate 6 topo maps.

I am running Windows XP Sp1, and the Mapcreate 6 installed 'wonderfully'.

 

While, I can't see exactly how to help your situation out, I figured a quick post that others with XP are not having the difficulties you are.  I'm sorry to hear about the Issues.

 

 

Regards,

                                                                    ---- Robb ----

I have a couple questions to ask if you don't mind. At the very least this info could give me a place to start when I call back the Lowrance support folk. (Pardon me if I seem a little desperate. :rolleyes:)

 

1) Does your PC have a built in card reader?

2)If you right click the MMC/SD Card Readers drive in "MY COMPUTER" and click on the "Properties" tab, is the name of the card reader shown in the box at the top of the "General" properties window?

3)If you click on the "Hardware" folder in "Properties" does the actual name of the Card Reader show up or is it shown as a "Generic Storage USB device"?

4)Lastly, if you do a check of the "Hardware"/"Properties"/"Drivers"/"Driver Details" of the appropriate drive is the MCC/SD Card Reader driver listed and are there any other drivers showing?

 

Thanks for listening.

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megamapper

+megamapper

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I have a couple questions to ask if you don't mind. At the very least this info could give me a place to start when I call back the Lowrance support folk. (Pardon me if I seem a little desperate. :rolleyes:)

 

1) Does your PC have a built in card reader?

2)If you right click the MMC/SD Card Readers drive in "MY COMPUTER" and click on the "Properties" tab, is the name of the card reader shown in the box at the top of the "General" properties window?

3)If you click on the "Hardware" folder in "Properties" does the actual name of the Card Reader show up or is it shown as a "Generic Storage USB device"?

4)Lastly, if you do a check of the "Hardware"/"Properties"/"Drivers"/"Driver Details" of the appropriate drive is the MCC/SD Card Reader driver listed and are there any other drivers showing?

 

 

I am currently at work, but a few ideas have popped into my head on this.

 

1, My PC does not have a built in card reader.

 

I did run into some problems with the reader, to do with drive letters. EG: Drives A,B,C,D,E,F are CDROMS and local disk drives. The Lowrance card reader came up as drive G. Later (using a removable hard disk bay) I installed a second hard disk, which came up as G.

 

This clashed with the Lowrance card reader (it was still on G: as well).

 

I ended up moving the lowrance cardreader over to drive K: so as to stop it clashing with device changes.

 

2) 3) and 4) - I'll have to check when I'm back home.

 

Is your cardreader a USB device, or is your cardreader a Parallel Port device?

 

Regards,

---- Robb -----

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tflight

+tflight

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I'll answer too for my config in case it helps any...

 

1) No.

 

2) No, it just says 'Removable Disk'.

 

3) It shows 'eUSB Secure Digital USB Device'

 

4) No, just the Microsoft driver in my windows directory then system23\DRIVERS\disk.sys

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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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I'll answer too for my config in case it helps any...

 

1) No.

 

2) No, it just says 'Removable Disk'.

 

3) It shows 'eUSB Secure Digital USB Device'

 

4) No, just the Microsoft driver in my windows directory then system23\DRIVERS\disk.sys

Humm...thanks for all your input. I'm going to try to talk to a Lowrance support person again this evening. With the info I've came up with and with what you guys have shared maybe I can get this thing figured out eventually, hopefully.

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Indotguy

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An UPDATE. I called Lowrance support again this afternoon and after about 3 minutes on the phone and giving the tech which version of MapCreate software I have installed I heard the phrase I was hoping to hear "There's your problem". Apparently GPScity shipped me the most recent version of the MMC/SD card reader but not the most recent version of MapCreate software and obviously they are incompatible. He set things up to ship me the newest version of MapCreate 6 and assured me that this will make it work.

I should know in 3 or 4 days. I have my fingers crossed. :D

 

Thanks again for your input and assistance.

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tflight

+tflight

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Great. Let us know how you make out. I had a laser printer shipped to me last month that came with the wrong CD installer... to make things worse the installer CD I was sent wasn't even for the same BRAND printer I had purchased. hmmmmm....

 

Keep us posted and happy mapping.

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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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Update-

Lowrance sent me a replacement MapCreate 6 CD set and it loaded and worked. Now I have a NEW problem. The map I created in MapCreate and saved on the SD card will not display on the GPS. The GPS continues to show only the base map. The manual says that a created map is supposed to be automatically loaded into the device's memory once the card is installed but apparently mine is not. I am beginning to have serious doubts about my foray into Lowrance handhelds. On a positive note, I'm getting to know the folks at Lowrance support pretty well! :anitongue:

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TerraVador

TerraVador

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Have you tried loading one of the Lowrance Demo Maps onto the SD card? I would try it using both the Lowrance card reader and you built in card reader to see if it makes any difference. If one of their LCM maps won't work, then something is wrong with your GPS or both of your card readers, or the SD card itself.

 

What version of Mapcreate did they send you originally? I thought Mapcreate 6.2 would work with most any card reader, not just the Lowrance Reader. If you did get Mapcreate 6.2, did you try it with your built in card reader?

Edited by TerraVador
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Airmapper

+Airmapper

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I've felt your pain. :laughing:

 

I know the guy's up in Tulsa pretty good myself now. They are really nice but not always helpful. I got Mapcreate 6.3 Topo (Also called Hunting) Is that what you got? I guess you know this pretty good by now, but you create the map border, build the map, and load it on the card. What your saying is that it will not display on the GPS screen? Lowrance says that any GPS unit they make with a MMC/ SD slot will work with 6.3, so it is probably a bug somewhere that you will just have to fix, often without even knowing how you done it. It may be as simple as your computer messing up the file suffix, which should be .LCM and may be displayed as .AT5 in the unit.

 

Here is a tip, install the product emulator for your H2O off the website, it will usually behave exactly as the actual unit will, without swiching the card back and forth from unit to reader all the time. You can experiment a lot quicker and usually figure out something, if it only how to explain it to the tech guy's. Even if it doesn't help now, you might be glad you have it later, just so you can transfer files and make sure they work.

 

Good Luck,

AirMapper

Edited by Airmapper
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Indotguy

+Indotguy

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Thanks for the suggestions. The map file I created was on the card for sure, it just would not load into the GPS's memory. I could find the file on the card, both in MY COMPUTER and also on my GPSer. I could even open the file from MapCreate on my home PC. The folks at Lowrance support do seem like a nice helpful bunch. Today during my tech support discussion I learned how to do a restart procedure on my H20 which didn't help. He finally gave up and transferred me to a nice lady in the software section. After a while she decides my problem must be with the SD card. So out I go to buy a SCANDISK card. I really do hope this works but for some reason I'm not feeling real positive at the moment. If their GPS units are so particular about the brand of card used maybe they should consider recommending using Scandisk brand cards in the owners manual. I really liked my unit at first but the longer these problems persist the more I'm starting to wonder...

 

I used the product emulator for a week or so before I received my H20. It was a big help in learning how to use the unit and also helped in setting up my data fields.

I'll try the Demo maps if the new card deal doesn't work. I'm using Mapcreate 6.3 Topo. According to Lowrance I have the newest versions of software and card reader.

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Airmapper

+Airmapper

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They are a good bunch of people up there, it may take a while, but they will come up with something. They did me right, I had to have my unit replaced 3 times over an unrelated problem, and they worked with me to make sure it got worked out. Good Luck.

Edited by Airmapper
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Indotguy

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My H20 is finally up and running after getting a ScanDisk brand card. I guess the little critter is just kind of particular about who he plays with :rolleyes: . Anyway, the map is up, the waypoints are loaded and I am ready to go caching. Probably rain all day tomorrow with my luck! haha. Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

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