60csx / 2.7 / Mapquest Bug?

[+JohnInDC]

I've got a GPSMap 60csx with a 1GB card inside. A few weeks under Firmware 2.6 / Software 2.4 I had no trouble uploading Mapquest maps (USA Topo). Since then I've upgraded to Firmare 2.7 / Software 2.5 and now the transfers fail. Specifically, Mapquest spends its 15 minutes building the map from the CDs and then when the moment comes to transfer the data to the GPS, powers off the GPS and then complains that it can't find it. In 5-6 attempts I haven't been able to make it work.

 

I don't think it's a USB issue (or if it is, it's a very obscure one) - Mapquest sees the unit just fine, and is happy to transfer tracks off the unit onto the map. I'm using the same USB port I did before.

 

The one thing that sets me apart from most people here is that I am running a Macintosh (OS X 10.3.9) and performing these transfers from within Virtual PC. Nothing about that configuration has changed, though, which leads me to believe that the problem lies somewhere in the Firmware / Software upgrades.

 

So I have two questions before I downgrade the software to try to isolate the issue:

 

1) Has anyone else encountered this problem, on a PC or on a Mac? (I did see something similar described in another posting but it seemed to be hardware related).

 

2) Is it possible to downgrade the system software (2.5 -> 2.4) in the same manner as firmware? If so, does anyone know where the 2.4 installer might be found? And - I suppose this counts as a third, or fourth, question -- if I can't do that is there any known problem in running FW 2.6 alongside SW 2.5?

 

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

[+JohnInDC]

I can now report that the FW 2.6 and SW 2.5 combination does not fry your unit. Phew. The FW downgrade *did* erase all of my stored and saved waypoints and tracks and geocaches (none of them offloaded, rats) and reset everything to the default (except my custom Welcome message, go figure) but otherwise the process went smoothly.

 

That didn't fix the transfer glitch though. No, that seemed to require the much simpler step of merely rebooting Windows 2000 from within Virtual PC. After that everything went fine, I re-upgraded to 2.7 and the unit, along with the new map, is working fine.

 

I'm ticked about those waypoints though. Should've backed them up -

[+NYTrekker]

How did you get your unit to work with virtual pc? I have Vp7 on a powerbook and never have been able to get mapquest to see my gps. I have a 60cs and a 60csx. It knows something is plugged in but doesnt know what it is.

 

Any info from you on how you got yours to work would be greatly appreciated. Not looking forward to waiting till the end of the year to get mac compatible mapquest.

[+JohnInDC]

To be honest I'm not sure if or what I did to enable this. I *think* I had to go into the VPC preferences to instruct it to use one of the COM ports for USB communications - I vaguely remember futzing around with USB setup in VPC at the outset. It's been a while. I can tell you though that it must have been pretty simple, because I would remember an ordeal!

 

I am pretty sure that if anything in OS X is running that might want to talk to the GPS too, that'll keep VPC from seeing it correctly.

 

Did you install the Windows USB drivers?

[+NYTrekker]

I'm pretty sure usb drivers are installed. I am using Vpc7 and like i said it knows there is something plugged in it just wont identify it. Would sure like to get this to work. I am not at all a windows fan.

[+JohnInDC]

Yeah, I'll be happy too when OS X support shows up! Good luck.