Iway 100m Locking Up

[texun]

I just bought a new iWay 100 as my first GPS. For the options it was a great buy but I'm having a few problems that I haven't been able to sort out and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

 

The first time I used it I tested it in the truck on a short 5 mile trip in town and it worked fine. Now I may have goofed up, but after some tinkering with the settings I decided to hit the reset and get it back to its original state. Seemed fine.

 

The past two days I can't seem to get the receiver to route even a short trip without it locking up and restarting the unit during the route generation. It starts generating the route, hangs, and then restarts the unit.

 

I'm using the 128 meg card it came with. MC 6.3.261 loaded fine on my PC and I have 92m on the card with 30m free. I've pulled and reseated the card but that didn't help either.

 

Anyone ever seen this with an iWay before? Any suggestions?

 

Many thanks!

[+Airmapper]

I've not worked with any i-Way's but it sounds like an annoying problem. Have you contacted Lowrance? Their service is pretty good.

 

I'd try contacting them and see what they say, I won't say they will since you have a discontinued model, but they might just replace it. I'd give it a shot.

 

One more thing I'd try is take out the batteries and SD card and let it sit a while. I'm just guessing, but that might re-set something. I had my unit acting weird and gave it some down time and it came back to working normally.

[texun]

I've not worked with any i-Way's but it sounds like an annoying problem. Have you contacted Lowrance? Their service is pretty good.

 

I'd try contacting them and see what they say, I won't say they will since you have a discontinued model, but they might just replace it. I'd give it a shot.

 

One more thing I'd try is take out the batteries and SD card and let it sit a while. I'm just guessing, but that might re-set something. I had my unit acting weird and gave it some down time and it came back to working normally.

 

I thought I fixed it after posting this last night. I pulled the batteries long enough to reformat the card and build a new map with MC 6.3. It worked great on the first 5 routes I generated and then started to lock up again. I will contact Lowrance, but since I find no mention past or present on their page I really don't expect much. It's worth a shot so I'll see if they have anything to offer.

 

Thanks.

[texun]

I've not worked with any i-Way's but it sounds like an annoying problem. Have you contacted Lowrance? Their service is pretty good.

 

I'd try contacting them and see what they say, I won't say they will since you have a discontinued model, but they might just replace it. I'd give it a shot.

 

One more thing I'd try is take out the batteries and SD card and let it sit a while. I'm just guessing, but that might re-set something. I had my unit acting weird and gave it some down time and it came back to working normally.

 

I'm back - finally!

 

I sent an email to Lowrance and today I received a reply suggesting that I send it in for repair. I "studied" the problem for a few days and tried to apply some logic of my own in search of a solution. I noticed the SD card icon was always flashing right before it rebooted, which I figured was suggesting a read problem with the map file or the card. I tried creating other maps with no luck, and then installed a 2gig card that I had lying around. I quickly learned that it has no idea what to do with a 2 gig SD card so I picked up a 512 Sandisk SD card and my problems were solved. It will now generate and recalculate my routes as it should and I am starting to get happy with it.

 

One thing that I did find annoying was what I considered poor reception. Mounted in the windshield of my 05 Chevy truck under a clear sky it would lose the lock quite often. I picked up a Garmin external antenna from a local store and the satellites instantly started BOOMING in.

 

Overall I like it as a first unit. I finally have it doing what I want but I already know I will be picking up a color unit later on and keep this one for the bike. The turn by turn directions can be a little off but so far it's nothing I haven't been able to deal with.

 

I appreciate the help and advice from everyone. Thanks!

[senecaripple]

i tried using a 2gb card, the icon just kept flashing. it seems a 1gb card is the maximum these lowrance will accept!

[Ogre_fl]

I have had an Iway 100M for about a year now. Only when I first started the unit up new did I have lock problems. I found I had to keep the unit out in the clear for about 5-10 mins without moving. It was like it needed to figure out what satellites it should be receiving. Ever since that first day it has been fine and gets a good lock quickly.

 

Now that yours has got a good lock try it again without the external antenna and see if its better.

 

I have had the unit lock up 2 times doing a route calc. It was a very long route. It worked the 3rd time and never any troubles after that.

[CO-Zman]

The manual for my AirMap 600c states 2Gb is supported, but I'm not willing to try it yet. 1Gb is still the plan.

 

Z