Magellan eXplorist 210 froze on initial "Checking Media" screen

[+shell1fish]

I had a problem (and fix) with my Magellan eXplorist 210 (North America) that I just wanted to post to get feedback from other cachers.

 

Problem:

 

My Magellan eXplorist 210 locked up on the initial "Checking Media" screen.

 

Usually when you turn on the explorist, the unit says "Checking Media," and then advances to the the Startup screen where you need to press ENTER to continue. When I turned on my GPSr, the unit remained on the "Checking Media" screen, never advancing to the Startup screen. None of the individual buttons worked, including Power and Enter. I removed the batteries to turn the unit off, and then turned it back on. It remained frozen on the "Checking Media" screen. (I repeated that several times over the next hour with no success) It remained stuck for 30 minutes, indoors and outdoors, moving and stationary.

 

I was able to fix it using undocumented service functions (see below).

 

Background:

 

My explorist is currently 8 months old. I use it about once a week. After about 5 months, I started experiencing "burn-in" problems. In the middle of doing something, the screen would go to the "burn-in" test, and none of the buttons would work except the power button. I'd have to turn it off and on several times before it would work again. I know that pushing "ESC + PWR" instigates this test, but about 80% of the time it happened to me, I was only using the joystick trying to change the active geocache file. However, this was the only problem I'd had with the unit, and it always worked eventually.

 

I'd always used the Magellan Geocache Manager to upload geocache files to my GPSr. Recently I tried out GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) and created a *.gs file that I transferred to my GPSr by dragging and dropping into the unit's Geocache folder. When I finished the transfer, I was able to access the files on my unit without any problems in "Power Only Mode." However, when I turned the unit off, disconnected it, and turned it back on outside, the unit was locked up.

 

Fix:

 

I found a forum posting discussing this

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/lofiversi...hp?t120036.html

and tried POWER+ZOOMIN+GOTO for ten seconds but it didn't work. (supposed to reset a checking media lockup on some Magellans; posted by Photobuff.)

 

I used codes from

http://www.gpsfaqs.org/faqs/magellan/explo...documented.html

***("Warning: These commands are not documented by Magellan for a reason - you can "break" your unit using them, requiring a service repair to recover. These repairs may not be covered by warranty, so proceed at your own risk.")***

 

I first forced the unit to turn off (NAV + MENU + POWER) and then cleared the memory and set all settings as default (GOTO + OUT + POWER)

 

After that, when I turned the unit on, it responded completely normally.

 

Follow-up:

 

After clearing the memory and returning the unit to its default settings, I expected to have to re-upload all my geocache files. However, my geocache files and my detailed map (uploaded from MapSend Topo3d, v. 1.0) were still there. I was able to access the geocache files normally, but my detailed map had been corrupted. Once I deleted it from the unit and re-uploaded it, that worked as well. My basemap was fine. (Although I wasn't worried about it, since I'd backed it up onto my computer literally the day before; http://www.gpsfaqs.org/faqs/magellan/explo.../firmware.html)

I did lose all of my settings and preferences, however. I had to tell it "English" and fix what POIs the map showed and what level of detail it showed. I had to re-enter my personal information and re-pick the Active Setup files.

 

I've successfully used GSAK-created *.gs files several times since then without any problems (as I'm sure countless other cachers have as well) I can't imagine what caused the lock-up, but fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again.

 

 

Does anyone have any similar stories, suggestions, questions?

 

Thanks.

[+CanSolo]

... I was able to access the geocache files normally, but my detailed map had been corrupted...

 

I think you may find that the problem all along may have been a form of corruption in one of your files, such as the detail map, which stopped the unit from powering on properly. I can't say I have had this issue before, as I had a Explorist 210 as well, and had a detail map too. Although it doesn't surprise me that something like a detail map got corrupted.

[+Spungebob]

I have a 210 with the same problem. I just followed these procedures and it worked like a charm. It even retained my poi's that I had saved in it.

[koalada]

I have an explorist XL also freezing on start-up. Can do the force power off and nothing else wokrs except software upload mode but I can't do anything with it. are there any other codes that work to do an alternate reset?