Loading another mapset to my Colorado 400t and SD card compatibility?

[+victorymike]

My "loading maps onto my sd card" problem: The card is a SanDisk Extreme III 20mbs read and write 2GB card. I was hoping that the fast SD card might cure some of the slow bootup woes I've read about here. For comparison the SanDisk Ultra II cards are 10mbs read and 9mbs write...and I hear that the 2GB Sandisk Ultra II cards are incompatible with the Colorado. Then again...I've heard some people say that they worked too...dichotomous answers there.

 

Only have internet access from work so I have been really slacking on my registration of my garmin products...I need to register my gps's and MapSource software that I have bought/upgraded to over the years. You used to be able to request an unlock code for the mapsets for a second personal GPS. A quick look around the garmin site indicates that you need an unlock code for every gps now. I will have everything registered in a day or two.

 

I got City Navigator N. America NT with my Garmin Zumo 550 in October 2007 and, ideally, would like to load that onto the card but get I/O errors when attempting it. The entire mapset of North America (the entire U.S. and Canada) takes up around 975 MB. My Card is 2GB. I even scaled it down to Michigan alone (28MB) and it failed with an I/O error. So I tried loading it into the Colorado's internal memory and was able to load 3 segments...all of Michigan, all of Ohio, and all of Indiana (under 100MB). But when the Colorado turned on and tried loading the maps an error acknowledgement screen popped up "Unable to unlock maps".

 

Alternatively, when I bought my GPSMAP76C in September of 2005 I also bought, seperately, City Select N. America v7.00 and Topo v3.02. I even had to upgrade my old home computer with a dvd drive to run it. Anyway...I could load the CS maps into the Colorado to get street level mapping with addresses and gas stations and hotels and such. I haven't tried it but suspect that I'd need to get another unlock code for that too.

 

My questions are:

Will my SD card work in my Colorado? If not what 2GB SD card should I get to replace it?

What is up with the unlock codes? Can I load my maps into my Colorado too...or do I gotta pay some more$$$???

Edited February 2, 2008 by victorymike

[+smthng]

My questions are:

Will my SD card work in my Colorado? If not what 2GB SD card should I get to replace it?

 

I can't say that the card will or won't work, but your I/O issue is probably not because of the card. Mine does the same, no matter what size maps or what kind of card I've used. Use an external card reader on your PC to dump maps to the card, then put the card in the Colorado. That worked for me and it happily reads a 1.7 Gb file (all of City Nav 2008). The writing to cards in the unit error is probably a firmware fix that'll happen in the future.

 

What is up with the unlock codes? Can I load my maps into my Colorado too...or do I gotta pay some more$$$???

 

Yes and no... Technically, yes, you need to pay for the map unlocks on each unit. But, Garmin is still a bit "forgiving" on that. If you registered on My Garmin, you can do some of it without calling Garmin. Register your 76C and City Select 7 on My Garmin if you haven't already done so. Then register your Colorado. Go under the registration details for your 76C and you should see your City Select show up with an "unlock for additional unit" link. Use that to unlock for your Colorado.

 

The licensing for City Nav 2008 is a bit different and I'm reasonably sure it won't offer the "additional unit" link. If you call Garmin, they might give you another code if you ask nicely. They did for me, but I also have a dead Streetpilot that I was replacing, so they used the software I had for my Streetpilot and assigned a new code for it to run on the Colorado.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

mike, the CN NA v8 you received with your Zumo should have an additional unlock code available. You will have to go to the my.Garmin site to get it.

 

I don't know about the I/O errors but they shouldn't be related to the map unlock issue. I think the problem might be the card. Maybe try a different one.

Edited February 3, 2008 by Motorcycle_Mama

[+victorymike]

Thank you both VERY much for the great replies. I'll try the card reader first because I was able to load a file onto the card thru the unit itself...just not the maps. And it's great to see a fellow VMC member and Zumo owner here too, Motorcycle Mama.

[+victorymike]

I picked up a card reader today and registered my Zumo and its bundled City Navigator N. America 2008 software. But it would not let me unlock a second unit. When I tried to buy a second unlock code it wanted to charge me $9,999.00 PLUS TAX. WTF???!!! I am not kidding. Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine dollars...PLUS TAX. No freakin' way!

 

I tried to register my City Select v7.00 and my Topo v3.02 but there is a specific drop down menu for registering software and those were not on the list so it would not let me continue. I guess I'll have to give customer support a call tomorrow and iron these issues out.

[+g-o-cashers]

I know that there isn't any registration/license involved for Topo 3.02 and I believe CS is the same. You can load them on as many units as you want.

 

GO$Rs

 

edit: change version of Topo

Edited February 3, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[Motorcycle_Mama]

I picked up a card reader today and registered my Zumo and its bundled City Navigator N. America 2008 software. But it would not let me unlock a second unit. When I tried to buy a second unlock code it wanted to charge me $9,999.00 PLUS TAX. WTF???!!! I am not kidding. Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine dollars...PLUS TAX. No freakin' way!

... snip ...

I guess I'll have to give customer support a call tomorrow and iron these issues out.

 

:0

 

Perhaps a phone call will straighten it out.

 

Just to double check, did you click on the "Redeem Additional Unlock Coupon" and/or "Unlock Additional GARMIN Unit" links at the myGarmin site?

[+victorymike]

I used my card reader to load maps onto my SD card. It worked perfectly. When I installed it in the Colorado it gave me the "Can't unlock maps" error until I deleted the map file from the card. So I know that I can make the card work if I load maps to it.

 

Under My Garmin and with my Garmin Zumo 550 selected packaged with C.N. N. America 2008 NT, MapSource Unlock screen.

 

"Unlock additional Garmin Unit" gives me this response: There are no MapSource products with regions available for you to purchase for the GPS unit serial number you have entered (i.e., you have already unlocked all the regions for all the MapSource products for the unit with this serial number).

You may either purchase an additional region for a different unit:

 

"Redeem additional Unlock Coupon" gives me this: The coupon code you entered () has already been used.

Please re-enter your additional MapSource Unlock Coupon Code:

 

"Additional Unlock Info" gives me this: Your MapSource coupon or registration code is valid for use only with your Garmin GPS unit. This agreement provides a one-user license, and it is illegal to share this data with others. If you own multiple unlock compatible Garmin GPS units, please purchase a unique unlock code for each unit. (See our Unlock FAQ page for further details.)

 

I'll call tomorrow and ask about City Select. I figured that the Topo 3.02 wouldn't register tho. My old fallback is the original MapSource Roads and Rec that I bought in 2001...and I know you can load that onto everything. But it didn't auto-route.

Edited February 4, 2008 by victorymike

[+victorymike]

Wow, Customer Support is awesome. I called, made a sandwich and got a cup of coffee, and picked up the phone. A minute later I got ahold of a great representative. Congratulated me on my new Colorado. Fixed a glitch I had when I tried to register some older software. Let me know that the City Navigator is only unlockable to my Zumo 550, which I suspected from perusing the license agreement. And registered and unlocked my City Select maps for my Colorado. All the pieces of the puzzle are complete...I have only to put them together. Thanks again for the help.

victorymike

Mike Landis

Ann Arbor, MI

Garmin GPSMAP76C

Garmin Zumo 550

Garmin Colorado 400t

Edited February 4, 2008 by victorymike

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Ok, well the issue is that the v2008 maps only have one unlock (which is used for your Zumo). It was the v8 maps for which you should have had an additional unlock not the v2008 maps.