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Oregon crashes at start up


TeamGeoduck

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Help, we are on vacation and our new Oregon (with 2.4 firmware) decided that it wants to crash before it fully turns on. I get the Garmin start up screen and the little words appear on the bottom ("loading the waypoints, tracks, etc.") then the screen fades away. I have attempted a master reset but I guess it powers down before the reset page comes up, in other words it won't let me do a hard reset. The same thing also happens when I plug the OR into the computer. ;)

 

Earlier in the day, the GPSr worked fine. Then we got on an airplane, and I turned the OR on a couple of times to see if I could get a fix and it worked fine. At the next layover, the GPSr worked like a champ, it got a fix and everything. Then when I tried to turn on the OR in the plane during the last leg of our trip, that is when the problem started.

 

Is there a way to reset the GPSr (some hidden button or something) or reinstall the firmware without needing to turn on the unit?

 

Any help would be most appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance!

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I had the same thing happen to my Oregon 400c last week....there was only real fix for it, TAKE IT BACK. ;)

 

The master reset didn't work on mine (for the one time that i got to that screen before it faded away again) :D Our supplier mentioned that he would try and play with it all day and get it to work and then get back to me with a possible fix, however he hasn't contacted me....hmmm :):D

 

Take it back and exchange it...it was a problem on some of the earlier Colorado's IIRC.

 

mm

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I had the same thing happen to my Oregon 400c last week....there was only real fix for it, TAKE IT BACK. ;)

 

The master reset didn't work on mine (for the one time that i got to that screen before it faded away again) :D Our supplier mentioned that he would try and play with it all day and get it to work and then get back to me with a possible fix, however he hasn't contacted me....hmmm :):D

 

Take it back and exchange it...it was a problem on some of the earlier Colorado's IIRC.

 

mm

Sounds to me like your batteries are low. Try it with fresh batteries.

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Nope, absolutely nothing to do with battery levels. The problem is still there even when plugging into the USB interface (which could be run without batteries). Goes exactly the same way whether starting normally or using the lead to access the mass storage device.

 

Changing batteries is the first thing to check normally. ;)

 

If my fault-finding techniques don't work, and the well respected dealer can't get it to work, then it's stuffed. :D

 

mm

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Nope, absolutely nothing to do with battery levels. The problem is still there even when plugging into the USB interface (which could be run without batteries). Goes exactly the same way whether starting normally or using the lead to access the mass storage device.

 

Changing batteries is the first thing to check normally. ;)

 

Yup, done all of that, I was just hoping for a magic answer cause we are 3000 miles from home. Good thing I have two more GPSr.

Edited by TeamGeoduck
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This is a long shot but you can try this procedure:

 

http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/Miscellaneous#toc3

 

I have a feeling that you'll be able to use this rgn file to reload 2.4 but as soon as the update is done you'll end up in the same situation. Might be worth a shot to see if it might clear up the issue but I've read about at least one person with a similar issue after the 2.4 upgrade and this didn't help.

 

GO$Rs

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Heavy sigh.

 

My Oregon 400t is also Ore-gone this morning with precisely the same description of the failure mode as you describe here.

 

Worked fine yesterday, powers up and then just f..a..d..e..s.. away in a few seconds.

 

Tried re-installing 2.4 (reportedly successfully) with the updater to no avail. I've got an RMA email in at Garmin.

 

Of course, this just couldn't happen on a >Monday< morning when I wouldn't be able go caching anyway...

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Gad...in a few days now I will get my Oregon. I'm thinking hopefully it won't have the 2.4 upgrade in it and I should not install same. I'm also thinking I should not download anything to it to avoid these various memory file size problem(s) until Garmin does something better--except for the basic City Navigator and to use the Topo 24K Northwest MicroSD. Is Garmin saying anything on any of these issues yet?

Edited by Ratsneve
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Hi Ratsneve, just be aware that this issue is NOT caused by version 2.4 , as it happened on mine that was still using 2.3 (happened last friday week, 1 week after 2.3 was released IIRC)....though i'm still not going to install 2.4 yet. :ph34r:

 

Just trying to keep this thread on track about this specific crash...i'm sure other issues are talked about in other threads nearby. :cry:

 

mm

Edited by Map Monkey
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Not sure if this is in any way related (probably a sudden hardware failure), but I'll post anyway to compare experiences.

 

My OR started crashing on me at startup last night when I went to put fresh batteries in it. I tried a couple of sets of batteries and the same thing happened. I then put the original low-but-not-dead batteries in and it was fine. I put the back on the unit and it died again. I then tested and my unit runs fine with the back off with any of the batteries, but it refuses to start up or dies soon after the boot screens appear with the back on.

 

Note that when it dies, the last screen on the LCD is still partially visible, but broken up as if the unit died and didn't clear the LCD on the way down and the LCD crystals are starting to fade one by one back to gray...

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Hi Ratsneve, just be aware that this issue is NOT caused by version 2.4 , as it happened on mine that was still using 2.3 (happened last friday week, 1 week after 2.3 was released IIRC)....though i'm still not going to install 2.4 yet. :D

 

Just trying to keep this thread on track about this specific crash...i'm sure other issues are talked about in other threads nearby. :rolleyes:

 

mm

Uh, what caused this issue then? Has it been present all along or did an earlier update cause the Oregon to start crashing at start up? I thought 2.4 was to address fixing this problem but maybe that was a different memory issue? All of a sudden the Oregon seems to be an unreliable GPSr. I wonder if g-o-cashers is backing off his off-the-cuff 3.5 out of 5 Oregon rating--it was never posted officially then and I haven't looked lately--I should. Hope this thread sticks to Oregon crashes at start up. (We may have to start some new threads? :))

Edited by Ratsneve
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2.4 fixed the memory full issue at startup or at least I haven't heard any complaints about memory full errors since the update.

 

There have been some on-going issues with freezes at start up which seem to be different than the memory full's. I've read about 2-3 instances which seem to have happened during the the 2.4 upgrade, and 1-2 others that didn't.

 

So far I've been pretty happy with 2.4. It seems to have fixed the major issue I had plus several other minor issues and the only new issue that I can see that it introduced is the problem with the barometer not providing valid readings until it is calibrated.

 

GO$Rs

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Not sure if this is in any way related (probably a sudden hardware failure), but I'll post anyway to compare experiences.

 

My OR started crashing on me at startup last night when I went to put fresh batteries in it. I tried a couple of sets of batteries and the same thing happened. I then put the original low-but-not-dead batteries in and it was fine. I put the back on the unit and it died again. I then tested and my unit runs fine with the back off with any of the batteries, but it refuses to start up or dies soon after the boot screens appear with the back on.

 

Note that when it dies, the last screen on the LCD is still partially visible, but broken up as if the unit died and didn't clear the LCD on the way down and the LCD crystals are starting to fade one by one back to gray...

After some more experimentation it appears that it will crash if I press firmly on the sides - just below the level of the power button. I was probably pressing there when I put the battery cover back on. Looks like defective hardware... :-(

 

Back to REI for my 3rd OR...(first one had an air gap under the protective layer on the screen which made the touchscreen respond vaguely to many touches...)

 

But the short story is that this is not likely related to any of the crashes seen here...

Edited by flarbear
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Aaaaaargh ;) The screen fade happened again today, just when i want to go caching, fortunately i was able to recover from it with a master reset. :huh:

 

I am running version 2.50, and just uploaded a large GPX file of geocaches in the area....was around 7.5mb, 1500 caches, 5 logs per cache. Disconnected the GPSr, then the problems started. Is this the "old" memory full issue?

 

Fortunately my 3 hour build of mapsets CN 2009 and TopoPLUS Australia 5m were uploaded to the microSD card i purchased yesterday, which saved rebuilding the mapset. :(

 

dadgum you Oregon! :huh: <=== Come-on Groundspeak, what is wrong with the word d.a.m.n ??? :)

 

mm

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Aaaaaargh ;) The screen fade happened again today, just when i want to go caching, fortunately i was able to recover from it with a master reset. :huh:

 

I am running version 2.50, and just uploaded a large GPX file of geocaches in the area....was around 7.5mb, 1500 caches, 5 logs per cache. Disconnected the GPSr, then the problems started. Is this the "old" memory full issue?

 

Fortunately my 3 hour build of mapsets CN 2009 and TopoPLUS Australia 5m were uploaded to the microSD card i purchased yesterday, which saved rebuilding the mapset. :(

 

dadgum you Oregon! :huh: <=== Come-on Groundspeak, what is wrong with the word d.a.m.n ??? :)

 

mm

 

I was experiencing similar issues with my Colorado 300, and for some reason, mine appears to be maps related, but I can't say for sure... I have a set of maps for the 5 states I am most likely to travel in (both City Nav NT and Topo) stored on the internal memory of my 300. I also have a set of maps on the SD card. This set of maps is the 48 continental states in City Nav NT, and a number of states for Topo. I know for a fact that there is overlap for map segments stored in internal memory and on the SD card. With the maps on the SD card I get the "fade to off" during startup about 1 in 3 tries to start. I also get a lockup at startup about one in 10 tries. If I rename the map file on the SD card the unit seems to startup normally just about every time. I have built new map sets, I have swapped SD cards, and the problem seems to be following the fact that the maps on the SD card overlap the maps in internal memory. That or I am just getting corruption in my map files because I am putting the SD card in a card reader and not using the GPS itself...

 

Update on 09-26I re-created the map set on the SD card last night (still using the card reader but omitting most if not all the duplicated regions) and the GPS is acting much more stable today. It has started up 3-4 times with no issues...

Edited by GeekBoy.from.Illinois
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More weekend testing and more follow-up here...

 

Last Thursday I re-built my maps for my GPSr. It appeared to be working great, then I learned that the file was actually corrupted and was not loading at all (many cross-linked clusters, etc. from a Windows chkdsk). I re-built my maps several times and every time I built them, I had startup issues on my GPSr. My most recent set was the largest by far, but still within the limits of what the GPSr is supposed to be able to accept. When I placed this map set in the GPSr, I received "Memory Full" errors during the startup process. I pulled the SD card back out and the GPSr starts up just fine.

 

From my observations, the "MEMORY FULL" error and the screen fade failure during startup appear to be related, as those were the two symptoms I saw when I had the large map set SD card inserted into the GPSr at startup. Lastly, it seems as though at least the Colorado 300 can not handle map sets as large as MapSource will create for it... I am now attempting to build a smaller map set to see if that will work...

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Update on 09-26I re-created the map set on the SD card last night (still using the card reader but omitting most if not all the duplicated regions) and the GPS is acting much more stable today. It has started up 3-4 times with no issues...

 

I've seen this problem as well. Originally I had loaded a small part of CN NT NA 2009 on my internal memory. Last week I uploaded the entire thing to my SD card and immediately started getting freezes on boot. As soon as I popped the card out it worked fine again. Deleting the img file in internal memory and replacing the card has also worked fine.

 

I would agree that the memory full errors and screen fade on boot errors are probably related and maybe have something to do with a lot of maps being loaded. That said I've also seen problems loading large gpx files from internal memory on the first boot after the load -- this was another place I used to see memory fulls now I've seen the screen fade boot.

 

GO$Rs

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A quick update: I tried the recommendation on the 6th post, via my Mac using parallels, after my third try the GPSr died forever. I called Garmin and they stated that I could do said method using the web updater on my Mac. But it was two late the OR was already dead, so we enjoyed vacation caching using our 60sc and 60scx (that is why I never sell my old units). I did get our replacement OR 400t in the UPS today.

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Well, here's my story. Got an Oregon 400t from Best Buy using a 40% off coupon from a fellow cacher. First one, lasted 3 days, then the screen slowly faded away. Called Garmin, 3 hours on the phone, they took over my computer, (cause I'm a computer dummy) tried to set it back to an earlier version. They couldn't fix it! Sent this one back, got another one, via UPS. Same thing happened while not doing the same thing. Just turned it on! Same screen fade happened. Garmin rep took over my computer, tried to reinstall an earlier version. Couldn't fix it. Sent the second unit back. Got the third unit. Seems to be working fine, except when I turned it on today, I saw the same familiar screen fade. Replaced batteries (as I had done in the past units) and seems to work fine. I think this unit needs highly charged batteries! Wish me luck. I'm only posting this for others to know my story!

Edited by Clubmud1
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I got my replacement OR last week, updated to the latest firmware, uploaded a GPX, and had a great time caching on Saturday.

 

On Sunday I deleted the GPX and "geocache_visits.txt" file, I then uploaded a fresh, GPX and a Wherigo cartridge all at the same time. Once I tried to restart the OR I got the fade away at start up again. Grrrrr

 

On Monday I called Garmin and we were not able to do firmware reload (via a Mac), so I'm now waiting on my third unit to arrive.

 

What Firmware should I use in order prevent this issue, until they come up with a new firmware that fixes this issue?

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I've seen this problem as well. Originally I had loaded a small part of CN NT NA 2009 on my internal memory. Last week I uploaded the entire thing to my SD card and immediately started getting freezes on boot. As soon as I popped the card out it worked fine again. Deleting the img file in internal memory and replacing the card has also worked fine.

 

GO$Rs

 

I have a Colorado and Oregon.

I was preparing the Colorado for sale [cannot cope with the wheel]

I had a few local maptiles of TOPO GB on internal memory and CityNavigator Europe on the card.

So I loaded all TOPO GB and all CityNavigator UK onto one 2GB card ready to sell.

 

The fading startup began and drove me crackers so I removed the stray TOPO map tiles from internal memory and the unit is now strarting up quicker than I have ever seen it!!

 

Thank you for the Forum and help

 

Can I suggest that the members always should include their software versions and NT or Non NT as they post their findings - as believe there as subtle differences between the software for US, Canada and Europe etc.

 

ie US posters have been using v2009 maps for some time and the Europe versions are not out until the 14th October.

 

A comment on how CityNavigator works in the US with version 2009 is not always relevant to us in the UK or Europe or if you you have a Colorado/Oregon 400 US or UK.

 

I must make sure that my 'profile' reflects it :D

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Having the exact same "start up" issues as described in this forum. (Actually on hold with Garmin as I type this.) We have been dealing with them for a month now. Already had the Oregon replaced with a new one once. Now we have to return this one as well.

 

Getting no where with Garmin and am frustrated with their poor customer service. I'm not super techie so I struggle to understand some of the suggestions above, however, I feel very strongly that we SHOULD NOT have to go through all that with a brand new GPS.

 

The customer service rep I spoke to Monday assured me that he had never heard of these problems before. I am finding that very hard to believe. I'm currently waiting for a supervisor at the moment.

 

We love the Oregon when it is working, but Magellin is sounding better and better at the moment.

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Having the exact same "start up" issues as described in this forum. (Actually on hold with Garmin as I type this.) We have been dealing with them for a month now. Already had the Oregon replaced with a new one once. Now we have to return this one as well.

 

Getting no where with Garmin and am frustrated with their poor customer service. I'm not super techie so I struggle to understand some of the suggestions above, however, I feel very strongly that we SHOULD NOT have to go through all that with a brand new GPS.

 

The customer service rep I spoke to Monday assured me that he had never heard of these problems before. I am finding that very hard to believe. I'm currently waiting for a supervisor at the moment.

 

We love the Oregon when it is working, but Magellin is sounding better and better at the moment.

Does the new Firmware update - 2.6, fix this problem?

 

Software 2.6

 

Fixed issue that caused a shutdown during power on

 

mm

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Help, we are on vacation and our new Oregon (with 2.4 firmware) decided that it wants to crash before it fully turns on. I get the Garmin start up screen and the little words appear on the bottom ("loading the waypoints, tracks, etc.") then the screen fades away. I have attempted a master reset but I guess it powers down before the reset page comes up, in other words it won't let me do a hard reset. The same thing also happens when I plug the OR into the computer. :unsure:

 

Earlier in the day, the GPSr worked fine. Then we got on an airplane, and I turned the OR on a couple of times to see if I could get a fix and it worked fine. At the next layover, the GPSr worked like a champ, it got a fix and everything. Then when I tried to turn on the OR in the plane during the last leg of our trip, that is when the problem started.

 

Is there a way to reset the GPSr (some hidden button or something) or reinstall the firmware without needing to turn on the unit?

 

Any help would be most appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Just had my Oregon do the same thing. Was route maped to one location then on the MAPs screen told it to go to a geocache. It started calculating then it just went dead. Had it plugged to garmin car addator for power and good batteries. Every time I started it up again it would load up to the main screen then 2 seconds later just shut off.

 

I tried computer cord and new batteries but all ways the same thing. Long story short I took the maps SD card out and started it up again. It stopped and said it could not calculate roads, I pressed OK and it is working fine now. I have now added the Roads SD back and it is still good.

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I've had my Oregon 300 for 2 days now and it "freezes" up everytime I turn it on. We have not even taken it outside yet. I get between 10 and 20 minutes of use and then it locks up, it will freeze up on any screen or menu. The only way to get it going again is to take out the batteries and restart it. Garmin recommended the beta software 2.86, with a master restart, but no luck :D . Ouch, very discouraging

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