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60CSx Losing Chipset


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I have read in the past about the 60CSx losing its chip set and the GPS becoming useless until the chip set is reloaded. From what I understand it's from hitting the power button while turning the GPS on. This has happened to me 3 times now while turning the GPS on in my Jeep. It has not been intentional, it's just that sometimes the ride can be bumpy and loud. Sometimes I re press the button because of a bump or I'm not able to hear the beep when the GPS turns on.

 

Has there been any solutions to this annoying problem? I sure don't want this to happen when I'm out in the middle of nowhere backpacking or away from home and can't reload the chipset. ( I haven't experienced this with my Vista HCx - hopefully it doesn't suffer from this problem. Maybe my HCx will become my new go to GPS)

 

Is there anyway the chipset can be loaded on the micro SD card for reinstall?

 

I've performed a search for "60csx chipset" and received a lot of returns, but from the ones I looked at, none gave a solution or address this problem. Perhaps my search foo is weak.

 

Thanks in advance!

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Chipset. To quote Princess Bride: "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

 

Normally, chipset means something like "the electronic chip and circuits that comprise the GPS receiver and receiver logic hardware" (MTK, SiRFstarIII, etc). I suspect you mean something else; maybe firmware, maybe a mapset (on an SD card or elsewhere). Maybe a route/waypoint data. Maybe something else I haven't thought of.

Edited by fratermus
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When I plugged the GPS in and ran the updater, it said something to the effect of "Install Chipset G". I believe we can all agree that it's the software that is corrupt and not the actual chipset is missing. Just using Garmin's terminology when I was using their updater.

 

Whether it's the software version (3.90) or the GPS SW (3.00s) I do not know. I didn't think to check it.

 

ETA: Who's this "Princess Bride" you speak of and what does she have to do with navigation in the outdoors? :drama:

Edited by Henny Pa
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Interesting. I'll remember to keep my paws off the buttons while my 60-series boots.

 

To the OP: I don't think there is a mechanism for storing the firmware on the SD and loading it into the GPS from there. You could take along a laptop or something and flash it in the field, I guess.

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Interesting. I'll remember to keep my paws off the buttons while my 60-series boots.

 

To the OP: I don't think there is a mechanism for storing the firmware on the SD and loading it into the GPS from there. You could take along a laptop or something and flash it in the field, I guess.

 

Unfortunately, when I'm backpacking, I don't really want to carry my laptop with me. My 44 year old body has become sensitive over the years to the weight in my pack! ;) A lot more so since I was 18 years old and humping a M60 or 90MM recoilless rifle! I guess I'll have to stick with my Vista HCx for times that I don't have a laptop around.

 

I wish Garmin would come up with a fix for this. One of the more frequent uses for my 60CSx is on my boat. I'm out on the water a lot at night and I rely on my GPS quite a bit for navigation around many of the rock piles and unmarked old timber booms in the river. Don't get me wrong, I love my 60CSx but after losing the chipset firmware / software again I've kind of lost confidence in the GPS. :drama:

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I've only had this happen to me once in 3 years that I've owned the 60Cx so I don't worry too much. Luckily, I was at home when I discovered the firmware corruption.

 

That being said, we always cache with two GPSr's now just in case something like this happens.

 

A 2nd GPSr doesn't weigh as much as a laptop and it's cheaper in most cases, too. Why not just buy a 2nd low-end GPSr to take with you on trips as a back-up?

 

When my software got corrupted, the only thing the unit would not do is track satellites. You could still do everything else like look at waypoint info or look at maps. The waypoints/caches could be transferred manually to your 2nd unit if they aren't already on there in the event of corruption.

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This has happened to me 3 times now while turning the GPS on in my Jeep. It has not been intentional, it's just that sometimes the ride can be bumpy and loud.

 

Has there been any solutions to this annoying problem?

 

Start the GPS while you aren't moving and before you start your engine, that way you have no bumps to contend with and can clearly hear the beeps. Another advantage would be the unit would get signal faster, my 60Cx seems to take 2-3 times longer to get satellite lock when moving vs standing still.

 

I've had this happen once luckily I was at home. I had never heard of this being the cause for corrupting the chipset software, I guess I will be a bit more careful when turning the unit on.

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I believe you just need to let it get off of the blue Garmin startup page before pushing any buttons. Once it switches to the satellite page you'r ok, even if it isn't locked on to any satellites yet.

 

I would be interested in hearing if anyone has lost the chipset by pushing buttons after their unit has switched to the satellite page but before acquiring satellites.

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"I would be interested in hearing if anyone has lost the chipset by pushing buttons after their unit has switched to the satellite page but before acquiring satellites."

 

In all my years of using 60 series GPS units, I've never had the chip get corrupted, and I often page ahead to the satellite page.

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I must be doing something wrong! I've had my 60CSx since 2006 and have never had this many problems with it. Tonight, on my way home from work I fired up my GPS, once again, I corrupted the chip set. I know tonight I held the power button in a little longer than usual because I didn't hear the "on" beep. Sure enough, it wouldn't get a lock on any satellites and I had to reload the G chip set software. It's frustrating, because I really like this GPS!

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I don't have tones turned on, on mine and I just hold the on button until the screen appears and then I let go; about 2-3 seconds. Think I'd try installing an old software version, say what originlly came on it, and then update to 3.7 and GPS sw version 3.0. and a different memory card and see what happens using these for a while.

 

Maybe this would get everything stable in it again. Worth a try.

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I've done some experimentation regarding this problem.

 

First I up dated my GPS with out the micro SD card. Within a few days the chipset software became corrupted and the GPS would not pick up any satellites. I then changed my SD card to a 2 gig PNY card from a 4 gig San Disk. So far so good. Perhaps I'll have to get a 4 gig PNY card or another San Disk. Maybe it's just a bad card?

 

Thanks for your suggestion eaparks!

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