Dakota 20 wouldn't boot!

[+Sam&Ziggy]

Just had a very disconcerting time with my new Dakota 20. Had been out all morning having good success geocaching and after the last cache, I plugged the unit into the car power cable. Instead of the Dakota switching to car power, the screen went to a script stating that it was saving all waypoints, routes, etc. and it got stuck at 61%. After that, the screen went black and the Dakota turned off. No matter what I did to turn it back on, with car power or batteries, it would get to the welcome screen, then it would say it was loading maps and then turn off! Dang!

Well, I got it home and tried plugging into the PC and it wouldn't even connect to the PC. Started to Panic!

Knowing that the Dakota series is similar to the Oregon series, I made my way to the Oregon Wiki site and found how to get those units back on track under the same situation. (BTW..... of course there is NO help at all at Garmin's site! And no tech help on a Sunday, of course.) So what the heck, I'll give it a try.

It came down to this:

1) Remove any micro/SD card from the Dakota, if you have one in the unit.

2) Connect the Dakota to the PC USB cable and hold down the power on button for about 30 seconds. At that point the Dakota should allow access to the PC and you can then go to the folders in the Dakota's USB mass storage.

3)Create a folder on your desktop to transfer files into temporarily.

4) Go back to the files in the Dakota and find the file labeled "GPX" and open it. COPY all files into the desktop folder. This includes the folder labeled "Current". Other than that file, the other items in that folder are your caches and waypoints.

5) Now copy the "Current" file back to the Dakota's USB mass storage and then open that file up and delete all items in there. (They are still backed up in the desktop folder, remember!)

6) Now unplug the Dakota from the USB cable and re-boot it. It should now start as normal. If it does, power it back down, re-install the micro/SD card, and restart the Dakota to insure it's still OK.

7) Reconnect the Dakota back to the PC USB cable. It should now recognize the Dakota as a USB mass storage device right away again. Open the storage and find the "GPX" file again. Open it.

8) Re-open the saved file on your desktop and copy back all the files. DO NOT copy back the "Current" file from the desktop. That will be used again when you start the unit again. The corrupt file was in that "Current" folder.

9) Disconnect from the PC and re-boot the Dakota. All should be back where you were with the exception of what you were doing when the unit corrupted itself!

[+splashy]

The reason is "almost always" the corrupt current.gpx

Is it possible you turned the ignitionkey while it was

doing the script stating that it was saving all waypoints, routes, etc?

[+rjerry]

What you described is exactly what happened to mine except mine shut down after I had it connected to my computor. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.

 

Just had a very disconcerting time with my new Dakota 20. Had been out all morning having good success geocaching and after the last cache, I plugged the unit into the car power cable. Instead of the Dakota switching to car power, the screen went to a script stating that it was saving all waypoints, routes, etc. and it got stuck at 61%. After that, the screen went black and the Dakota turned off. No matter what I did to turn it back on, with car power or batteries, it would get to the welcome screen, then it would say it was loading maps and then turn off! Dang!

Well, I got it home and tried plugging into the PC and it wouldn't even connect to the PC. Started to Panic!

Knowing that the Dakota series is similar to the Oregon series, I made my way to the Oregon Wiki site and found how to get those units back on track under the same situation. (BTW..... of course there is NO help at all at Garmin's site! And no tech help on a Sunday, of course.) So what the heck, I'll give it a try.

It came down to this:

1) Remove any micro/SD card from the Dakota, if you have one in the unit.

2) Connect the Dakota to the PC USB cable and hold down the power on button for about 30 seconds. At that point the Dakota should allow access to the PC and you can then go to the folders in the Dakota's USB mass storage.

3)Create a folder on your desktop to transfer files into temporarily.

4) Go back to the files in the Dakota and find the file labeled "GPX" and open it. COPY all files into the desktop folder. This includes the folder labeled "Current". Other than that file, the other items in that folder are your caches and waypoints.

5) Now copy the "Current" file back to the Dakota's USB mass storage and then open that file up and delete all items in there. (They are still backed up in the desktop folder, remember!)

6) Now unplug the Dakota from the USB cable and re-boot it. It should now start as normal. If it does, power it back down, re-install the micro/SD card, and restart the Dakota to insure it's still OK.

7) Reconnect the Dakota back to the PC USB cable. It should now recognize the Dakota as a USB mass storage device right away again. Open the storage and find the "GPX" file again. Open it.

8) Re-open the saved file on your desktop and copy back all the files. DO NOT copy back the "Current" file from the desktop. That will be used again when you start the unit again. The corrupt file was in that "Current" folder.

9) Disconnect from the PC and re-boot the Dakota. All should be back where you were with the exception of what you were doing when the unit corrupted itself!

Edited August 16, 2009 by rjerry

[+Sam&Ziggy]

The reason is "almost always" the corrupt current.gpx

Is it possible you turned the ignitionkey while it was

doing the script stating that it was saving all waypoints, routes, etc?

 

Splashy, the saving screen only came up AFTER I plugged into the car cord. The car was already started and therefore the cord was powered. It then locked up at 61% and sat there until I unplugged it again.

[+splashy]

I'm wondering from the beginning what could be the reason.

Everybody describes the same, still we cannot find the real reason this happens.

Somehow this dataloading to current.gpx gets stuck, why can't we simulate this?

Also it seems to happen more often to the same persons.

 

Any suggestions somebody???

[+Torgut]

Something similar is happening with me. First I noticed that unlike the previous days when I connect the unit to the computer, it wouldn't connect as a mass storage device, but in normal mode, getting external power from the USB cable.

 

I thought it could be because of the batteries, running down. So I switched batteries... and it never started again.

 

If I try the technique described, I got the screen of mass storage device mode for a few seconds, and then, by itself, it goes down.

 

UPDATE: After rebooting the computer I was able to connect the GPS following the steps explained above and... IT WORKED! Thanks dude, you made may day. I bought the unit in USA but I'm in Europe... I would go through lots of troubles to have the situation fixed by Garmin.

Edited August 17, 2009 by Torgut

[+Sam&Ziggy]

Something similar is happening with me. First I noticed that unlike the previous days when I connect the unit to the computer, it wouldn't connect as a mass storage device, but in normal mode, getting external power from the USB cable.

 

I thought it could be because of the batteries, running down. So I switched batteries... and it never started again.

 

If I try the technique described, I got the screen of mass storage device mode for a few seconds, and then, by itself, it goes down.

 

UPDATE: After rebooting the computer I was able to connect the GPS following the steps explained above and... IT WORKED! Thanks dude, you made may day. I bought the unit in USA but I'm in Europe... I would go through lots of troubles to have the situation fixed by Garmin.

 

Glad what I learned helped you out! Yah, I hope this is not a warning of more problems to come, but at least it does seem to confirm that the "guts" of the Dakota's are the same as, or very similar to the Oregons!

[+Torgut]

Something similar is happening with me. First I noticed that unlike the previous days when I connect the unit to the computer, it wouldn't connect as a mass storage device, but in normal mode, getting external power from the USB cable.

 

I thought it could be because of the batteries, running down. So I switched batteries... and it never started again.

 

If I try the technique described, I got the screen of mass storage device mode for a few seconds, and then, by itself, it goes down.

 

UPDATE: After rebooting the computer I was able to connect the GPS following the steps explained above and... IT WORKED! Thanks dude, you made may day. I bought the unit in USA but I'm in Europe... I would go through lots of troubles to have the situation fixed by Garmin.

 

Glad what I learned helped you out! Yah, I hope this is not a warning of more problems to come, but at least it does seem to confirm that the "guts" of the Dakota's are the same as, or very similar to the Oregons!

 

I forgot to mention that in my case the problem was in my Geocaching files and not in "current" file. At least it ceased when I just deleted all Geocaching files in the folder.

[+Sam&Ziggy]

Something similar is happening with me. First I noticed that unlike the previous days when I connect the unit to the computer, it wouldn't connect as a mass storage device, but in normal mode, getting external power from the USB cable.

 

I thought it could be because of the batteries, running down. So I switched batteries... and it never started again.

 

If I try the technique described, I got the screen of mass storage device mode for a few seconds, and then, by itself, it goes down.

 

UPDATE: After rebooting the computer I was able to connect the GPS following the steps explained above and... IT WORKED! Thanks dude, you made may day. I bought the unit in USA but I'm in Europe... I would go through lots of troubles to have the situation fixed by Garmin.

 

Glad what I learned helped you out! Yah, I hope this is not a warning of more problems to come, but at least it does seem to confirm that the "guts" of the Dakota's are the same as, or very similar to the Oregons!

 

I forgot to mention that in my case the problem was in my Geocaching files and not in "current" file. At least it ceased when I just deleted all Geocaching files in the folder.

 

But I too, had been out caching! I had just gotten back to the GeoElement and was getting ready to head to the next cache on my list when this happened. Instead of a dozen or so hopeful caches for the day, I got stopped after just 4. Mostly what was in the file I cleared out tempoarily was Caches.

[+rjerry]

It would seem we may have a problem in our Dakotas. I have never experienced this in any of my other Garmins.

[+Anvil Crawler]

Greetings,

 

My Dakota 20 would not power up today. I tried suggestions made earlier. No joy. I deleted the gmapsupp.img file. Device powered up. I updated my device last night to the latest version of of the firmware. The gmapsupp.img file was made prior to the update. After deleting the img file I opened MapInstall. It too had an updated. I updated the MapInstall application and then reloaded the supplimental maps to my device (i.e. created a new gmapsupp.img file). Everything apears to be working. Hope this helps.

 

BTW, a few other items i came across while researching this problem (I'm new to the forum and these may be well know - appologies if i'm going over old ground).

1) GarminDevice.xml apears to be created every time device powers up. Before I hit on the process described above I opened this file. It appeared to be incomplete - the xml tags didn't lineup. I deleted it but it came back after next power up attempt.

2) Open the Satelite screen and press down in the upper left courner of screen. After a few moments you'll enter the diagnostic screen. I found this in an Origon discussion. Apparently it works on the D20.

3) The process for a hard reset on the Origon gps is to press on the upper left courner of the screen while powering up. After a while you'll be prompted to reset. I tried this on the Dakota 20 with no luck.

 

Thanks.

[+Riptyd]

Hey All,

My Dakota 20 would not power up today. I tried suggestions made earlier. No joy. The difference in my problem seem the only way to power down is to pull the batteries out and unplug. I have tried all of the listed ways to try and fix but all I gett is the Garmin screen and nothing else. Seems that once it has power it is locked up. any other ideas?

 

Thanks,

Riptyd