Jump to content

Oregon 300 'No caches loaded'


Triple Crown

Recommended Posts

When I load GPX files onto my Oregon 300, I can see the file but often on the first re-boot after loading, the machine locks up and I have to pull the batteries. The unit then boots normally (actually a little faster than normal) but when I select geocaches it says 'No geocaches found.'

 

The GPX file is still there, but the unit doesn't see it so I've been having to re-load it for the unit to display the caches. Also, sometimes I get a partial load where the close caches are there, but the distant ones are not, so I have to verify that the furthest cache in my GPX has loaded each time.

 

Currently using 3.2 software but this problem has been intermittent through all upgrades.

 

Any ideas?

Edited by Triple Crown
Link to comment

This seems to happen on all of the Oregons from time to time -- its too bad to hear that it is still happening with 3.2/3.7, one of the fixes in that release sounded like it might address this problem.

 

One thing that might help is this. Before downloading new caches delete your old gpx files and reboot the Oregon. I think it has something to do with overwriting an old file with a new one but I'm not 100% sure on that one.

Link to comment

One thing that might help is this. Before downloading new caches delete your old gpx files and reboot the Oregon. I think it has something to do with overwriting an old file with a new one but I'm not 100% sure on that one.

Another observation people have made is that it is more likely to happen if you load geocache GPX files onto your SD card rather than internal memory. I almost never load GPX files on internal memory and I do have ocassional lock-up issues during startup.

Link to comment

I load my gpx files on internal, but I do have one of those corrupted gpx files there that you can't delete. Hasn't really seemed to cause any problems though. When this happened it was soon after loading up a new pocket query. Plugged the unit into the car and it got really stuck trying to load and and froze. I unplugged it and couldn't turn it off, so I took the batteries out and the screen very slowly faded but never quite did go black for a long time. Put batteries back in and the caches were gone and not showing in "find Geocache". Back on the computer it still show the file. I deleted it and reloaded. All is fine since.

Link to comment

The problem happened to me today using an Oregon 300 with firmware 3.2:

 

- connected the Oregon to the PC

- deleted 4 gpx files each containing 500 caches (internal memory)

- copied a new gpx file containing 500 caches to the Oregons internal memory

- disconnected the Oregon from the PC

- booted the Oregon and it would not finish its booting process

- only thing that helped was to pull the batteries

- booted the Oregon again without any problems, however, no caches were displayed

- connected the Oregon to the PC, opened the gpx file using a text editor, inserted and deleted a space, saved the gpx file

- disconnected the Oregon from the PC

- booted the Oregon

- finally all caches were displayed again

 

Is there any way to make the caches reappear in such a situation without having to connect the Oregon to a PC? Otherwise it would really suck if this happens somewhere outdoors where there is no PC available...

 

P.S.: In my opinion this again shows how inefficient the way the Oregon handles caches and waypoints is. Why can't it just always display all caches and waypoints that are stored in gpx files on the Oregon. If one deletes a cache/waypoint on the Oregon it is also deleted from the gpx file. Simple as that....

Link to comment

Without getting into the "should we be able to delete caches versus mark as found" debate, this seems to happen occasionally to all ORx00 owners. My way to prevent it happening is this :

 

Gps into USB Storage Mode

delete the gpx file(s)

allow the OR to reboot and load the chages

Gps into USB Storage Mode

Add the new gps file(s)

Reboot.

Link to comment

Without getting into the "should we be able to delete caches versus mark as found" debate, this seems to happen occasionally to all ORx00 owners. My way to prevent it happening is this :

 

Gps into USB Storage Mode

delete the gpx file(s)

allow the OR to reboot and load the chages

Gps into USB Storage Mode

Add the new gps file(s)

Reboot.

 

Well it's a few extra steps, but if it works reliably then that's what I'm doing from now on!

Link to comment

I also have the problem ! I agree that it is very annoying when discovering it outdoor!

Unfortunately, there is probably no solution to repair this problem without your computer.

 

I think that the bug may happen when the space left on the memory is not large enough to store the whole GPX file. In this case, the uploaded GPX file might be corrupted.

 

When i have this problem, i clean all the saved traces and waypoints and i upload again the GPX files

This way, it works fine. It seems that, after a clean, the memory is free and the data can be uploaded without being corrupted.

 

I missed to check the files last time it happened to me.

Could anyone check the file on the GPS to see if it is complete (simply open it with Wordpad) ?

 

 

When I load GPX files onto my Oregon 300, I can see the file but often on the first re-boot after loading, the machine locks up and I have to pull the batteries. The unit then boots normally (actually a little faster than normal) but when I select geocaches it says 'No geocaches found.'

 

The GPX file is still there, but the unit doesn't see it so I've been having to re-load it for the unit to display the caches. Also, sometimes I get a partial load where the close caches are there, but the distant ones are not, so I have to verify that the furthest cache in my GPX has loaded each time.

 

Currently using 3.2 software but this problem has been intermittent through all upgrades.

 

Any ideas?

Link to comment

After always being able to load approx. 1500 caches to the Oregon via GSAk, I'm having a lot of problems now.

 

I'm using 3.42, but I think I got the issues around 3.41 :?

 

The procedure Maingray wrote out helps, but tonight I can't get eevn that to work!!

 

Any ideas on why it's worse tonight?

 

Or on an expanded version of Maingray's routine?

 

I have the Discovery Maps National Parks OS maps on an SD card installed, and GSAK installs the file to the internal gpx folder. Child Waypoints are loaded as POI (I'm using the Colorado/Oregon GPX Export macro for GSAK 7.5 written by SnoWake and lignumaqua)

Link to comment

:P The master reset brought the caches back.

 

Now I'll just need to spend an hour remembering how I like my 400t :?

 

EDIT: BTW a master reset was all I did. i.e. the file with the caches just appeared on the power up after the reset.

 

Also, I think that the Profile that seemed to be the most 'reset' was the one in use. The rest seem to have remembered the metric/imperial stuff.

Edited by kevenh
Link to comment

I also have the problem ! I agree that it is very annoying when discovering it outdoor!

Unfortunately, there is probably no solution to repair this problem without your computer.

 

Actually, there is a way to solve this in the field, without a computer, IF you've set your GPS up the way I have.

 

I had a Colorado that went brain dead twice in the 1 1/2 years I owned it (it was replaced a few months ago by Garmin...haven't seen the problem since but I already had this method in place to repair the problem myself, in the field, without a computer).

 

I load all my GPX files on my SD card. If it goes brain dead in the field: power down, remove the SD card, power on, "no geocaches found" message, power down, replace the SD card, power on...all the caches will be back!! :)

Link to comment

From a simmilar dicussion on a Norwegian forum I discovered a link to this discussion. I seem to have found yet another trick to fix this on the run without PC.

 

- I run Colorado 300 SW 3.30

- I recive PQ files by mail and unzip them to my SD card. Normally around 1500 - 2000 caches + connected waypoints

- When I have updated the files, or swith to another SD card in the field with GPX files for another area, my unit often locks during startup. It shows "Loading maps" at the bottom of the screen, and there it stays.

- The trick is to always leave it in this "Loading maps" situation for 1-1,5 minutes. After that time i push and hold the power button, it says nicely "beep", screen turns instantly black. When I then turn it on again everything is OK.

 

If I do not follow this procedure but forces it back on directly by power down or removing batteries I get the effect of not seeing all geocaches as described by others.

 

Before I discovered this trick I did reboot it without the SD card. Then deletet all waypoints. Turned off, reloaded SD, turned on, and normally it was OK. But with this new trick I have not needed to emty the waypoints, tracks or anything for several months. And if I accidentaly is unpatient and do not wait the 1-1,5 minutes before I push and hold the power button it does not turn of with the nice "beep", but the screen just fades away slowely. If this hapens I have to ude the "old" procedure of removing SD, deleting waypoints and so on.

 

This workaround with the 1-1,5 minutes is now my standard procedure, but still anoying.

* Anyone out there that have found a way to avoid this problem to occure at all?

* Anyone of you using a different procedure to recover that are helped by the 1-1,5 min trick I use (Oregon or Colorado)?

* And maybe the most important. Anyone with any idea if Garmin will ever solve this problem? It seems to happen with people using different SW versions and different units (Oregon and Colorado) so I would expect that it is brought to their attension :laughing:

Link to comment

When I load GPX files onto my Oregon 300, I can see the file but often on the first re-boot after loading, the machine locks up and I have to pull the batteries. The unit then boots normally (actually a little faster than normal) but when I select geocaches it says 'No geocaches found.'

 

The GPX file is still there, but the unit doesn't see it so I've been having to re-load it for the unit to display the caches. Also, sometimes I get a partial load where the close caches are there, but the distant ones are not, so I have to verify that the furthest cache in my GPX has loaded each time.

 

Currently using 3.2 software but this problem has been intermittent through all upgrades.

 

Any ideas?

 

when you open it up you'll see a folder called "Garmin", inside that folder should be a folder called "GPX". Drop the files in there and you should be set. If either of those folders don't exist (if you have a memory card in the unit you'll need to create them in that order. \garmin\GPX) just create them. Also for this unit make sure your GPX file has 500 cache locations or less. There were problems in some units if they were added in sizes larger than that. Also make sure the file is less than 5mb in size as this has caused some lockup issues on the oregon units. easiest way to drop the size is to include less logs. hope this helps.

Link to comment

When I load GPX files onto my Oregon 300, I can see the file but often on the first re-boot after loading, the machine locks up and I have to pull the batteries. The unit then boots normally (actually a little faster than normal) but when I select geocaches it says 'No geocaches found.'

 

The GPX file is still there, but the unit doesn't see it so I've been having to re-load it for the unit to display the caches. Also, sometimes I get a partial load where the close caches are there, but the distant ones are not, so I have to verify that the furthest cache in my GPX has loaded each time.

 

Currently using 3.2 software but this problem has been intermittent through all upgrades.

 

Any ideas?

 

when you open it up you'll see a folder called "Garmin", inside that folder should be a folder called "GPX". Drop the files in there and you should be set. If either of those folders don't exist (if you have a memory card in the unit you'll need to create them in that order. \garmin\GPX) just create them. Also for this unit make sure your GPX file has 500 cache locations or less. There were problems in some units if they were added in sizes larger than that. Also make sure the file is less than 5mb in size as this has caused some lockup issues on the oregon units. easiest way to drop the size is to include less logs. hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the info! I use GSAK and usually try to load almost 2000 caches at a time. I'll try running filters so I can get 4 GPX files of 500 or less and see if that helps.

Link to comment

I have an Oregon 200 & Oregon 300. I load my GPX files onto the SD card on both of them. It is always a hit or a miss to have the hang issue. Usually, what I do is take the SD card out and restart the unit without any gpx files. Then, I turn it off, put the SD card back in and everything loads fine. If you put the gpx files on the SD card and get this error in the field it is easy to correct without a computer. Someone once told me that these units load the gpx files into the internal database. So, it would make sense that the database would be wiped clean by booting the units without any gpx files on the SD card or the unit's internal memory.

 

I had a Dakota 10 that would do the same thing. It is annoying, but I have learned to live with it. I wish Garmin would take care of this issue. By the way, my Oregon's have the same issue whether it is a GSAK GPX file, or one from Geocaching.com.

Edited by jeepdelfuego
Link to comment

This happened to me yesterday.

Oregon 400t, Beta Software 3.42, GPS software version 3.70

Deleted all geocaches from garmin/gpx

Loaded 1352 caches to unit via GSAK via USB mode

Booted my gps to make sure caches were present and found that there were some listed.

Drove just over 200km for a hike/caching 20km in length

Booted up the unit and the closest cache showing is 130km away.

The ones I wanted were in the GSAK file and had loaded as POI's via a macro and POI loader onto my NUVI 255w

 

Luckily there were only a few caches along our hike and my hiking partner had the caches loaded so he gave me the coords to load onto my unit.

 

Added - today I removed the Garmin/Gpx/ geocaches.gpx file and redid the send waypoints to unit and they are all there.

 

So what do you need to do to make sure that all of the file loads before you leave home?

Edited by rovers3
Link to comment

This seems to happen on all of the Oregons from time to time -- its too bad to hear that it is still happening with 3.2/3.7, one of the fixes in that release sounded like it might address this problem.

 

One thing that might help is this. Before downloading new caches delete your old gpx files and reboot the Oregon. I think it has something to do with overwriting an old file with a new one but I'm not 100% sure on that one.

Link to comment

When I load GPX files onto my Oregon 300, I can see the file but often on the first re-boot after loading, the machine locks up and I have to pull the batteries. The unit then boots normally (actually a little faster than normal) but when I select geocaches it says 'No geocaches found.'

 

The GPX file is still there, but the unit doesn't see it so I've been having to re-load it for the unit to display the caches. Also, sometimes I get a partial load where the close caches are there, but the distant ones are not, so I have to verify that the furthest cache in my GPX has loaded each time.

 

Currently using 3.2 software but this problem has been intermittent through all upgrades.

 

Any ideas?

 

when you open it up you'll see a folder called "Garmin", inside that folder should be a folder called "GPX". Drop the files in there and you should be set. If either of those folders don't exist (if you have a memory card in the unit you'll need to create them in that order. \garmin\GPX) just create them. Also for this unit make sure your GPX file has 500 cache locations or less. There were problems in some units if they were added in sizes larger than that. Also make sure the file is less than 5mb in size as this has caused some lockup issues on the oregon units. easiest way to drop the size is to include less logs. hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the info! I use GSAK and usually try to load almost 2000 caches at a time. I'll try running filters so I can get 4 GPX files of 500 or less and see if that helps.

 

OK, I put my GPS in mass storage mode, deleted the old GPX file, then put 4 GPX files of less than 500 caches on it. Hung up again on reboot. Pulled the batteries. No caches found.

 

Maingray's solution works reliably, so I'm going to stick with it.

 

paraphrasing from his post above:

 

Gps into Mass Storage Mode

delete the gpx file(s)

disconnect, allow the OR to reboot

reconnect, Gps into Mass Storage Mode

Add the new gpx file(s)

Reboot.

 

Works every time for me. Clunky and tedious but dependable.

Edited by Triple Crown
Link to comment
Maingray's solution works reliably, so I'm going to stick with it.

 

paraphrasing from his post above:

 

Gps into Mass Storage Mode

delete the gpx file(s)

disconnect, allow the OR to reboot

reconnect, Gps into Mass Storage Mode

Add the new gpx file(s)

Reboot.

 

Works every time for me. Clunky and tedious but dependable.

Good you have found a way that works for you and probably for others :wub:

 

It would be nice to know if you have you tried the "1-1,5 minutes" method described by myself above?

 

"- The trick is to always leave it in this "Loading maps" situation for 1-1,5 minutes. After that time i push and hold the power button, it says nicely "beep", screen turns instantly black. When I then turn it on again everything is OK."

 

Would be nice to know if it works for you to. It's a 100% fix for me and minimum of hazzle. And it works in the field when I am switching SD cards going from one area to another without PC available.

Link to comment
Maingray's solution works reliably, so I'm going to stick with it.

 

paraphrasing from his post above:

 

Gps into Mass Storage Mode

delete the gpx file(s)

disconnect, allow the OR to reboot

reconnect, Gps into Mass Storage Mode

Add the new gpx file(s)

Reboot.

 

Works every time for me. Clunky and tedious but dependable.

Good you have found a way that works for you and probably for others :wub:

 

It would be nice to know if you have you tried the "1-1,5 minutes" method described by myself above?

 

"- The trick is to always leave it in this "Loading maps" situation for 1-1,5 minutes. After that time i push and hold the power button, it says nicely "beep", screen turns instantly black. When I then turn it on again everything is OK."

 

Would be nice to know if it works for you to. It's a 100% fix for me and minimum of hazzle. And it works in the field when I am switching SD cards going from one area to another without PC available.

 

Yes I did try that. I don't get the beep and the unit doesn't power down most times, sometimes if I hold it long enough the screen just fades to gray and then goes off, but most times the power button does nothing and I end up pulling the batteries.

Link to comment
Yes I did try that. I don't get the beep and the unit doesn't power down most times, sometimes if I hold it long enough the screen just fades to gray and then goes off, but most times the power button does nothing and I end up pulling the batteries.

Thankyou for testing :P Nice to know.

 

Your description exactely matches wath happens if I try to early to shut it of. Maybe for some strange reason the "1-1,5 minutes" tric only works on the Colorado. I have two other friends with Colorado that also solves their issue with the "1-1,5 minutes" trick, but I have yet to learn that it has helped on a Oregon.

 

As Spectra20 says there is rather some good infor here now. Hope it can help for others with the problem :blink:

 

But where is Garmin.......? :wub:

Link to comment
Yes I did try that. I don't get the beep and the unit doesn't power down most times, sometimes if I hold it long enough the screen just fades to gray and then goes off, but most times the power button does nothing and I end up pulling the batteries

 

This is the same thing that happens to me with Oregon 400t.

 

My latest was this weekend again going for a hike which entailed a 2 1/2 hr drive to get there. I loaded the caches to my unit with GSAK and checked a number of the local caches to make sure that they were there. All of the ones I checked happened to have transfered but after the hike we decided to do some other caches and a number of them had not transfered.

How can I know if every cache transfers without checking each one individually? Not really a reasonable option as I'm never sure of which direction I will be going after the hike.

BTW - All of the caches transfered to my NUVI using a macro and POI loader so the NUVI bings as I approach but they may or not be on the Oregon.

Link to comment
Yes I did try that. I don't get the beep and the unit doesn't power down most times, sometimes if I hold it long enough the screen just fades to gray and then goes off, but most times the power button does nothing and I end up pulling the batteries

 

This is the same thing that happens to me with Oregon 400t.

 

My latest was this weekend again going for a hike which entailed a 2 1/2 hr drive to get there. I loaded the caches to my unit with GSAK and checked a number of the local caches to make sure that they were there. All of the ones I checked happened to have transfered but after the hike we decided to do some other caches and a number of them had not transfered.

How can I know if every cache transfers without checking each one individually? Not really a reasonable option as I'm never sure of which direction I will be going after the hike.

BTW - All of the caches transfered to my NUVI using a macro and POI loader so the NUVI bings as I approach but they may or not be on the Oregon.

 

If you do the double boot procedure all of your caches will transfer.

 

Gps into Mass Storage Mode

delete the (old) gpx file(s)

disconnect, allow the OR to reboot

reconnect, Gps into Mass Storage Mode

Add the new gpx file(s)

Reboot.

 

Happy caching.

Link to comment

 

- The trick is to always leave it in this "Loading maps" situation for 1-1,5 minutes. After that time i push and hold the power button, it says nicely "beep", screen turns instantly black. When I then turn it on again everything is OK.

 

 

I tried this solution last weekend, actually I let it sit on the “loading maps screen” for almost an hour I pressed the power button several times throughout the hour it would not let me do anything, ultimately I pulled the batteries and yes on power on the caches were not there. :)

Link to comment

Thanks TripleCrown, I was going to try that method on my next atempt but how will I be able to be sure that all the caches in the file transferred.

I'm a bit wary now.

 

In my experience if the unit successful boots the first time after downloading new caches the cache database is good. If you have to power cycle or pull batteries the database is usually corrupt.

 

Whenever I run into this situation I delete all gpx files, reboot and reload even it looks okay because I've seen partial corruption as well.

Link to comment

I think that I just ran into that partial corruption. Using GSAK and a macro ( the one that gives larger fonts) to load the caches. There were 1993 caches in the database and it only loaded 1975.

Using a different macro it loaded all of the caches to my Nuvi as POI's with POI Loader.

Link to comment
I think that I just ran into that partial corruption. Using GSAK and a macro ( the one that gives larger fonts) to load the caches. There were 1993 caches in the database and it only loaded 1975.

Using a different macro it loaded all of the caches to my Nuvi as POI's with POI Loader.

The ColoradoExport macro has a default "Number of Caches" set to 1975. Hope that is all there is to that.

 

How did you count the # of geocaches loaded, BTW?

Link to comment

Last weekened, all of the caches disappeared from my Oregon 450. Luckily it happened after I arrived at the Cache Across America cache location. I tried removing the SD card and putting it back in and then some caches loaded...but the caches located along the drive home didn't show. I forgot to take my USB cable along with me, so I was unable to connect the Oregon to my dad's PC and copy new GPX files over. I tried using a microSD card adapter with the SD card but then my dad's PC wouldn't even boot up! When I got home, the card worked fine on my PCs. I removed the old GPX files and copied new ones over. So far so good...but I'm thinking I might stick to internal memory for a while and see if the problem goes away.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...