I think my Garmin GPSMap 76CSX might be refreshing slowly

[Hairymare]

Hi, I have had it since 6/17/09. I don't think it used to refresh as slowly as it is refreshing now. But, maybe I didn't realize it. I was just wondering if anybody has a thought on the subject. I love it and it is extremely accurate. I have used it quite a bit and also it contains the sirfstar 3 chipset. I am on apple, too.

Thanks,

Yvette

[scotthsi]

What do you mean by "refreshing"? Is the screen getting slower to react or are you talking about picking up the satellites when it's turned on? Hate to suggest the obvious, but have you tried new batteries?

[Hairymare]

Thank-you. I do mean redrawing the map page. I have not noticed it to be slow to pick up the satellites. But, sometimes I have the "D's" on the satellite bars and sometimes there aren't D's. I did try it with brand new lithium batteries that I carry for emergencies but I am generally using fairly new Sanyo Enyo rechargeable batteries. Thanks again, Yvette

[scotthsi]

Hmmm.... Can't imagine what would cause the slow screen re-draw other than weak batteries. How does it act when plugged into and powered by your computer via USB cable? Extremely cold temperatures will make LCD screens sluggish, but that probably isn't your case this time of year...and indoors.

[snowfleurys]

Have you added any mapsets?

[+larryc43230]

Have you added any mapsets?

That is something that seems to slow down screen redraw: I started out using City Navigator North America NA. When I added Topo 100K maps, the screen redraw on my 60CSx did seem to slow down. Not by much, but it was noticeable.

 

--Larry

[+merlot]

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago with my 76csx. I had installed the CN NA Micro SD and then tried to install some GPX files to see what would happen. In fact it just kept saying "drawing....." forever. I contacted Garmin and they just had me install the latest version 4.00 software. Apparantly the problem was having maps greater than 2 GB. This solved the problem immediately. They said I should do a master reset but I didn't do it/or apparantly didn't need to. The GPS is working great.

[Hairymare]

Hi, thank-you all again. I did install 100 K Topo maps back when I got it on a 4 mg sd card. Also, I installed the entire Eastern part of North America - all that would fit onto the card. I think I am up to date on with the latest version of software on the GPS'r. I have to see if Garmin has come out with a new one. Maybe I should remove some maps. Thanks again.

[scotthsi]

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago with my 76csx. I had installed the CN NA Micro SD and then tried to install some GPX files to see what would happen. In fact it just kept saying "drawing....." forever. I contacted Garmin and they just had me install the latest version 4.00 software. Apparantly the problem was having maps greater than 2 GB. This solved the problem immediately. They said I should do a master reset but I didn't do it/or apparantly didn't need to. The GPS is working great.

 

What map did you install that is over 2 gigs? City Navigator is only about 1.3 gigs. The 2025 map tile limit in Mapsource won't let you get anywhere close to 2 gigs.

[+Klatch]

Hi, thank-you all again. I did install 100 K Topo maps back when I got it on a 4 mg sd card. Also, I installed the entire Eastern part of North America - all that would fit onto the card. I think I am up to date on with the latest version of software on the GPS'r. I have to see if Garmin has come out with a new one. Maybe I should remove some maps. Thanks again.

I am not sure from your reply if you have more than one map set installed, but if you DO, this may help. From the map page: menu/setup map. Scroll over to the "i"with a circle around it, press enter. Scroll down and hide any mapset you are not using, show the one you want to use. This will prevent any unused maps from drawing in the background.

[scotthsi]

Hi, thank-you all again. I did install 100 K Topo maps back when I got it on a 4 mg sd card. Also, I installed the entire Eastern part of North America - all that would fit onto the card. I think I am up to date on with the latest version of software on the GPS'r. I have to see if Garmin has come out with a new one. Maybe I should remove some maps. Thanks again.

 

Try pulling the SD card and running it "stock" to see if the screen re-draw rate returns to normal. I have the 60CSx which is exactly the same GPS electronically as yours, just in a different case. I'm running 4.00 for the system firmware and 3.00s for the GPS chipset firmware. Absolutely no problems here. I have all of City Navigator North American on one SD card and the entire US Topo 2008 split up on three other SD cards. I played around with CN extensively, comparing directions with my Nuvi, when I first acquired the map file just to see how it worked. It worked great, even at highway speeds...no re-draw problems. I now just keep the CN SD card for backup to my Nuvi and use my 60CSx exclusively on foot with the east coast part of Topo loaded. I haven't had any problems with the screen re-fresh rate that I didn't expect. Of course, it will be a bit slower when scrolling/zooming in a highly detailed area, but that is to be expected and not considered a problem by me. The slight lag isn't a bother at all.

[+GPSlug]

My 60Cx was slowing down more and more.

 

Between the accumulated gpx track files and the different map sets I had on it for quick swapping, I figured the micro-SD was getting fragmented. So I pulled all the files off of it, re-formatted, and put just one map file back on it.

 

It loads a heck of a lot faster now using the same map set I was before. That set isn't really large, but it isn't tiny (~300 MB between CNNA-NT, Ibycus Topo, Calgary Trail Maps, and Florida Topo).

[scotthsi]

My 60Cx was slowing down more and more.

 

Between the accumulated gpx track files and the different map sets I had on it for quick swapping, I figured the micro-SD was getting fragmented. So I pulled all the files off of it, re-formatted, and put just one map file back on it.

 

It loads a heck of a lot faster now using the same map set I was before. That set isn't really large, but it isn't tiny (~300 MB between CNNA-NT, Ibycus Topo, Calgary Trail Maps, and Florida Topo).

 

That's strange. Solid state memory, such as SD cards, doesn't need to be defragmented like magnetic storage media like hard disk drives, etc do. It's instant access memory and no associated lag with having to move the read head all over the magnetic platter for a file that isn't contiguous.

 

And, like you said, 300 mb is not a large file at all. My topo maps are pushing 1 gig each and would be larger if $^%#&* Mapsource let me select more than 2025 map tiles per map. The City Navigator North America map file is about 1.3 gigs on another card and these large files don't cause any issues at all. Yes, there is some minor lag in redrawing screens in very congested areas, but that's to be expected. My Nuvi for the car does the same thing.

[+Dryphter]

There were threads a long time ago discussing screen re-draw lag. One of the causes seemed to be City Nav NT vs the Non-NT versions.

 

I had the NT version of CN2007 (or 08? I don't remember). I switched to the non-NT version on my 60csx and the re-draw is definitely faster when I scroll around on the map manually. Recalculates routes fasters too.