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Geko has lost date


S&AT

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My Garmin Geko 201, which I've had for about six years, has suddenly lost the date. I'm wondering if it's got a Y2.01K bug! The first time I switched it on this year, I think it was OK (it had the right time at least). Since then, it's

 

1) failed to know the date when it's switched on;

2) had to go and look for satellites, rather than knowing which ones it's expecting;

3) when it does find the satellites, reported a completely wrong date (for example, the first time it said 19-Aug-29, and right now it says 20-May-90);

4) the time (ignoring the date) seems to have always been exactly one hour fast.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Or any Geko owners not experienced it?

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In both cases the first thing I would do is check and see if the software version is up to date.

Good point. It's not up to date -- I'm at 2.00 and the latest version is 2.70 -- but the latest is from May 2007, and also the release notes for the intervening versions don't mention anything remotely relevant. I would have tried updating to the latest firmware anyway, but I don't have a data cable (which is only an optional extra on the Gekos).

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I have just noticed that My Geko 201 has donr the same thing. I have performed a Hard Reset and have made sure the software version is up to date (2.70).

 

The date is still completely incorrect and it would seem that we had GPS satelites back in 1949 ? haha...

 

Any help to resolve this issue would be great, It takes forever for the Unit to locate.

 

Stevo

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I have performed a Hard Reset and have made sure the software version is up to date (2.70).

Thanks for your reply, Stevo. When you say a "hard reset", are you referring to PAGE+OK+POWER? Garmin advised me to do that, but I haven't done it yet because it will delete all my waypoints, and I don't really believe it will work.

Try to let the Geko running in a place with good skyview so it can reload the almanac again. I guess half an hour is a good time, more doesn't hurt. The almanac is transmitted every twelve minutes.

I've had mine running for longer than that with no improvement.

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Hmmm ...

 

I wonder if this is the same basic problem as I encountered with my B&W Vista back in 2007/08 - read about my experiences here:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=177915&hl=

 

The unit worked fine apart from the time / date problem. However, this meant my track-logs were all corrupted (invalid time and date), so I couldn't use the unit for geo-tagging photos, etc. Coggins pointed me to a link http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/secret.htm for the undocumented "super-master-reset", which would provide a temporary fix, but the time and date would inevitably get scrambled again from time to time.

 

In the end, after getting the same problem on two separate units (and hearing about other Vista owners who had the same problem), I ended up swapping the unit for a Summit HC, and haven't looked back since!

 

Hope this helps!

Edited by julianh
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Has anyone considered running this issue past Garmin support?

Yes. They sugggested I perform a hard reset. I haven't yet done so because it will delete all my waypoints and I'm skeptical that it will work. But I may yet have to, in order to convince them that there's a real bug.

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Has anyone considered running this issue past Garmin support?

Yeah - if you read my linked thread, you will see I contacted Garmin (via the local Australian agent) - they told me they were aware of the issue with the B&W Vista, but there was no permanent fix available! :)

 

Sorry for failing to read the linked thread. I also could have chosen my words more carefully and came across a little less a snot. I'm no expert but this definitely sounds like a bug to me. I have a friend who owns a Geko and I'm anxious to see if his has date issues.

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Has anyone considered running this issue past Garmin support?

Yes. They sugggested I perform a hard reset. I haven't yet done so because it will delete all my waypoints and I'm skeptical that it will work. But I may yet have to, in order to convince them that there's a real bug.

backup your gps with mapsource or easygps. Then you can send you stuff back to the gps when you are done resetting. I back mine up regularly. That enables me to save more tracks as well. I have differant "tracksets" depending on where I am going.

 

I have not noticed this date error phenomena with any of mine, I didn't think they could make date mistakes!

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I have not noticed this date error phenomena with any of mine, I didn't think they could make date mistakes!

Yeah - it's a mystery to me how a GPSr can get it's date wrong (by several decades!), but can still find the satellites AND get your position correct! :)

 

Nevertheless, this is a known bug with the old B&W Vista model, and it looks like it could be an issue with the Geko range too. (If you do a Google search for "gps shows incorrect date" you will find a number of links to forums etc where users have requested a fix to this problem on various models, and as far as I know, there is no permanent fix available.)

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I think it would be an good idea if as much concerned users as possible report the problem to Garmin. On the one hand Garmin then will more probably conclude that this isn't a very rare problem but it is worth to develop an firmware update to tie the customers and on the other hand because more serial numbers (see battery case) will help the engineers to narrow the root cause of the problem. Filling out the contact form for the customer support does cost a few minutes only:

 

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/home/support/supportcontact

 

Regards,

Bernhard

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I think we should collect the data of affected devices. May be this can narrow down the possible causes.

 

Hold down OK while switching on the Geko and you get this screen:

http://www.andreas-weller.de/usenet/geko201-2010.jpg

 

Interesting for comparison:

Bravo Version 8 (Hardware)

Software 2.50 (Firmware)

 

As you can see direct below software: wrong time :-(

 

Regards,

Andreas

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I have performed a hard reset (PAGE+UP+OK+POWER) on my unit, as recommended by Garmin. It destroyed all the waypoints, but didn't fix the problem. The first time it turned on, it did find the correct date, but then when it was turned off and on again, it had forgotten it, looked for the satellites again, and got a bogus date when it had found the satellites. This exactly mirrors my experience at the beginning of this year: it was on the second start-up this year that it went wrong, so I hypothesise that it has trouble saving the date on shutdown.

 

It seems that several other people have the same problem. Apart from this thread and the thread posted by wellera above ( http://groups.google.com/group/alt.satelli...cad726c6b947ddb ), I also found this one: http://www.gpspassion.com/FORUMSEN/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=132684

 

My hardware version is 8 and my firmware version is 2.00, but other people have found that a firmware upgrade hasn't solved the problem.

 

I'm going to contact Garmin again and I'll post here if I hear anything.

Edited by S&AT
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Has anyone considered running this issue past Garmin support?

Yes. They sugggested I perform a hard reset.

A hard reset is exactly what I would do in this case.

 

If you have a data cable:

 

- Download EasyGPS and backup all your waypoints, routes and tracks.

- perform the hard reset.

- let the webupdater run and unstall the firmware. Even reinstall die current firmware. Reinstalling the same firmware once helped with my GPSMap 60CSx after it had issues with the compass.

- Send the waypoints, tracks and routes back to the Geko using EasyGPS

- Let the Geko sit with good skyview for 20 minutes or so in order to download the current almanac

 

GermanSailor

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Has anyone considered running this issue past Garmin support?

Yes. They sugggested I perform a hard reset.

A hard reset is exactly what I would do in this case.

 

If you have a data cable:

 

- Download EasyGPS and backup all your waypoints, routes and tracks.

- perform the hard reset.

- let the webupdater run and unstall the firmware. Even reinstall die current firmware. Reinstalling the same firmware once helped with my GPSMap 60CSx after it had issues with the compass.

- Send the waypoints, tracks and routes back to the Geko using EasyGPS

- Let the Geko sit with good skyview for 20 minutes or so in order to download the current almanac

 

GermanSailor

If this is the same probelm as with the old B&W Vista, a full re-set would provide only a temporary fix. Sooner or later, the clock would get scrambled again (sometimes even in the model of a single track-log, with the unit on the whole time, with a good satellite fix throughout). This was very frustrating for me, because:

 

1) Garmin MapSource would not load the track logs, because it recognised that they were corrupted;

2) If I loaded the track logs with a 3rd party application, I could view them, but could not use them for geo-tagging my digital photos (because the time/date stamps were wrong).

 

Garmin told me they were aware of the problem, but they could not offer a permanent fix, other than to upgrade to a newer model (Summit HC in my case).

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If this is the same probelm as with the old B&W Vista, a full re-set would provide only a temporary fix. Sooner or later, the clock would get scrambled again (sometimes even in the model of a single track-log, with the unit on the whole time, with a good satellite fix throughout). This was very frustrating for me, because:

 

1) Garmin MapSource would not load the track logs, because it recognised that they were corrupted;

2) If I loaded the track logs with a 3rd party application, I could view them, but could not use them for geo-tagging my digital photos (because the time/date stamps were wrong).

 

Garmin told me they were aware of the problem, but they could not offer a permanent fix, other than to upgrade to a newer model (Summit HC in my case).

I suspect it's a different bug from the Vista one, even if the symptoms are similar, because everyone seems to have suddenly encountered it at the beginning of this year. Also a hard reset didn't provide even a temporary fix, only a one-time fix.

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I think we should collect the data of affected devices. May be this can narrow down the possible causes.

 

Hold down OK while switching on the Geko and you get this screen:

http://www.andreas-weller.de/usenet/geko201-2010.jpg

 

Interesting for comparison:

Bravo Version 8 (Hardware)

Software 2.50 (Firmware)

 

As you can see direct below software: wrong time :-(

 

 

With my geko 301 I get

Bravo Version 204

Software 2.70

 

see geko_301_sys.jpg

 

My Date / Time is still correct - but the time I see below "software" is different to the correct time shown on other screens.

 

For the Geko 201 there is also a Software 2.70 available - never tried an update?

 

Update:

The time below "software" on the system info screen seems to be the overall sysup time.

That time just continues after restart of the geko.

So my geko was running about 24 full days (about 72 hiking days). Do not know if a system reset and sw update resets that time too.

Edited by balga
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Interesting for comparison:

Bravo Version 8 (Hardware)

Software 2.50 (Firmware)

 

As you can see direct below software: wrong time :-(

 

My unit shows the same problem and has the same firm- and hardware version. Even updating the unit to firmware version 2.70 and reseting the unit didn't solve the problem.

 

By the way the time displayed on the diagnostics page shows the overall up time since the last unit reset, not the wall time.

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I have the same problem on two Geko 201's, one is running FW 2.60, the other 2.70 (i.e. the latest). Both show the same problem described by others above (lose date/ time when switching off and on again, lose date/ time when GPS reception is lost, show strange dates [e.g. 23-Dec-49 etc.]). I contacted Garmin in Germany and got three replies: first was to do a master reset (press OK and PAGE while switching unit on), second was to use a program they sent me to set the date/ time (called 'garmin_timeset'). Nothing worked, and my impression was that theY're lost. The third suggestion was to send in the unit, pay a minimum of € 39 and hope they can repair it. My confidence in the latter is not too high, given the description of others in this forum.

 

The Bravo Ver of the two Gekos I have is 8.

 

Since the Geko 201 is a supported product, that Garmin offers for sale even now, my expectation would be that they have to provide a fix for the obvious bug.

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If this is the same probelm as with the old B&W Vista, a full re-set would provide only a temporary fix. Sooner or later, the clock would get scrambled again (sometimes even in the model of a single track-log, with the unit on the whole time, with a good satellite fix throughout). This was very frustrating for me, because:

 

1) Garmin MapSource would not load the track logs, because it recognised that they were corrupted;

2) If I loaded the track logs with a 3rd party application, I could view them, but could not use them for geo-tagging my digital photos (because the time/date stamps were wrong).

 

Garmin told me they were aware of the problem, but they could not offer a permanent fix, other than to upgrade to a newer model (Summit HC in my case).

I suspect it's a different bug from the Vista one, even if the symptoms are similar, because everyone seems to have suddenly encountered it at the beginning of this year. Also a hard reset didn't provide even a temporary fix, only a one-time fix.

Try a Google search for "garmin wrong date" - it seems there are a lot of Garmin models which have been afflicted with this issue at various times; some have experienced it in the past (e.g. B&W Vista), while a few seem to have just taken a hit in 2010.

 

Y2.01k bug? :laughing:

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BRAVO VER 8

Software 2.70

Temp 20C

Bat 2.55V

Geko-201 #1: S/N: 90414406

Geko-201 #2: S/N: 12933751

 

I have the 2010 date bug on TWO Geko-201’s! It was fine on 12/31/2009.

But 01/01/2010 it says the date is 12/05/1968!!!! When switching it on

the date is calculated wrong. But making it even worse, almanac data

is also lost. So it needs to search for all satellites whenever it is

turned on.

 

I think the firmware needs to be updated!!!

 

Ref:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=239205

 

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.satelli...cad726c6b947ddb

 

http://www.gpspassion.com/FORUMSEN/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=132684

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FWIW, I used to have a B+W Vista that did the same thing, odd that it even went to the same years (2029 amd 2090) :ph34r: . Garmin also instructed to do the hard and master resets, which did nothing to change the clock. They did email a small executable file called "timeset" (I think) that would reset the clock to the correct time...at least until it went time traveling again. But it did require the use of a cable to connect to the PC.

 

Maybe Garmin still has this for your unit, and could send it?

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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:38:25

 

Hello RickRich,

 

I received your Geko 201 today. I will send it on to our engineers tomorrow. I

will let you know when I have more information.

 

Best Regards,

 

Damon Aldridge

Outdoor/Fitness Support

 

Garmin International

1200 E 151st St

Olathe, KS 66062

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This issue has now been elevated to reach the attention of the general tech-press:

The Register:

Y2.01K hits Garmin sat-nav

Routing like it's 1949

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/10/garmin_dates/

 

I wonder if this increase in exposure will get Garmin to actually do something about it?

 

(Do I get naming rights for first recorded use of the term "Y2.01k Bug"? ;) )

Nice that it's in the Register. Thanks for the link. But I'd like to point out that I used "Y2.01K Bug" at the top of this thread on January 3rd. :)

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(Do I get naming rights for first recorded use of the term "Y2.01k Bug"? :laughing: )

Nice that it's in the Register. Thanks for the link. But I'd like to point out that I used "Y2.01K Bug" at the top of this thread on January 3rd. :laughing:

Oops! How did I miss that?! :P

Sorry - definitely not trying to steal your thunder! So, does S&AT get credit for first recorded use of "Y2.01k Bug"?

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Good news!

 

Use the Webupdater so you can download and install Firmware 2.90.

 

I just gave it a try. This version seems to fix this nasty bug - at least for my Geko

201 devices...

 

Regards,

Andreas Weller

 

For those who want to save the file on their computer. Start Webupdater and go as far as the message for the new Firmware appears. Then click on "View Webpage". This opens a webpage with information concerning the changes. Show "source" of the page (depends on your browser how to do this) and read the text "NOTE FOR USERS WANTING TO DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE ON ONE COMPUTER AND THEN INSTALL IT TO THEIR DEVICE USING A DIFFERENT COMPUTER:" This gives you the link for the download of the firmware file. Install this file manually as described in the "NOTE FOR ...". :)

 

regards,

 

weoli

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I just wanted to finish the story, as I started it. After the firmware update was released, I wrote to Garmin and asked if they would install it for me. (I was unable to install it myself as I don't have the cable, and anyway the cable connects to a 9-pin D serial port that computers don't usually have any more). They asked me to mail it to them at my expense, which I couldn't be bothered to argue with, and they fixed it and mailed it back for free a week later. It's nice to have a working GPSr after four months!

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