+*mouse* Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 Deliberately posting in the UK forum as many of you will not read the Technical Forum. A warning for others who own Oregon 550. Do not update your unit with the latest software update 3.8 Keehotee and I both tried to upgrade our units this morning and both are now totally useless and will not boot. Looking at the forums we now realise that this is happening to lots of other people and there seems to be an error with the latest software upgrade. Personally not impressed - between us that's five failed units in 10 months. It's the weekend so no caching now and as we've been through this before and know the reality is they will have to be sent away for repair and we'll be without for another week or so at least. Plus then there's the cost of new zag screen protectors, postage, etc... which is about £20 quid a pop so this will cost us £100 now because of faulty units. Thinking it's time to call it a day with Garmin TBH...... *rant over!* Quote Link to comment
+paulbarratt Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 Interesting. I've just done an update for my 300 and it told me the software it just downloaded was older than the software I had so I didn't install it. Quote Link to comment
+GeoBardys Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I updated mine last night and it seems fine? Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I updated mine last night and it seems fine? Was it the 550? The different versions of the Oregon have different software loads. They don't all use the same one. The 450/450t and 550/550t use different software to the 300/400/400t. I may just hold off upgrading for now Thanks for the warning Mouse! Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+Smurf Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 It's at times like this that i really apreciate my £30 PDA and £15 bluetooth GPSr (sorry abbout your garmins tho, I know that you and Tim have had way too many problems with them) Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I updated mine last night and it seems fine? As yours is brand new it might be that it came loaded with a newer firmware version. Apparently having the last beta installed will mean it loads properly - but if you don't, it'll fail All I know is we went independently to MyGarmin, ran their webupdater - and both now have unuseable (and unrollbackable) GPS's Quote Link to comment
I! Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 It's the weekend so no caching now No, no. Make the most of your Garminless state and visit a few caches armed with nothing other than a map and some notes. Feel the freedom! I much prefer going to single caches, or doing very short series, without the electronics. Quote Link to comment
+GeoBardys Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I used the webuploader maybe that made the difference? Really sucks that they've messed up though... Quote Link to comment
+GeoBardys Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 I used the webuploader maybe that made the difference? Really sucks that they've messed up though... Quote Link to comment
+S&G.Davison Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 (edited) I upgraded my 550T via web uploader yesterday .. no problems and unit is fine I was upgrading from 3.74 Beta Hope you get yours sorted Edited September 4, 2010 by S&G.Davison Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 It's the weekend so no caching now No, no. Make the most of your Garminless state and visit a few caches armed with nothing other than a map and some notes. Feel the freedom! I much prefer going to single caches, or doing very short series, without the electronics. Been there/done that a few years ago. Unfortunately the sort of cache I'd find without a GPS is precisely the sort of cache I'd rather not look for. Thanks though Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 OK.... I took the chance and updated my 550. It was previously on Software version 3.40 and GPS version 3.70. I had not loaded the Beta I first deleted all the GPX files and waypoints stored. Updated it using the web updater. Before unplugging it I 'ejected' it from Windows. Powered it up and it seems OK. Software version 3.80 and GPS version 4.52. Now to put some GPX files in it. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 OK.... I took the chance and updated my 550. It was previously on Software version 3.40 and GPS version 3.70. I had not loaded the Beta I first deleted all the GPX files and waypoints stored. Updated it using the web updater. Before unplugging it I 'ejected' it from Windows. Powered it up and it seems OK. Software version 3.80 and GPS version 4.52. Now to put some GPX files in it. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Was that with the standalone webupdater Chris? Ali and I used the MyGarmin site - but haven't heard from anybody else that did the same. Perhaps that's the problem? Quote Link to comment
+GeoBardys Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 OK.... I took the chance and updated my 550. It was previously on Software version 3.40 and GPS version 3.70. I had not loaded the Beta I first deleted all the GPX files and waypoints stored. Updated it using the web updater. Before unplugging it I 'ejected' it from Windows. Powered it up and it seems OK. Software version 3.80 and GPS version 4.52. Now to put some GPX files in it. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Was that with the standalone webupdater Chris? Ali and I used the MyGarmin site - but haven't heard from anybody else that did the same. Perhaps that's the problem? Tim i'm sure your probably already aware of this but when i was researching around many oregon FAQ sites I found out you can backdate the software version of your GPS via the main GARMIN website. Maybe try putting the software back to how it was and then update it via the webuploader? Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 OK.... I took the chance and updated my 550. It was previously on Software version 3.40 and GPS version 3.70. I had not loaded the Beta I first deleted all the GPX files and waypoints stored. Updated it using the web updater. Before unplugging it I 'ejected' it from Windows. Powered it up and it seems OK. Software version 3.80 and GPS version 4.52. Now to put some GPX files in it. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Was that with the standalone webupdater Chris? Ali and I used the MyGarmin site - but haven't heard from anybody else that did the same. Perhaps that's the problem? Tim i'm sure your probably already aware of this but when i was researching around many oregon FAQ sites I found out you can backdate the software version of your GPS via the main GARMIN website. Maybe try putting the software back to how it was and then update it via the webuploader? Been trying to do that all day Liam. The underlying problem now is we cannot get either GPS past the Garmin splash screen when you turn on. So connecting to the 'puter is now possible (if not easy) - but updates and rollbacks are having no effect at all, and software is not updating as the GPSes aren't booting properly to finish the updates. Just for comparison (and I've asked this "on the other side" too) - has anybody that's done a successful upgrade to the latest software (3.80) done so through the my.garmin.com website - or have they all be done via Webupdater? Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 Tim I just connected the 550 to my laptop, ran the webupdater program and followed the steps. That's how I've always done it. I've not used Beta versions where you do it manually. When done, the 550 reported loading new software then came up OK. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 Tim I just connected the 550 to my laptop, ran the webupdater program and followed the steps. That's how I've always done it. I've not used Beta versions where you do it manually. When done, the 550 reported loading new software then came up OK. Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books I hadn't even heard of webupdater until today - we've always updated through the web site. Oh well - 2 more for garmin on monday Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 It is kind of through the website as you install the webupdater from Garmin. Then it just runs as a program on the PC http://www8.garmin.com/products/webupdater/howtoinstall.jsp Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 The root of all of (todays) ills...... Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 Tim If you get a browser that works would the GPS power up connected to the PC? If so it might be worth trying the Webupdater to see if it can 'see' the GPS and perhaps reinstall the software update? Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer - geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books http://support.Groundspeak.com//index.php Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 (edited) Tim If you get a browser that works would the GPS power up connected to the PC? If so it might be worth trying the Webupdater to see if it can 'see' the GPS and perhaps reinstall the software update? Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer - geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books http://support.Groundspeak.com//index.php I've tried all sorts Chris - I can get the PC to see the GPS's now, and I've run the software reboot patch (the DOS/cmd line one), I've run webupdater - I've even run some of the standalone beta .exe's. The trouble is the GPS's now won't go past the Garmin splash screen, so although all of the above say they've successfully loaded the new software, the GPS itself isn't rebooting properly to finish off the installation. It wasn't the browser - I was using Chrome (as I always have previously) on my laptop, and Ali was using Firefox (ditto) on hers. Our only common point was the connection - but we didn't run the upgrade at the same time. It seems that the upgrade was corrupted at my.garmin.com, so off to Garmin with 'em is our only option now Edited September 5, 2010 by keehotee Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 I guessed you had tried everything. Bad luck in the end. Oh well, you'll have to use a 'smart' phone for caching until you get the Garmins replaced Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 I guessed you had tried everything. Bad luck in the end. Oh well, you'll have to use a 'smart' phone for caching until you get the Garmins replaced Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books I've just totted them up, and ignoring the two Oregons, we've still got 7 or so working GPSes in the house - although my original 1997 Magellan Meridian suffers from serious Y2K issues Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 I don't think you say anywhere in this thread but I assume you have tried a 'master reset'? "Turn off the Oregon, press and hold the upper left corner of the screen and power the unit on. You will eventually be asked if you want to reset user data. If you answer "Yes" the unit will be master reset." Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 I don't think you say anywhere in this thread but I assume you have tried a 'master reset'? "Turn off the Oregon, press and hold the upper left corner of the screen and power the unit on. You will eventually be asked if you want to reset user data. If you answer "Yes" the unit will be master reset." First thing we tried Quote Link to comment
+Highland Horde Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 I just updated to 3.8 using the web updater on my mac and no problems. It looks like it may be a bug on their site. I imagine that you have tried already and I know the Oregon is a more complex unit than the etrex but I had issues with my etrex and couldn't get it too boot no matter what I did. I called garmin and they walked me through a couple different things until we got it to boot. They already had heard about the issue so already had a few things that had worked so there was less guess work. Quote Link to comment
+Big Wolf Posted September 5, 2010 Share Posted September 5, 2010 Just updated my 450 to 3.80 and updated fine with no issues. Quote Link to comment
+libertyjsy Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Thank you for posting this topic as I had no idea you could update the software. Sue Quote Link to comment
+The Chaos Crew Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 I was wanting to update mine for the new "multi" feature, but I think I will wait a month or two to give them a chance to iron out any bugs Quote Link to comment
+drdick&vick Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 I was wanting to update mine for the new "multi" feature, but I think I will wait a month or two to give them a chance to iron out any bugs Upgraded to the Beta version with the multi option and it works okay for me. (Oregon 300) Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 (edited) Don't confuse the Oregon *00 software with the Oregon *50 software... Two different softwares! My 300 works fine on the new 'full' update. (After doing very nicely, thank you, on the beta!) Multi's here I come... (only needs a way to save the multi waypoints and finals*, to make it a good update. * For proximity cases, and proper mileage/county/etc for GSAK stats!) Edited September 6, 2010 by Bear and Ragged Quote Link to comment
+drdick&vick Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Just tried to install the full update on my 300 and went through the download and at the end got the message that the update was corrupted and my unit was not updated. Quote Link to comment
blackrocks Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Hello everyone :-) I'm glad I found this thread by luck, because now I see, I'm not the only one having a problem with this update. I've the same issue as described by *mouse* and keehotee. On Saturday I wanted to update the firmaware of my Oregon 550 via Webupdater from 3.50 to 3.80. The download of the update was successfull and it was copied to the GPSr. But afterwards the installation on the GPSr didn't succeed. Now the GPSr doesn't boot correctly anymore. It doesn't get past the the screen showing "Garmin" at the beginning. So there's no chance to undo or repeat the update. To switch off the device, I have to remove the batteries. Unfortunately there is no response by Garmin from Sunday untill now. Best regards Quote Link to comment
+Jonovich Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 I used WebUpdater to go from the Beta 3.74 to the Release 3.80 on my 550 without any problems. Been using the GPSr since then and it's worked fine. I'm wondering what the differences must be between those 550's that worked doing an upgrade and those that didn't? My unit is a 550, running Discoverer mapping from the SD card and with a New York city map installed on the unit itself. I didn't delete my GPX files prior to the upgrade, or indeed remove the SD card. There is also plenty of free space on the unit itself. Wonder how that compares with others that have failed? Jon. Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 I used WebUpdater to go from the Beta 3.74 to the Release 3.80 on my 550 without any problems. Been using the GPSr since then and it's worked fine. I'm wondering what the differences must be between those 550's that worked doing an upgrade and those that didn't? My unit is a 550, running Discoverer mapping from the SD card and with a New York city map installed on the unit itself. I didn't delete my GPX files prior to the upgrade, or indeed remove the SD card. There is also plenty of free space on the unit itself. Wonder how that compares with others that have failed? Jon. We used the my.garmin.com interface , NOT webupdater. That seems to be the biggest difference...... Quote Link to comment
+drdick&vick Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Just updatet to 3.90 on my 300 via webupdater and it worked ok this time. Success and all functioning ok. Quote Link to comment
+Jonovich Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 (edited) I used WebUpdater to go from the Beta 3.74 to the Release 3.80 on my 550 without any problems. Been using the GPSr since then and it's worked fine. I'm wondering what the differences must be between those 550's that worked doing an upgrade and those that didn't? My unit is a 550, running Discoverer mapping from the SD card and with a New York city map installed on the unit itself. I didn't delete my GPX files prior to the upgrade, or indeed remove the SD card. There is also plenty of free space on the unit itself. Wonder how that compares with others that have failed? Jon. We used the my.garmin.com interface , NOT webupdater. That seems to be the biggest difference...... Hmm... I expect both to just put a copy of the firmware update file on the GPSr and then request you unplug/restart it. It's the GPSr that does the upgrade, not the download tool. I wonder if we could get a copy of the update file that is on WebUpdater and the one that is applied via my.garmin.com and do a binary compare? Could be a corruption in the file or maybe they got the wrong file and it's applying x00 firmware to the x50 unit? Have there been any cases of successful x50 updates via my.garmin.com? J Edited September 7, 2010 by Dakar4x4 Quote Link to comment
+misty's muskateers Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Just updated my 550 to 3.8 via webupdater and all is fine Quote Link to comment
+angellica Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Have you tried forcing the Oregon in to mass storage mode. Adam had to recover his Oregon after this happened with the 3.74 beta.. (from Oregon Wiki site) Attach the Oregon to your computer via USB cable The Oregon will power on and start to boot, immediately power the unit off while still connected Power on the Oregon and continue to hold down the power button for 30 seconds The Oregon should enter USB mass storage mode Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Have you tried forcing the Oregon in to mass storage mode. Adam had to recover his Oregon after this happened with the 3.74 beta.. (from Oregon Wiki site) Attach the Oregon to your computer via USB cable The Oregon will power on and start to boot, immediately power the unit off while still connected Power on the Oregon and continue to hold down the power button for 30 seconds The Oregon should enter USB mass storage mode Yes - but that method didn't work for ours. We couldn't power down without pulling the batteries. Quote Link to comment
+S&G.Davison Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Not that it helps original poster . .Just bought a 550 (non T) which was on SW 2.2 .. so followed similar route to our 550T upgrade path - updated to 3.74Beta via the download taken from from the Garmin website and then ran web updater app to get to 3.8.. All worked fine.. Hope OP gets their units sorted Quote Link to comment
blackrocks Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 After the Update to Firmware 3.80 my Oregon 550t didn't work anymore. Yesterday I got an answer by Garmin-Support. They sent me an updater.exe, a rgn-file and instructions how to do a downgrade to Version 3.40. Before downgrading, I deleted the old gcd-file from the device. Then the downgrade to 3.40 worked fine. Afterwards I made a masterreset and started the update to 3.80 via webupdater (without masterreset the update from 3.40 to 3.80 didn't work and the GPSr hung again). Now all works fine :-) Best regards Quote Link to comment
+GWTony Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 My Oregon did the same thing, I was able to recover back to Ver 3.40. Question: After doing this master reset, what user data gets deleted? Do pictures, maps, waypoints, or geocaches get deleted? I guess this does not matter as I will just back up the data before doing it..... Anyhow I would still like to know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 (edited) My Oregon did the same thing, I was able to recover back to Ver 3.40.Question: After doing this master reset, what user data gets deleted? Do pictures, maps, waypoints, or geocaches get deleted? I guess this does not matter as I will just back up the data before doing it..... Anyhow I would still like to know. Thanks! If it's anything like doing a 'hard' reset on a Garmin iQue then (as opposed to a 'soft' reset by pressing the Reset button) all user data is removed as well as any customer installed software. The unit is reset to the state it was in when it was first purchased. Edited September 15, 2010 by Pharisee Quote Link to comment
+Stuey Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 My Oregon did the same thing, I was able to recover back to Ver 3.40.Question: After doing this master reset, what user data gets deleted? Do pictures, maps, waypoints, or geocaches get deleted? I guess this does not matter as I will just back up the data before doing it..... Anyhow I would still like to know. Thanks! If it's anything like doing a 'hard' reset on a Garmin iQue then (as opposed to a 'soft' reset by pressing the Reset button) all user data is removed as well as any customer installed software. The unit is reset to the state it was in when it was first purchased. I did a master reset on the Oregon and to be honest I struggled to see what changes it made. All customised settings remained. Quote Link to comment
+drdick&vick Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 I would love to do a master reset on mine but for some stupid reason it just won't play. Only wanted to reset the odommeter to zero. Quote Link to comment
+Graculus Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 I would love to do a master reset on mine but for some stupid reason it just won't play. Only wanted to reset the odommeter to zero. Oregon 550 - Settings - Reset - Reset Trip Data - Are you sure? - Yes. Odometer etc back to zero Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Quote Link to comment
+smstext Posted September 15, 2010 Share Posted September 15, 2010 try the update again, at the end click on bottom right corner on the safely remove hardware icon. someone mentioned this last night at the newbury meet. Quote Link to comment
+ayepee Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I have just successfully updated my 550T. I removed the SD card before starting which also removed my OSM map and any waypoints, track etc. I then used webupdater to painlessly do the business and as smstext says I used the icon to safely eject the hardware. regards - ayepee Quote Link to comment
+drdick&vick Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I would love to do a master reset on mine but for some stupid reason it just won't play. Only wanted to reset the odommeter to zero. Oregon 550 - Settings - Reset - Reset Trip Data - Are you sure? - Yes. Odometer etc back to zero Chris Graculus Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk Geocaching.com Knowledge Books Sorry I should have added that it is the 300. I can reset the trip Odometer but not the master Odometer using that method, to reset that requires a Master Reset. (press top left corner while powering on. Yup but it don't on mine) Have decided that I just can't be bothered. Quote Link to comment
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