Killed the firmware on Etrex 20

[+The Kentish Roses]

Hi All,

 

I hope someone can help.

 

After purchasing my own Etrex 20 (which I love btw) a geo-buddy decided to buy one too. It arrived the other week and I went round to see him last night and to set it up for him.

 

Anyway, the long and the short is I've broken his GPS! I showed him how to update the firmware, something I have successfully done on mine but somehow the firmware on his device is now corrupt! I've fried his firmware!

 

When the GPS is now turned on it says the system files are not present and the GPS goes no further.

 

We've tried a hard reset "menu" "select" and "power" buttons held for 30 seconds, but no joy.

 

We've tried removing the batteries and then repeating the above, no joy.

 

We've tried re-connecting to the PC and re-running the update but it says the file is corrupt.

 

There doesn't seem to be too much out there on Google for this unit, but looking at this failure for older Etrex models it's a return to Garmin job.

 

Is this the case or can we do something to force the firmware onto the unit?

 

Cheers in advance.

[+The Frosties!]

I don't think the user accessible files on the etrex are the same as the firmware - I backed up mine (etrex 30) the minute I opened it. I then updated to 2.6, and 2.61 firmware. Later I had a corrupt GPX and the device "broke". Eventually I found how to force it into usb mode and wiped the device, and copied the original backup back on, the device still showed 2.61 firmware version, so I hadn't overwritten that.

Undoubtedly worth a try though.

I hear very, very good things about garmin support, but if it's just a couple of days old I'd go back to the retailer and deny all knowledge of anything but "it didn't work out of the box"

[+The Patrician]

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=24324

 

Might be worth trying the suggestion in the 3rd post on the above thread to connect to the PC and see if that gets you any further.

[+The Kentish Roses]

Agree with The Frosties, firmware is usually on the PCB not accessible in the same way as "standard files". Looks like it's a sending back to Garmin job.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

[+The Kentish Roses]

@The Patrician ; Thank you, I forgot to mention, we did that last night too but no joy there. It's borked good and proper me thinks.

[+The Frosties!]

there's always (and also not likely to work) master reset

1 Power off the device

2 Press the Menu, Enter (joystick pressed in), and Power buttons simultaneously <--3 buttons!

3 Release on the buttons once the Do you really want to erase all user data? message appears

4 Select Yes

[+drdick&vick]

Does the Etrex 20 accept an SD card? if Yes go to **

Will the unit boot to USB mode? if Yes then go to ##

If so you could try visiting this forum HERE and click on Forums and then search for Etrex 20 and view the entry listed as 'eTrex 20/30 software versions summary'

**Download one of the GCD files and rename it as GUPDATE.GCD and load it into the Garmin folder of the SD card and turn the machine on and hopefully it should go through an update.

##Download one of the GCD files and rename it as GUPDATE.GCD and load it into the Garmin folder of the SD card and turn the machine on and hopefully it should go through an update.

I only ever use GCD's to update my 62s and previously my Oregon 300

[+The Frosties!]

is there an update on this?

[+drdick&vick]

Always nice to know if our ideas work as then we can use them again if someone else has the same problem.