Original Software, Oregon 550

[+Team Caracache]

Recently I noticed that my Oregon 550 GPS had lost some base software. I did a factory reset, but the missing stuff, chiefly the Profile Templates did not reappear. Anyone any ideas on how to reload original base software? ( I can't find my backup - must have gone 2 or 3 computers ago). Just need a Geocaching and Automobile Profile. At the moment I only have Recreational. Garmin Support were  not interested. and said I should exchange it for 30% off., which is still very expensive for something you cant make calls on, nor access the internet or messages. Surely the software files for these things must be available somewhere!

[+on4bam]

4 minutes ago, Team Caracache said:

Recently I noticed that my Oregon 550 GPS had lost some base software. I did a factory reset, but the missing stuff, chiefly the Profile Templates did not reappear. Anyone any ideas on how to reload original base software? ( I can't find my backup - must have gone 2 or 3 computers ago). Just need a Geocaching and Automobile Profile. At the moment I only have Recreational. Garmin Support were  not interested. and said I should exchange it for 30% off., which is still very expensive for something you cant make calls on, nor access the internet or messages. Surely the software files for these things must be available somewhere!

 

You should be able to adjust one of the profiles that are still there and save them with a new name (geocaching...). In fact, a profile is just a list of values for the different settings.

 

I always save my geocaching profile as backup with a new name so that when the profile gets corrupted for whatever reason I can just select the backup profile and have all settings back.

 

In case you can't save a profile under a new name, copy your profile folder to you computer,  rename the profile files and copy them back to your GPS.

 

Worst case, ask someone with an OR 550 for a copy of their profile folder, put that on your 550 and go over all settings to customize them again.

 

 

[+Atlas Cached]

As on4bam states, all profiles are essentially the same with a few minor changes in setup.

 

For the Oregon x50 series, 'Recreational' is the default profile all others are cut from.

 

Create as many new profiles as you like, adjusting the settings and renaming each as desired.

 

More information about these profiles can be found at the Profiles page here.

 

Having said that, based on my experience, when these units start losing files, they are toast. I have seen a couple of x50 units internal memory become corrupt and they were never able to fully recover.

 

I suspect the 30% off offer Garmin offered would be for a current model, so you may want to look into that. The Oregon 700 is an outstanding geocaching machine!

[+Team Caracache]

On 5/5/2020 at 2:32 PM, Team Caracache said:

Recently I noticed that my Oregon 550 GPS had lost some base software. I did a factory reset, but the missing stuff, chiefly the Profile Templates did not reappear. Anyone any ideas on how to reload original base software? ( I can't find my backup - must have gone 2 or 3 computers ago). Just need a Geocaching and Automobile Profile. At the moment I only have Recreational. Garmin Support were  not interested. and said I should exchange it for 30% off., which is still very expensive for something you cant make calls on, nor access the internet or messages. Surely the software files for these things must be available somewhere!

 

Further to the above, which response was after a 1 hour live chat with UK Chat Technical Support, that got nowhere, I was delighted to receive an email the next day with a zip file that contained all the missing profiles and was extremely easy to upload to my Oregon. This too was from UK Tech Support, and saved me a lot of money. Thanks.

[+Mineral2]

Well, again to reiterate, if you're customizing the profiles anyway, having the stock settings isn't really that important.

 

On 5/5/2020 at 7:24 AM, Atlas Cached said:

Having said that, based on my experience, when these units start losing files, they are toast.

It's unclear whether these simply vanished on their own or if there is a user error at fault, one that happened without the conscious recognition of the user.

There are good reasons to upgrade that Oregon - as Atlas suggests. In a previous thread, I made the note that the Oregon 600 was a major leap forward in the series from both a hardware and software perspective. The 700 is an incremental update from the 600, but the features that sold me and keep me from looking back include

• Nicer and more readable screen
• Unlimited geocaches and GGZ support
• Unlimited profiles (you're limited to 10 on the 450/550)
• GLONASS (ok, not quite as useful, but still nice)
• User customizable buttons and shortcuts <~~ the one feature that keeps me from exploring even the other lines (GPSMap or eTrex). This for me is the dealmaker in the Oregon lineup.

[+Atlas Cached]

I so miss (on my other Garmin GPSr) the Oregon 6x0/7x0  'User Button' and the multitude of custom functions that can be assigned to both the power and user buttons... Definitely makes this unit more user friendly than any other! And the Oregon 7x0 can be found pretty reasonably priced now.

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Atlas Cached