| Versions |
  |
|
| Author |
 Topic  |
|
admin_0
1 Posts |
 Posted - 02 mai 2007 : 03:02:07
|
I have a NUVI 350. I downloaded the latest updates, but it has not solved the following problem:
SOMETIMES ( definitely not always), my unit will be on "acquiring satellites" for about 10 minutes. It will then ask me the following 3 questions:
1) if I am indoors
2) if I am using this far away from the last time I used it
3) if today's date is ..... ( with the correct date)
After that, it will often (one time it still did not work for awhile) start working.
This is not right. Has anyone experienced this? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ira |
|
|
Ads
|
|
|
NanaimoRick
Canada
7426 Posts |
Posted - 02 mai 2007 : 04:34:35
|
What you have explained above is the normal process the Nuvi goes through when it is taking a longer than normal time to acquire satellites. This can be caused by a number of factors including:
Do you have a clear view of the sky when this happens (no tall building or trees obtructing the Nuvi's view of the sky)? Has it been a number of days since you have used the Nuvi when this happens? What firmware version is on your Nuvi? Also I assume that the answer to the first 2 questions about being inside or have moved are No.
|
Rick James - Nuvi Forum Moderator
Nuvi 350 - Nuvi 760 - Nuvi 1695LM - Nuvi 3790LMT (with ecoRoutes HD) - Nuvi 2460LMT - Nuvi 3597LMTHD (with ecoRoutes HD) also TomTom 540S for side by side comparison >> Here <<
2010 Golf Wagon 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel
|
Edited by - NanaimoRick on 02 mai 2007 04:53:27 |
 |
|
|
oblivion
2 Posts |
Posted - 03 mai 2007 : 16:39:08
|
I have a new 350 and I have the same problem.
Some times it takes over 40 mins to get a satellite signal. This was in a very open area, with clear skies (except for a very small amount of overcast clouds).
This has happened several times.
I look at the strange satellite display that shows you the strength of the satellite signals when this happens. Mostly, it shows 2-3 satellites with low (and fluctuating) signal strengths. But once when there was a 40 min wait to acquire, there were 4-5 satellites with the bars showing medium strength.
Sounds like a problem to me. Is this usual for anyone else?
Oblivion |
|
|
|
tripod76
7 Posts |
Posted - 05 mai 2007 : 03:02:36
|
My nuvi 350 started doing the same thing this week as well, but it would never acquire any satellites. I contacted technical support and was told that the government had changed their satellite assignments without warning and that I would need to do a master reset. I did the reset procedure and set the unit out in the yard for up to an hour as it tried to locate the satellites. (Tech support said this should only take up to 15 minutes.) It didn't work, and I tried it again. I also made sure I was running the most recent operating system (I was). With these options exhausted, the tech support rep finally allowed me to ship the unit back to Garmin to be fixed.
I do a lot of driving for my job and depend on the GPS to get me from place to place. I'll have to go to using printouts for the next few days until I get it fixed. I hope this isn't a recurring problem.
--Jason |
|
|
|
RedRover1
USA
582 Posts |
Posted - 05 mai 2007 : 05:04:23
|
quote:
I contacted technical support and was told that the government had changed their satellite assignments without warning and that I would need to do a master reset.
That's really hard to buy considering that would have affected millions of GPS units worldwide. More likely you have a corrupt almanac which the reset will erase. The US Air Force does make changes to the GPS constellation but they usually aren't too drastic such as marking a satellite as unhealthy so GPS units with current almanacs won't use the satellite to get a fix.
"Almanac data, which is constantly transmitted by each satellite, contains important information about the status of the satellite (healthy or unhealthy), current date and time. This part of the signal is essential for determining a position."
http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/ |
Edited by - RedRover1 on 05 mai 2007 05:07:23 |
|
|
|
mgeorgiev
5 Posts |
Posted - 06 mai 2007 : 23:29:14
|
quote:
Originally posted by javert8817
I have a NUVI 350. I downloaded the latest updates, but it has not solved the following problem:
SOMETIMES ( definitely not always), my unit will be on "acquiring satellites" for about 10 minutes. It will then ask me the following 3 questions:
1) if I am indoors
2) if I am using this far away from the last time I used it
3) if today's date is ..... ( with the correct date)
After that, it will often (one time it still did not work for awhile) start working.
This is not right. Has anyone experienced this? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ira
Having the same problem over the last two days. First, the Nuvi 350 started to lose satellite during my trip over the French Alps yesterday. I thought it was a problem of low clouds and high mountains. But arriving in Lyon the problem got worse. I lost completely the signal. The unit is completely bricked. I'm so frustrated that I wanted to break the nuvi in a wall.. As you may think, Garmin have no support over weekends. As if people don't use their devices over the weekend. I've tried to make a master reset - no success.
And yes, guys, we are talking about CLEAR skies, outside towns, in the plain. If this device need more specific conditions to work, it's really a piece of ****. |
Edited by - NanaimoRick on 07 mai 2007 00:36:12 |
|
|
|
petlaur
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 07 mai 2007 : 04:28:39
|
You can include me in this club. My nuvi 660 had been working great for almost 6 months but last week while driving through a residential neighbourhood my nuvi just said "lost satellite reception". There were no tall buildings around and after driving another 1/2 mile the nuvi was again able to acquire satellites and I got home without any further problems. A couple of days later my nuvi did the same thing only this time it was unable to acquire satellites afterwards. Later that day I turned the nuvi back on to go somewhere and it was able to acquire satellites. Finally last Thursday I went to use the nuvi and everything was fine, at first, but partway to my destination....you guessed it...it lost satellite reception and I haven't been able to get it to acquire satellites since. I've done both "soft" and "hard" resets of my nuvi without any luck (Garmin tech support suggested the hard reset). I have always manually uploaded updates to my device and always "safely removed" my device from my computer after any update so I don't believe it's a corrupted file situation. The only other additions I've made were to upload about 7500 extra POIs using Garmin's POI loader program. I assume that this should not affect the unit's ability to acquire satellites. The only other thing I can think of would be that after months of enduring road vibrations something might have "come loose" within the unit that would affect the acquisition of satellites portion of the nuvi (hardware issue). Does anybody really know how robust these units are? Anybody care to jump in with their thoughts on this? Regardless it looks like I will be returning my nuvi to Garmin for repair or replacement.
Peter |
|
|
|
mgeorgiev
5 Posts |
Posted - 07 mai 2007 : 07:31:39
|
I'm curious if somebody got a useful response from Garmin's tech support on the question. Well, master reset obviously don't seem to help a lot. The funny thing is that this problem is not described in any other official Garmin document. The only reference I found on the question was here, in this forum, and in a comment in Amazon.
quote:
The only other thing I can think of would be that after months of enduring road vibrations something might have "come loose" within the unit that would affect the acquisition of satellites portion of the nuvi (hardware issue).
My Nuvi is 3 weeks old. No reason to be a problem of robustness... |
|
|
|
tripod76
7 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 02:02:45
|
| Mine's only about 6 weeks old. Garmin received it this morning, so I hope they'll be able to get it resolved and back to me ASAP. |
|
|
|
petlaur
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 03:58:01
|
| Wow, I guess that I should feel lucky that my nuvi lasted 6 months before it "crapped out". Was on the phone with a Garmin tech support guy and I asked if road vibrations could have caused the nuvi to malfunction and he just told me "no". He had a nuvi which was older than mines and admitted to dropping the unit the odd time and it is still working for him. My unit went back for repairs this morning, hopefully when I get it back they'll indicate why it wasn't acquiring satellites. I just hope that the nuvi will not crap out again 6 months down the line. |
|
|
|
mgeorgiev
5 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 08:51:58
|
Garmin are not answering my requests for the last 3 days.
Their phone in UK wasn't working yesterday... well, talking to my attorney... |
|
|
|
smiley1081
Italy
1269 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 09:10:49
|
quote:
Originally posted by petlaur
My nuvi 660 had been working great for almost 6 months but last week while driving through a residential neighbourhood my nuvi just said "lost satellite reception".
I have read a lot of these, around the fora.
WHEN did it happen?
If it happened to everybody at the same time, we could wonder if we had a solar flare or if USSTRATCOM was toying with the system. |
|
|
|
mgeorgiev
5 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 10:26:31
|
| Personally my problem started May the 5th, around 13:00-15:00. Then it get worse. At the end of the day it was able to catch satellites once every 2-3 hours. Now the device is dead - no satellites at all. |
|
|
|
petlaur
Canada
128 Posts |
Posted - 08 mai 2007 : 19:43:13
|
smiley, I hadn't noted the exact dates but my problems occurred during the period from Apr. 30 to May 3 and there was no real pattern in the time of day that the satellites were lost. The first time occurred at 1530 PDT, the 2nd time at 1600 PDT and the last time was around 1100 PDT. Even if you believe that it was some weird phenomenon that occurred during a particular period of time which could have caused the problem it doesn't explain why I haven't been able to acquire satellites on my nuvi since May 3. It's just sooo frustrating because if your GPs
device cannot acquire satellites it becomes a $800 paperweight as Captain Dan has stated. Mind you the mp3 and the bluetooth is still working.......but I bought this thing for the NAVIGATION!!! AARGH!! |
|
|
|
tripod76
7 Posts |
Posted - 09 mai 2007 : 02:32:24
|
| My problems first started on May 1 ... by May 2, it wouldn't connect to anything. |
|
|
|
kikifurious
Monaco
2 Posts |
Posted - 09 mai 2007 : 03:32:06
|
Now we are getting somewhere ...
I lost reception on May 2 while driving near Princeton, New Jersey. I didn't get it back until Saturday May 5 for about one hour, briefly Sunday, and again Monday for a few hours. Every time I've had reception since, I've been stationary at home under open sky for several hours at a time.
Tuesday morning, I had full bars for about 15 minutes in the car, then lost and haven't gotten it back yet.
Is this a similar pattern to everyone else with a nuvi? There may be a "higher power" to blame. |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
| This page was generated in 1,06 seconds. |
 |
|
- 
- 
Acquiring satellites problem on nüvi
