More 660 update problems!!!!!

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Roger Chatterton

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Just been attempting to get latest maps onto my 660, via Garmin express via my iMac, running Sierra. NOT High Sierra please note.
I was hoping that Garmin would have improved their software by now, as (Lifetime) map uploads have always been a rather tense and nerve-racking experience, ever since I bought the 660 a few years back.
Problem is that, as we all know Full Maps of Europe have to go onto the SD card, as too large for the Garmin's memory etc.
I select the option to load onto the SD card, it goes to new window "Essentiall Files will be saved on the SD Card", and tells me it is "Checking SD Card". However, it seems to stay on this option for very long time, with the ever turning display, but gets no further. This window seems to be a new addition to the download process, as I don't recollect it from previous downloads. Have tried 2 or 3 times now, but always the same malarkey with "Checking SD Card" message:mad:

Anyone any experience of latest downloads, and with this window display?

I have tried to get the latest version of Garmin Express, but get a repeated "download failed" message, so no joy there either.

Any suggestions welcome (well, almost any !).
Thanks
Roger
 
Roger,
Try deleting and reinstalling Garmin Express. Once on open and press the cog top right corner open the tab bottom right and update to latest version just in case :blast
Try re loading maps.
Hope this helps.
Also worth turning computer on and off after hang ups. :augie
Worked for me in the past + a little foul language if things get really tetchy :thumb2
 
Try just putting a fresh, virgin, straight out of the packet, un-mucked about, SD card into the device. This cures most ills. The cards are cheap, so not much lost if it makes no difference at all.

What broadband speed do you think you’ve got?

Are you trying to update the maps on the computer and on the device in the same operation? That takes time and your computer might be going to sleep due to what it perceives as a lack of activity.
 
I had similar probs with my Nav IV (aka 660), with a 32 gb SDHC card. After liaison with Garmin, I got nowhere & wished I had just stayed on 2016 mapping; it was just such a waste of time, but I had to do something as I now only had raw generalised mapping, not street level detail.

In the end I decided to start again from scratch, so I downloaded a fresh version of Garmin Express, re-formatted the SDHC card FAT32 & instructed an update in the normal way. Worked a treat & it has even retained my old route plans which I thought were lost. IIRC, the download, Full Europe, took around 120 mins on a 7 mps connection.

Good luck sorting your 660
 
Hi Chaps,
thanks for all the suggestions - good to know that other people have problems as well, and that I am not going prematurely senile .......yet.
I went to Garmin's website, and downloaded most recent version of Garmin Express( why I was not allowed to do that via my existing version of G Express heaven only knows - a Garmin thing AGAIN !!!).
It installed no probs, and went calmy through the process of downloading and installing latest maps. Garmin do not make anything simple- why no mention of new version required?
So, maps installed onto SD Card ( I did remove all MP3s first, and will re-install them later), and left overnight to do its thing. Maps installed OK, so ejected Garmin and SD card from my Mac, as you should, etc, and shut down the Zumo.
Of course, being Garmin, the wretched Zumo would not turn on again ....same old same old.....removed battery for a few minutes, cast inumerable fowl curses over the Zumo, and insulted its mother as well, just to be certain, and after much on/off button pushing the thing started up, but was stuck in "night time mode" !!!!! Sorted that, reset clock (despite it being set to automatic), and the device is now, i hope, back to normal. Well, normal for a Garmin that is.

Using computers for my studio (always Macs), I am fairly happy around software and computers, but Garmin just makes me fume - why oh why is their software/firmware so flaky and rooted back in the early years of basic computing? How do they manage to be so unfriendly ? I can only hope that their most recent Zumo models are better, and that their software better thought out.

Updating maps on my Zumo is an annual trauma that I always approach from under a cloud of trepidation and apprehension......but hope I'm now good to go , - until the next time! I wouldn't be without my sat nav, and it's guided all round Europe, from east to west, and to Nordkapp and Scandinavia, but I do like maps ......! :bounce1
 

Spoke too soon- Zumo now totally incapable of functioning correctly. It couldn’t even display the M1 yesterday!
Mapping is useless, shows incorrect time, does not display the little icon for roundabouts or turns and generally unusable. Was quite useless on my 130 mile return from Stafford Bike Show yesterday.
Re- booted several times , but no improvements. So will have to start again and reload Maps.
Aaaaaaargh- Garmin I really do despair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This sounds like this raw mapping scenario I mentioned in post 5. It's about 2.7 gb on the device memory IIRC, nothing like enough to be full Europe which it needs to write to the SDHC card.

If you format the SDHC card FAT32 & start again, or fit a fresh card, it should restore the thing, as well as update the mapping. BTW, is your SDHC card bona? There were, & probably still are, some fakes around.
 
This sounds like this raw mapping scenario I mentioned in post 5. It's about 2.7 gb on the device memory IIRC, nothing like enough to be full Europe which it needs to write to the SDHC card.

If you format the SDHC card FAT32 & start again, or fit a fresh card, it should restore the thing, as well as update the mapping. BTW, is your SDHC card bona? There were, & probably still are, some fakes around.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think it may now be sorted, but will know better after a full road test!
Connected Zumo to the Mac again, today, after installing maps to computer( for benefit of Base Camp etc).
I suspect that when I disconnected from Mac last time, it needed to restart or similar.
A straight eject from Desktop is never straightforward for the Garmin, and mine was very reluctant to restart last time.
Confusing.
I’ve used the same SD Card(8 Gig) for the last few years with no card related problems- so that must be OK?
Garmin is always an adventure, and invariably hit & miss! More miss really....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Whilst I am not familiar with Macs, I assume you can take a look at the devices & drives when the 660 is plugged into a USB port.

Should show you the Garmin internal memory size & the SDHC card size too which will give you a steer. Mine just wouldn't over write the existing files for some reason & the clue was both the map file sizes & the fact that the correct procedural info wasn't present in GE, even after the update.
 
Have had bother in the past with Zumo 660 updates either taking hours to perform or failing altogether, last one, however, was fine so went to do the new update this morning.
POS software as after 2 hours it was stuck on 34 percent, then an hour later jumped to 50 percent ie updating maps section and the fogging thing has been stuck there ever since (2 1/2 hours).

Really fogging hate their update procedures
 
After a total of 7 1/2 hours the update has cancelled stating that an SD card of at least 5GB must be installed due to map sizes (one in is 8GB) ,so installed a freshly formatted 32 GB card that I know works and now it is stuck again at 34 % .......................... utterly f*cking useless .

PS would buy a TomTom but the ones we had at work were even bloody worse and never lasted more than 12 months
 
Had a 660 which I gave to my son. Experienced what you are going through before, couldn't update with my Mac. Eventually I reformatted the sd card and did the update using a PC and it worked. You could also try a Garmin support call. I moved to a Nav V and then a Vi and have not had any map update issues since, apart from the update where Garmin decided to split Europe, but that is now sorted.
 
Well it took 2 further attempts and the new SD card before it eventually took the updates and seems to be working ..........over 9 hours of p*ssing about
 
So many problems seem to be overcome when bods use a new SD card.

If I read the post above correctly, it took 7.5 hours, then a further two attempts (plus the inclusion of the new card) totalling nine hours. That suggests a bit under 1.5 hours once the new card was in the device. Depending on the connection speed and whether the PC and the device were both updated, 90 minutes is maybe about right.
 
Try just putting a fresh, virgin, straight out of the packet, un-mucked about, SD card into the device. This cures most ills. The cards are cheap, so not much lost if it makes no difference at all.

Well, I tried following your (so called) advice.
Put a fresh, virgin, SD card in my ZUMO and did an update.

Faultless update - first time.

So, that's no bloody good...is it ?
Now I don't have anything to mump about....pah.
 
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