Geocaching Australia

I set out today to do the waypoints of several multi caches, and had a very frustrating time. Nearly every time I attempted to view the description of a multi, my GPS unit would freeze/lock up (I can remember 1 that worked okay, and at least 6 times where it froze). It wouldnt even power off - I had to remove the battery each time and then restart it.

The GPS is a Garmin Oregon 450, running firmware v4.52. It's 2 years old and has worked perfectly well up till now. To my knowledge, nothing has changed so Im not sure why it would sudddenly start playing up. Any thoughts on what the issue is?

It was doing something else weird, which may or may not be related. Several times when I went to the Find a geocache menu, the caches I wanted werent listed and a search found no results. This was especially strange as on two occasions, the child waypoints were in the waypoint list. I know the caches were in my GPX file, because I loaded the same file to my SatNav unit (Nuvi1350). So I could drive to the start coords, but then didnt know what to look for/do .

Cheers,
Pete

Hmmm, possibly a memory problem. I cleared the waypoint memory (only 8% used), deleted the GPX files, then reloaded my caches (740 caches + 230 child WPs) and everything seems to be working okay. Weird.

The number of caches in your GPX file isn't anywhere near the 5000 cache limit, so that shouldn't be a problem. How many logs do you load for each cache? I've heard somewhere that too many logs can cause memory issues, but that's also likely to be more of an issue if you are getting near the 5000-cache limit.

Sounds like the problem I used to have with my Oregon 550. The most recent software update seems to have finally fixed it, but did I read somewhere that the 450 isn't getting new updates? In any case, check that you have the most recent software installed either through the My Garmin webpage or the WebUpdater program (the later only works for me) and see if that helps.

maccamob wrote:The number of caches in your GPX file isn't anywhere near the 5000 cache limit, so that shouldn't be a problem. How many logs do you load for each cache? I've heard somewhere that too many logs can cause memory issues, but that's also likely to be more of an issue if you are getting near the 5000-cache limit.

I only export 20 logs/cache from GSAK, so that shouldnt be an issue

Bewilderbeest wrote:

maccamob wrote:The number of caches in your GPX file isn't anywhere near the 5000 cache limit, so that shouldn't be a problem. How many logs do you load for each cache? I've heard somewhere that too many logs can cause memory issues, but that's also likely to be more of an issue if you are getting near the 5000-cache limit.

I only export 20 logs/cache from GSAK, so that shouldnt be an issue

I only export 5 or 6 ....

I have had a problem with one or two multicaches in the manner described in the OP. Some half arsed investigations led me to believe that the cache description was "too long" or "contained weird characters or formatting" that caused the wobbly to be thrown. Length includes all of the HTML formatting, not just the plain text you see on the screen.

Which caches?

Maybe I could try and load them up and see what they do on mine.

I also wondered if it could be the length of the description, or something else like an embedded image. However, I can now (since clearing the WP memory and reloading the caches) see the caches that I couldnt on the weekend, making me think its something on the unit rather than the cache listings themselves.

Three caches didnt show up in the list when I selected 'Find a geocache', even though I was standing within metres of the posted coordinates (thanks to the satnav unit in the car), and the name search feature returned no results: Quasimodo's Orchard (GC2BZHJ), Stirling Silver (GC2P202) and Wer (GC3DACB).

These caches did show up, but when I tried to view the description, the unit locked up as described above:
ANU Courtyard (GC39778)
Leaning on a Lamp Post (GC3D2QE)
War Monuments (GC3EHMJ)
Tree of Knowledge (GC321TE)
Yarralumla Wander (GC3cd2b)
Basil's Yarralumla Meander (GC38Q6Q)


On the day I had the trouble, this cache: Socks' Shack (GC3H7A2) was okay.

Bewilderbeest wrote: These caches did show up, but when I tried to view the description, the unit locked up as described above:
ANU Courtyard (GC39778)
Leaning on a Lamp Post (GC3D2QE)
War Monuments (GC3EHMJ)
Tree of Knowledge (GC321TE)
Yarralumla Wander (GC3cd2b)
Basil's Yarralumla Meander (GC38Q6Q)

I tried all the above in my Garmin Montana without issue.

This local one of mine had the Montana locking up constantly, though it appears to be working tonight. I still get metres of gobbletygook text ...
GC3BQG1 Barcache Shopping

Haven't tried it in the Oregon ...

Those caches load fine on my 450t. Firmware 5.50

I have had the occasional crash on loading descriptions (one of the CCC caches comes to mind), but fairly rare. Have much more trouble with crashes on the first boot after updating GPX files (despite them saying they'd fixed it). I do have a lot of caches loaded though!

Pacmania wrote:Have much more trouble with crashes on the first boot after updating GPX files (despite them saying they'd fixed it). I do have a lot of caches loaded though!

I have this same issue all the time on my Oregon 450. Never had the multi issue described (thankfully).

Pacmania wrote:Those caches load fine on my 450t. Firmware 5.50

I have had the occasional crash on loading descriptions (one of the CCC caches comes to mind), but fairly rare. Have much more trouble with crashes on the first boot after updating GPX files (despite them saying they'd fixed it). I do have a lot of caches loaded though!

I used to have this problem until Earthbound Chief told me he'd discovered that using fully charged charged batteries prevented it.
Works for me!

Pacmania wrote:
I have had the occasional crash on loading descriptions (one of the CCC caches comes to mind), but fairly rare. Have much more trouble with crashes on the first boot after updating GPX files (despite them saying they'd fixed it). I do have a lot of caches loaded though!

I used to have this problem until Earthbound Chief told me he'd discovered that using fully charged batteries prevented it.
Works for me!