an 'invisible' garmin....

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Happy Chappies
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an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Happy Chappies » 05 May 13 7:44 pm

Hoping someone's experienced this and/or got an idea, because I'm all out...

After many years of faithful service, my Garmin GPS60 has decided to go 'invisible'.... Whenever I connect it to our PC (which has played nicely with in the past, and has had no significant changes that I"m aware of) it simply doesn't show up. Not with GSAK, not through the GC.com website (in either firefox or explorer), or through the Garmin webupdater or website apps.... I'm completely stumped. I've reinstalled all the software, hard reset the Garmin, installed the GarminConnect plugins in both firefox and explorer, tried different USB cables and plugs... Nothing. Funnily enough the Garmin itself has the little 'sync' arrows showing, but the computer just can't find it.

Any thoughts for something else that might bring some reconciliation to these warring parties?

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roundcircle
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by roundcircle » 05 May 13 10:56 pm

Sadly I don't know, but I'd suggest checking how the GPS is setup to handle the serial / USB port. The Oregon series has various settings that can be selected. No idea why it would just stop though.

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 05 May 13 11:12 pm

Go through some of the usual troubleshooting procedures, first of which is isolating variables.

Try a different USB cable, then try a different computer (a friend's if you're a monocomputer household)
Make sure the GPSr hasn't changed its 'interface' setting somehow.
Take out the microSD card.

If none of those things make any difference, you'll have to go to Plan B. (And, no, I don't know what Plan B is until Plan A has failed!)

LouiseAnn
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by LouiseAnn » 05 May 13 11:50 pm

I second the take the SD card out idea. Every time I have had connection issues, doing that has solved it.

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Happy Chappies
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Happy Chappies » 06 May 13 12:06 am

GPS 60 - no microSD card, so that rules that out!
Have tried multiple cables, no luck with any of them.

Shall try a different computer tomorrow, but if that works I'm going to be equally as befuddled, as I don't know what'll be different about this one. :?

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by PesceVerde » 06 May 13 1:53 am

Wear and tear?
From memory, USB sockets (GPS and PC) should be good for a few thousand plug/unplug cycles.

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by wileyclan » 06 May 13 12:00 pm

I have had trouble before with getting things to be recognised as being plugged in via USB. Usually they are external harddrives but I remember that I had to go into a USB list on the computer and delete the entry for the device. Then when I plugged it in again, it did the whole autodetect and launch scene.

I can't remember the right list/part of the computer control panel, but I am certain that there are some smart cookies out there that have an inkling as to what I am on about.

Have you tried Dr Google to see if they have a method to help you?

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by spatialriq » 06 May 13 1:53 pm

Sounds like the issue is with the PC as it's the only thing you've not isolated. Trying it on a different PC would rule that out.

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Happy Chappies
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Happy Chappies » 07 May 13 2:52 pm

Well, test 2. Work computer, different USB cable (and it's worked here in the past....) - Nothing. No detection trying to send it a cache via the GC.com website.

As with my home PC, when I look up "devices and printers" it shows up as an icon with 'Garmin USB GPS', so it's detected that much, but nothing else - and definitely nothing useful.
Last edited by Happy Chappies on 07 May 13 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Happy Chappies
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Happy Chappies » 07 May 13 2:55 pm

wileyclan wrote:I have had trouble before with getting things to be recognised as being plugged in via USB. Usually they are external harddrives but I remember that I had to go into a USB list on the computer and delete the entry for the device. Then when I plugged it in again, it did the whole autodetect and launch scene.

I can't remember the right list/part of the computer control panel, but I am certain that there are some smart cookies out there that have an inkling as to what I am on about.

Have you tried Dr Google to see if they have a method to help you?
Yeah, I too occasionally get those troubles - but usually a series of restart, unplug, plug, delete driver, etc. brings it back. Here I've deleted all the Garmin stuff, reloaded drivers, etc. etc. Still with the same outcome. Google doesn't give me much else other than what I've tried. Thanks.

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 08 May 13 2:27 am

Well, last variable to try... Find someone with a GPS60 to plug into your PC to see if that connects. It probably will, but it'd be interesting if it didn't...

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Big Matt and Shell » 08 May 13 10:44 am

This sounds very much like the issues I had originally with my first two Oregon GPS units.

http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... 38#p149738

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Happy Chappies
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by Happy Chappies » 08 May 13 1:20 pm

Papa Bear_Left wrote:Well, last variable to try... Find someone with a GPS60 to plug into your PC to see if that connects. It probably will, but it'd be interesting if it didn't...
Haven't got anyone on hand who can help me with that, but a friend's Dakota works fine... Very odd. I'm starting to wonder if it is just a 'fatigue' thing and it's coming to the end of its useful life span. At least I've got a smartphone now to tie me over, and perhaps an Etrex 20 is on the cards for Christmas or tax return time!

geo_jas
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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by geo_jas » 10 May 13 11:23 am

I've got an Etrex 30 that I'm happy with. Let me know if you want to have a look before you buy.

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Re: an 'invisible' garmin....

Post by GJMMelb » 13 May 13 12:46 pm

Hi Happy Chappies,
we had a similar problem with our Oregon 450 last year and googled it and ended up doing a hard reset twice before it worked. We found a you tube vidseo telling us exactly what to do lolol. So maybe try that again as it took doing it twice before it worked!
However we then had a similar problem with our newish Nuvi Car GPS which wouldnt work on any PC or with any cable. Nothing worked with that one and in the end we sent it back to Garmin and they gave us a new one as it was determined to be a fault with the unit and it was less than 12 months old.
Good luck!
J

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