Well another day and another set of Garmin Zumo malfunctions. I have never been a huge user of GPS units but I thought times they are a-changin and I should change with them. So I got me a Zumo a few months before going away. Riding around the UK it worked just fine. Faultlessly in fact. So I headed off for the other side of the world, imagining I had a functional GPS from the most expensive brand of GPS units on the market.
Day 2, cross over into Europe and I found I had no detail in my maps. It seems though my GPS came with maps of Europe, I had to manually copy them from my laptop to the unit. So I did that in the evening and solved that part of the problem.
Day 3, and the route I had prepared and copied into the Zumo taking me from Calais to Ancona is determined by the Zumo to be too large and complicated. It did tell me this when it first loaded the route, but also said it would update and recalculate the route as I went through it. But no. The retarded unit decided the route is too large for it to handle full stop. So all my efforts to create a route from Calais to Ancona were wasted.
Day 4, … overnight I had prepared a couple of smaller 1 day long route sections to get me between the Black Forest and Ancona … and uploaded them into my Zumo … an Jonathans Zumo 400. Jons Zumo took them easily. My Zumo imported the user data route 9just as Jonathan’s did) but when i went to look for the route i just uploaded, there was nothing there. Just a couple of old routes – and the useless route to Ancona from Calais.
If there are any Zumo wizards out there to help me understand why my Zumo is so dysfunctional, I would love to hear from you, before I throw it overboard.
Jon is doing most of the navigating at the moment, with routes that I have prepared … as I am able to tranfer them and import them into Jon’s Zumo, but despite my Zumo saying it has transfered and imported the data successfully, the route is not showing up in my routes.
Hi Walter,
Hardly gone and you’re already lost are you?
Forwarded your Zumo-problem to some of the wizards I know. Maybe they come up with something.
For the moment you can follow the signs at least
Not a Zumo wizard but you can try updating your unit’s software (firmware), perhaps your’s has some older faulty version. Latest Zumo 550 firmware is 4.60:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00567-00
It is last link on the page.
HI, I have the Zumo 500, and had some errors as well after I fitted a 4GB memory card. The unit goes through all the memory when it starts up (hope you are following me… ), and this takes longer with a larger than 1GB card. When you upload new routes from the pc, after the upload is complete and you unplugged the cable, give the Zumo some time to start up, and then even more time to go through all the memory (I know, it is a schlep!). it is then supposed to ask you if you want to import new data, click yes, select the routes and click “Import”.
This should do the trick.
Another tip. Sometimes the Zumo “dies” for no reason at all and does not want to start up again. Take a small alan key and unscrew the bolt at the back holding the battery in place, take the battery out for about 30 sec, and replace and tighten. The Zumo will start again once you press the On/Off button.
Safe riding!
Herman
I have also a zumo 550 of which also at times can’t handle a long route due to memory ,so I find to break the route in to smaller sub routes which seems to work ,also rather loosing data for all the route you will only loose for the smaller sub route.
Also with one of my trips my zumo crashed and I lost my all my data even when I reset with the battery removal method ,which won’t be a problem if you have it backed up…as I’m sure you do.
All the best George