So I picked up one of these from Cabelas last week on sale and bricked it the same day.
I used brand new sandisk sd cards and everything was done on a spare battery next to my computer indoors that is on a UPS.
1) Updated Garmin OS - went fine.
2) Downloaded updated lakevu maps using Garmin Express on Windows onto a new sd card. (Garmin express did show my gps as registered, my login on their site, etc.)
3) Loaded card into gps, was prompted if I wanted to update the internal maps with that. Sure thing, says I.
That was apparently the wrong answer. The GPS started throwing errors about the update not being compatible with the map, and not being able to unlock the map. So I called support and worked with a nice and helpful guy for over an hour. They ended up overnighting me a new unit(that I had to put a deposit down for) and advised that I not update the internal maps in the future. Frankly, I'm not ok with that resolution because I don't want to be dependent on external media.
Anyways - Garmin thinks that the issue was the maps I downloaded had just been released the day before and perhaps there was an issue between that and the OS update. Honestly, as a career IT person, I'm disappointed they have no way to recover these devices, at least for the general public. You would think they could make a recovery card inside Garmin Express, or at least give you an actual factory reset within the gps(and not just settings).
I used brand new sandisk sd cards and everything was done on a spare battery next to my computer indoors that is on a UPS.
1) Updated Garmin OS - went fine.
2) Downloaded updated lakevu maps using Garmin Express on Windows onto a new sd card. (Garmin express did show my gps as registered, my login on their site, etc.)
3) Loaded card into gps, was prompted if I wanted to update the internal maps with that. Sure thing, says I.
That was apparently the wrong answer. The GPS started throwing errors about the update not being compatible with the map, and not being able to unlock the map. So I called support and worked with a nice and helpful guy for over an hour. They ended up overnighting me a new unit(that I had to put a deposit down for) and advised that I not update the internal maps in the future. Frankly, I'm not ok with that resolution because I don't want to be dependent on external media.
Anyways - Garmin thinks that the issue was the maps I downloaded had just been released the day before and perhaps there was an issue between that and the OS update. Honestly, as a career IT person, I'm disappointed they have no way to recover these devices, at least for the general public. You would think they could make a recovery card inside Garmin Express, or at least give you an actual factory reset within the gps(and not just settings).