Where am I?

I haven't found away, like you said, when you go from one location to another and then turn it on, it takes long. What I do is as soon as I get on land from the air, I turn it on. So, while you are sitting there for everyone to get out of plane, turn it on and it will give you more time to find them.

Would it trigger anything by changing from Eastern to Mountain, for example? I suppose that will only change the math used to display the current time but you never know if Garmin might be smart enough to also reconsider your location at that point. Probably just wishful thinking....

I've tried turning it on right away when I get off the plane since the concourse usually has a direct view of the sky and still takes a long time. In most big cities, the car rental place is in a high rise parking lot so is well blocked by the structure. I was in Minneapolis last week and I was 3/4 mile down the road and approaching the split for the highways when she finally locked on. I wonder if setting the state and city your in ie:location would help it aquire a signal any quicker?

You just need to take shorter flights with stopovers every 300 miles or so.

I was in Minneapolis from Chicago this week, and my Nuvi got signal within a minute or so after booting up. But then, MSP is only 350 miles from Chicago. I've heard that it takes a distance of over 500 miles before your GPS loses track of where it is and has to do the lengthy "where am I now?" thing.

The newer manuals that are included in toda's units are not very clear on the importance of helping the GPSr to find itself, read page 9 and 11 of this old receiver that explains why you should tell the unit where you are, back then it asked for the country and now is the time zone.

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPS38_OwnersManual.pdf

On my Etrex, on the satellite search screen there is an option of search from last known position or new position. I find that if I make a long flight and don't tell it to search from new position it takes a long time. Maybe in the Nuvis there is some option to force it to "forget" where it was.

Yes, it is called the time zone, as soon as the plane lands and after turning the unit on you should change the time zone to expedite acquisition.

Check the link for a user manual included in my previous post, read pages 9, 11 and 12

I haven't seen the time zone setting have any impact on how fast it acquires the sat. It just changes the time to destination.

I don't know about other Garmins, but on the Nuvi, I turn off all the maps I won't need (Europe when I'm in the US, etc.) This way the entire unit loads faster, although this just cuts down overall load, not satellite acquisition.

Oh, and I don't turn on the unit until after I leave the rental car garage, too.

Mio

Try going into Tools (Wrench), System, then turn GPS Mode Off. Then goto 'Where To' menu, Browse Map and zoom out to where you are in the country (or goto Address and enter current location), then press Set Loc. Now go back and turn GPS Mode ON. The receiver might begin searching for "the birds" from your current location. I don't know if this will actually work but it's worth a try anyway. My receiver seems to take awhile to acquire after simulating elsewhere in the country. Might be for the same eason.

You could try going into the Diagnostics screen and then exiting. This seems to make the unit do a 'colder' start than it would normally do.

On the C580, hold the "Time" for about 5 seconds and then press "exit" on the screen that appears.

Exactly what this does to the Sirf receiver, I don't know - but it definitely has an effect (which may or may not be helpful )

What if you (if allowed on that plane) turn the unit on a a little while before you land and let it lock to the sats until they say store all devices. Usually you are fairly close at this point and it may pick up sats quicker when you turn it back on?

I have done this, and it works OK. The second we land and they say it's OK to start using electronics again, I turn my Nuvi on, mute it, lock it, and put it in my jacket pocket. It will start the acquisition process and will eventually get lock long before I hit the rental car. Since the screen is turned off while locked, it can run for many hours on battery this way.