Nuvi 7xx 4.00 Firmware FIx

I have been going back and forth with Garmin a bit on what to do about the v4.0 fiasco and its impact to my Nuvi760. I've been instructed to do all sorts of things (i.e. reset, delete gpi files, etc), to no avail. Through all this, I am left with the distinct impression that they are fully aware that this version is completely broken and that what they are having me do is, knowingly, pointless and that they are patronizing me with the suggested actions to placate me into thinking they are trying to help while the true fix (hopefully) is being worked out. While the person I’ve been communicating with has been seemingly genuine and cordial but sadly unhelpful, I feel like I am being lied to on some level. I have asked for clarification as to when the corrected version of this software will be available and if it is not forthcoming, I have asked for instructions to return my now defective Nuvi for repair as it is still under warranty. I realize it has only been about 1 week since they broke my Nuvi, but I am becoming more disillusioned with Garmin with every passing day.
Part of my frustration is disappointment in ME for jumping into this version change without some feedback as to what this version brought to the table. However, I also did not give it its due because, up until this version, it was possible to backdate. Who would have figured that would be the case?

I wonder if my 780 is a newer 'hardware' revision... I updated to 4.0 and do not see the problem as bad as others do. I have a small 'lag' of .1 or .2 miles at highway speed (over 50 MPH) but have never had the unit tell me to turn after I have passed the intersection. My travels took me over 600 miles over the weekend, the worst issue was a 'stutter' from Jill that happened once.

I'll wait for the Garmin fix, would hate to lose bluetooth by downgrading and ruining something.

Larry

Phil,

Are they aware of the Custom TourGuide alert lockup issue too?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15349

Thanks,

JRoz

I have the 760 model running the new 4.0 firmware and the only thing I have noticed while using it for about a week now is a .1 mile announcement lag sometimes in relation to the displayed distance before a turn but it seems to catch up when the intersection gets closer.

Everything else seems to work fine other than it seems to take a little longer to load maps when first starting. I also will wait patiently for Garmin to work things out as I'm sure they are well aware of the problem.

Oh WOW! I just bought a Nuvi 760 this morning, brought it home, registered it and updated it, now I read this and my heart jumped. I checked the unit and I have 3.1 Installed. No way I'm going to fiddle with any updates until Garmin gets their act together.

Thanks for the heads up.

Garmin pulled 4.0 and put 3.1 up when the problems started so you dodged that bullet. If you have any random shut downs occur under 3.10 with the Jill 1.90 TTS voice just switch to Jack 1.40 TTS voice and that solved them for me. That was the only problem I had with 3.10.

Hi Folks,

So I go to the Garmin website and see they have a version 4.60 update for my Nuvi 660, the question IS, do I update to it or stay at version 4.50??? Is this ONLY a 7.xx version thing or what?

TIA!!

Clint

I'm not going to update my firmware until I see lots of people who have and not had problems... The old addage should apply... If it ain't broke, don't fix it.... I can live with most of the complaints I read here, but I can't live with my gps being turned into a paper weight...

Yes, the 4.0 Firmware problem is an issue on the nuvi 7.xx series only.

I just caught this thread... I updated to version 4.0 as well... Should I go baack to 3.10 (per Garmins website) or stay put at 4.0??

Thanks

^

You could rollback to 3.10 if you have a 750 but if it is a 760 you will loose bluetooth function.

If it is functioning now I would just leave well enough alone and let Garmin come up with the fix for 4.0 before doing anything.

I tried to go back and now my 760 is useless.... Unless you like looking at the spalsh page until the battery goes dead, recharging it and doing the samething... Maybe they will come up with something to fix it.....

Hello,

I sent this email to Garmin support 3 days ago.
"Subject:
I am experiencing slow TTS instructions and erratic route planning.
Message Body:
I upgraded my software to 4.0 earlier this week. Soon after I found the
instructions given by Jill to be slow and sometimes too late to be
helpful. The startup (map loading screen) is slower. And yesterday I
found my home address to have been lost from the home button. I had to
resubmit it. The route home then given by my Garmin was ERRATIC.
Fortunately I knew the route well and ignored the directions given. But
the directions were different than previous trips and frankly MADE NO
SENSE (unless there was a navigation choice of longest route . Now I
find that the 4.0 software update is GONE. What should I do? What are
you doing about this? I have only had the Garmin 760 almost 2 weeks. And
I am not pleased. Should I have bought a Magellan??????"

They replied a few minutes ago with this:
"Thank you for contacting Garmin International. the work around is to
delete the GPI files on the unit and this will resolve the issue, also
we are working on new versions to release as soon as they are complete."

Not exactly helpful. Honestly I don't know GPI files are, or how to delete them. But I don't think that is the point. I doubt that would help.

Bear

I doubt that there are a lot of folks in your exact situation so.....I think you should call Garmin NOW and not wait around for a fix that may never come. You might be at a point now where there is nothing that YOU can do to fix it.

I'm curious if someone who has the 760 and lost the bluetooth due to rolling back from Software 4.0, will get it back by reinstalling 4.0? Has anyone tried?

If you have lost bluetooth I would either wait and see or send your unit back to Garmin..

I do have the 760... I will wait for the next FW update.

Good tip aophiuchus, I was just curious. I feel bad for the folks that lost there bluetooth. I'm sure its annoying.

I absolutely HATE the lagging turn instructions with v4. It's horrible. I can't afford to roll back and lose the bluetooth function so I'm stuck until they fix this issue. I'm very unhappy....

FWIW, I don't have any extra SD cards, pictures, or MP3 files loaded on my 760. Just what it came with & about 5 custom POI folders.

I've noticed Jill will tell me 'turn in .4 miles' when it's already .3 or .2 miles, but I usually am not listening to Jill anyway. I'm following the magenta line instead & since I've updated I've not been lost once.

Guess I'm just one of the lucky ones (crosses fingers & knocks on wood!)

I don't know if any of you tried this yet, I noticed on one of the TTS voices a lag of 2/10 of a mile, I switched back to the default voice and the problem was fixed. I'll stick with the default voice till they solve the problem!

Product Suport:

I downloaded version 4.0 of the firmware through Webupdater on my nuvi 760 a week or so ago and now I see that it has been pulled off and is now reverted back to version 3.10.

Why was v 4.0 pulled and can I go back to 3.1?

Thank you,

Joe

------------------
Dear Joe Rozsnaki,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

Hello Mr. Rozsnaki. The ver 4.0 was causing an issue with some Nuvi 760s where the maps were not drawing correctly. It was not happening with all of them, if you are not experiencing any problems with your Nuvi you should be just fine. Our software engineers pulled the newer version until they can correct the problem. If you are having issues with your maps you can download the ver 3.10 to your computer and run it, it will overwrite the ver 4.0.

With Best Regards,

Tom C
Software Support Specialist
2nd Shift Garmin Mobile Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Tom C

---- my reply ---

Tom,

Thanks for the reply. I did notice a lag in the map positioning while driving and the TTS voices (Jack and Jill) skipping occasionally. Since many people potentially have downloaded v 4.0, when the new release comes out to resolve the map rendering, lag and voice skipping issues will that release number be 4.1 or at least in the in the 4's as it could be confusing? Garmin already has their hands full and another FW glitch will not help the situation.

I'll hold off because v3.1 has a lock up issue with custom poi alerts and navigating to them. I could not load my POIs because if the unit powers up when in range it will keep resetting on power up or lock up until you are out of range of the POI.

Any advice?

Thanks for your help,

Joe

-------
I'll share what he comes back with.

More to come,

JRoz

UNBELIEVABLE....

The fact wasn't mentioned by garmin rep. that 7xx series is a major undertaking to revert back to a earlier version? It will not revert simply by just installing another version as it use to. Of coarse I think garmin knows this anyway.

Default voice?

The non-TTS version of whatever voice you use.

The factory default voice! The voice that the Garmin was set to before any changes you made after receiving the GPS!

------ Reply -------

Dear Joe Rozsnaki,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

Good evening. As far as what the version designation will be when it
is re-released I would suspect it will still be version 4.0. I am not
aware of any issue with the version 3.10. If there were a known issue
it would have been pulled as well. I will pass this along to make sure
someone is aware of it. Thank you.

With Best Regards,

Tom C
Software Support Specialist
2nd Shift Garmin Mobile Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Tom C
www.garmin.com

I'm staying at version 4 for now, I'll deal with the lag until a fix comes along that Garmin is "allegedly" working on. At least it's not freezing and rebooting like it did with version 3.10

Dispatched, I think you and I both jumped the gun going to ver.4.0. We had a discussion before on 3.10 thought it had its promblems.wish I would have stayed with 3.0.

It looks like both of you (Redjacket3 and Dispatched) have Nuvi750s.

The rollback procedure on page one of this post, submitted by Philc5987, works well if you have a Nuvi750. The problem with the rollback with any other 7xx series is with the bluetooth, which the 750 does not have.

I used the procedure with Garmins help and it worked fine. I have seen more posts on this site stating the same thing. The only ones that have posted any negative responce were those with blue tooth.

I would recommend using the procedure if you have NUVI 750s and the lag time is excessive. Ver.3.00 and Ver.3.10 both had problems with POI lockups. S I would recommend you take it back to Ver.2.90.

............

Thanks M.M. for the info, were hoping garmin will have a new version before to much longer, if not then I will use this info to go back to a earlier version.

I took my Nuvi 350 on vacation knowing that it worked and my 760 has had a jerky delay since I bought this piece of crap the end of June. It has never functioned adequately, compared to my 350, and I thought the folks at Garmin were smart enough to come up with a fix before now. There was no doubt in my mind that Garmin should have issued a fix to the unfunctional 4.0 issued before I left, but I see that hasn't happened.

Maybe the only thing in my favor is that I purchased the unit from Costco and I may be able to return it. I have no interest in returning to a firmware version I found unsatisfactory when *it* was installed on my unit, that is why I updated.

Philc,

I finally worked up the nerve a day or two ago and tried this with my 750. It certainly looked like it was working--I got a "You are replacing a newer version with an older one, do you want to proceed?" message, to which I said yes. Then I see it say my version 4 is being erased. Then it loads what should be the older firmware. But it must not because after finishing and starting my nuvi, I see that I'm still using v4.0 with its 0.2-mile delayed TTS voice.

Just now (Sunday night), I went back and tried to re-download the zip file again from your link above:

http://www.garmin.it/files/nuvi7xx%20missing%20software.zip

but find that the web page can no longer be displayed. Can anyone else get the link to work today? It may be a temporary glitch--or possibly Garmin has removed it so that the 760 and other v4 Bluetooth nuvis won't disable their Bluetooth by attempting the fix.

One other question. When I did successfully download the zip file a couple days ago--the one that removes my v4.0 but then reinstalls 4.0!--the zip file had three files. Can someone who had the reversion to pre-4.0 by this method check the file names and sizes for me? The ones I downloaded and ran (which reinstall 4.0 for me) are:

075401000250.rgn 8916KB
GUPDATE.GDC 8921KB
Updater.exe 704KB

In following your procedure, I dragged the rgn onto the Update which started the process, erased my old v4.0, then reinstalled 4.0. I'm not supposed to do anything with the GDC file, am I?

Thanks in advance to anyone offering help. For now, it appears that I need to wait for Garmin to offer a new firmware update for me to lose my 4.0. Ugh.

Sorry H.H When I replied to your post in this thread, by responding to you as M.M. I was reading some of her posts earlier and acidentally used her name.

(sorry)

----- JRoz RE2 -------

Tom,

Thank you! If indeed it does stay at 4.0, I have some concern that anyone that currently has the corrupt version of 4.0 installed will not get a clean update, because many are reporting that going back to a previous version on a 760 makes the Bluetooth functionality inoperable. Many, including myself, are leaving the 4.0 installed. Technically since 4.0 was a release version, a new version should be 4.1 to allow it to properly overwrite 4.0.

Kind Regards,

Joe

------

More to come,

Hang tight!

JRoz

i just got off of the phone with garmin, they told me that the new fw will be released this week, it should have a 4.2-4.5 des. but we will see, there stateing that for the most part 4.0 is stable for the majority of units, just a slight lag time, they are having issues trying to solve all of the other issues with the minority of the units, but they stated should be no later than the end of this week! we will see i guess, i bought my 760 about 10 days ago, on saturday it would not charge on the base, called this morning to see about that, they are sending me a new one while i had him on the line i asked him to swithch me to software support to get the skinny on the FW update!

This is good news. I am now in an interesting position in that I was just issued an RMA# to return my 760 for the faulty 4.0 update. In my exchanges with Garmin about the 4.0 problem, several things were suggested to me to fix the defects in the SW introduced with 4.0. All of the things we had tried were to no avail. I then requested more instructions on how to fix the defective software or, if a software fix wasn't forthcoming, instructions on how to return the device for their repair. Garmin then issued an RMA for me. With what you have indicated here, I may wait and be one of the first to jump onto the new version. There is some irony here in that after getting royally toasted with 4.0, I vowed to never update again until I had heard plenty of feedback from others about the performance of any new updates. Now, with RMA in hand, I have to decide if I should wait and be one of the first to load the new SW. I could then return the device if it is unsatisfactory. What adds to the dilemma is that the return process is 7 to 10 business days.
I am a little puzzled as to why Garmin wouldn't have indicated to me that the new version is supposedly just around the corner. Probably just a timing/communication issue within Garmin. (That, in itself, is not very encouraging). I guess I'll wait a couple more days

Be mindful of the fact that when you send in your unit, you will most likely not get your original unit back. You will get a repaired unit with a different serial number.

Just letting you know!

JRoz

I'm leaving on Monday for a week-long trip encompassing many miles of travel to a bunch of office sites I've never visited before. I NEED my nüvi to function for this trip. I don't have a clue how to get to these places and saying that I'm directionally challenged is a gross understatement. I bought this unit specifically for work and I really need it to function properly. I really hope they actually do get this update out soon and that it actually fixes the current issues without introducing other problems.

I actually have to travel on Thursday and Friday of this week as well. If they can get a fix out before that I'll be set. Otherwise, I'll have to use the thing the way it is and hope to get it updated before I leave again on Monday morning.

I have been running the 4.0 firmware in my 760 for two weeks now and other than the navigation prompts being off by .1 miles quite a bit of the time I have not had any other problems with anything else including Custom POI's, both gpi and csv formats. I just figure when it says turn in .3 miles it really is actually .2 miles.

So if you do not try to roll it back before Garmin issues the fix you should not have a problem. Mine has gotten me everywhere I asked it to take me in these last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the info! I updated to version 4.60 on my 660 and so far so good.

Just got off the line with a rep from Garmin, He says the updated software for the 700 series will be out with in the next week or two!

well. they told me, that it would be out no LATER than 9/12/2008.?????

they need to get together

What is the "bug" that Garmin is aware of? Is it just the Blue Tooth feature or something else also? I have a Nuvi 750 and have updated to version 4.0. After the update, I have used it extensively in Seatle and Vancouver BC. It did not lock up and I did not experience any delay in street announcements.
If it might help someone, here is the current configuration of my unit,i.e. updated after purchase of the unit: North America NT 2009; SiRFIstant Fix II; Jill Version 2.9 and software version 4.0, loaded 8/26/2008.
I went from version 2.7 as of 5/5/08 to 2.9 and then to 3.0 on June 8. I did not load the 3.1 version as I saw the message traffic about lock-ups, but my unit had previously locked up so I updated to version 4.0 when it beame available on the assumption that was the problem being addressed.
AFter reading this thrad, I am now waiting for the "shoe to fall."

About the only way I can see that you are not experiencing/noticing the delayed voice instructions is if you are using a non-TTS voice or you are driving at a somewhat slower pace such that the turn directions DO happen before you turn or happen much closer to the announced location. For me, I have deduced that the unit initiates a turn direction announcement on time but then there is a delay of a few moments before the announcement is made. Thereby, the announcement is late - made worse if you are driving faster. This is evident to me when forcing the next turn announcement by touching the ‘next turn’ indicator in the lower right corner of the screen. With a non-TTS voice, the direction is announced without delay. With a TTS voice, there is a noticeable delay before the voice is heard, and then it is out of sync with your true position.
I have a 750 and 760. I have updated (definitely not ‘upgraded’) to v4.0 on the 760 but not on my wife’s 750. I for one will join werskine on jumping on the next grenade from Garmin. At least with my 760. I can then do a side by side comparison of the performance. Before the v4.0 fiasco, it was kind of fun to set the same route and compare the two units. My son would get a kick out of the times that the two units would announce at nearly the same time. It would sound like stereo. Other times they’d be off by a ½ second or two. The net result was they were incredibly close in performance. That is until v4.0…

"Jill" is a TTS voice. And, you may be right about the speed factor. I was primarily using the Nuvi for City driving since I was in unfamiliar territory. However, the freeway exits were announced it ample time so this is something I was not paying too close attention to. I will definitly do more experimenting using the "next turn button."

Just out of curiosity, do you have any custom POIs loaded in your unit?