Response from Garmin About FW 4.00 for 7xx series

Called Garmin today and got the same response. The memo that customer support received indicates that backdating is no longer supported, and we just have to wait patiently for them to release 4.10 to fix our problems!

So Garmin is officially making their customers guinea pigs by releasing defective software and then making the customers test it to find the bugs. Then to add insult to injury, the customer has to deal with the bugs until Garmin decides to release another update to fix the bugs in the first release!!!

I'm giving Garmin until Friday to issue an update, then I'm researching TomTom to see how good/bad they are. Thank god I can still return my 750.

Dear Phil,

I have done some research into this issue for you, and we are going to have to bring in your nuvi for repair. The reason you were not able to downgrade your firmware without my assistance is because the software engineers did that purposely to prevent things like this from happening. The changes in 4.0 were significant enough that when you downgraded your firmware to the 2.2 using the files I sent, it caused the issue with the Bluetooth. The downgrade process from 4.0 to anything else causes a critical memory area to be overwritten, which then renders the Bluetooth inoperable.

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I've been following this 4.0 firmware problem since it first reared it's head. I was one of the early people that installed 4.0 when it first released and have been using it for about a week. Other than the lag in turn notification distance that sometimes occurs everything else seems to be working fine.

Some of the complaints about Garmin's releasing of firmware that I have been reading in the threads appear to conflict with one another. I have read people that in one part of their post complain because they feel Garmin isn't responding fast enough in releasing fixes for problems they have found but they then turn right around and then complain that Garmin is releasing the firmware to fast to fix these problems without taking the time to do the proper testing.

I saw this posted in another forum:

"Garmin is aware of 4.0 fiasko. Wait for official fix. This is what I got from their tech support:

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

We had a meeting about these issues this morning. Right now you are not able to back date the software. Our software engineers are working double time as speak to remedy this issue. We do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused."

It is obvious that Garmin is aware of what happened and is working on it. I have no problem waiting for a fix that I'm sure will take care of what is needed and considering that all the normal functions are still working on my 760 I cannot see that it is something that I cannot live with untill a proper tested fix is available. Just my 2 cents worth based on what I have been reading in the different threads.

Your confusion over the frustration of some posters is understandable if you are unaware of Garmin's attitude toward fixing faulty firmware. There are people here who have been promised a fix and nothing happened -- for over a year and counting in one instance. Garmin loves to PROMISE fixes. They are not as bad as DirecTV, but almost.

When I bought my Garmin GPS, I had expectations that it would get me to many unfamiliar locations without problems. Since I travel on a daily basis, my GPS has become a very valuable tool for me. When Garmin releases an update, I expect enhancements and fixes, not more bugs and gliches.
So since I've become very dependent on my GPS, I can't afford to wait for another fix. That's why there has always been the option to backdate the firmware to an acceptable working unit.
Some people may be casual users and may not notice or even care about the problems, and can wait, but I and many others need a reliable unit daily.

I went to 4.0 a week ago. I use the GPS just about every day. Once in a while the machine will glitch a bit but heck -- what tech device does not? So far i have experienced no substantive problems -- but my baseline standard is the old magellen handheld green beast from about 10 years ago.

I am not sure I have ever experienced more reliable high tech gear that the Garmin gps. It ain't perfect, but neither is any of my other very high tech stuff. it almost always gets me where I need to go, and when it does not I use grey matter 1.0 to make sure I don't end up on the edge of some cliff.

It is good that some people keep bringing problems to developer's attention. It does helps us all.

Well, the final nail in the 760's coffin. Once I loaded Garmin's wondeful update (4.00) and noticed how poorly and sluggish everything had become, I went ahead and used the program posted in this forum to backdate to an earlier version. THAT of course KILLED my bluetooth feature. Later I tried to reload the original Nuvi 760 backup, reloaded 4.00 and reloaded others,,,,,,,,,,all in vain. Oddly the battery ( the nuvi is only 9 months old ), also no longer would keep a charge more than 15 minutes!. I now have a TOTALLY DEAD and BLANK $700 dollar brick even when I attach to the car's cable charger mount. Although its guaranteed for 1 year, I still have to go thru the inconvenience and some expense of this fiasco that all began with downloading 4.00 software. Naturally, I'm sorry that I was so persistent in trying to fix their "trap" LOL I have now relaoded Verizon's VzNavigator back on my cellphone for 9.99 a month. With nearly $800 invested in the Nuvi 760 and the MSN Direct cable, I feel stupid for expending taht much on a little portable unit, could ahve gotten by with a whole lot less unused features for a whole lot less money. I believe the next vehicle I'll buy will be equiped with a large built-in factory unit.

You have my sympathies... I just returned mine and ordered another... This is undoubtedly going to cost Garmin a lot of money and loss of confidence in their procedures...