Garmin Nuvi just performed system reset on it's own.

If you have transferred your favorites to Mapsource, you can transfer them back and have the Nuvi reload them by putting them in the Garmin/GPX folder and naming them temp.gpx. The unit will read the temp file and load it into its protected memory where favorites are stored. Current.GPX is just a copy of what is in the protected area and is not read.

I haven't played with Mapsource enough to know for certain if it writes directly to the area of system memory where the favorites are stored. It may do that.

The procedure when using Extra_POI_Editor is to read the current.gpx file and then rewrite it as temp.gpx.

a_user,

Thanks for the tip. I actually had a chance to play around with the unit this weekend with respect to SD backups. Like POI_LOader, MapSource allows you to store your Waypoints to a drive of your choosing. I selected the SD card, and it created a userdata file, maybe others. I reset my Nuvi. Upon first power from the reset with SD installed, the Nuvi indicated that new data existed on the SD card and asked if I wanted to load it permenantly to the GPS unit. I selected yes, thinking only custom POI get transferred. I was pleasantly suprised when all my waypoints appeared with correct category and icons.

At least this way, if the unit looses its mind again, I can make routine backups of my waypoints and stage them on the SD card for safe keeping.

I've had spontaneous restarts on both the 350 and 660(very rare events), but I've never lost any data on the internal memory.

Never experienced a spontaneous restart on the Nuvi 760 in almost the 2 yrs I've had it! Check with Garmin if it persists. Could even be a unusual power(battery) issue.

I have a 255W that was purchased at CC when they were going out of business. I have never had a factory reset.

I make sure all the software is updated, and when new maps are available, I make sure they are updated as well. Same with the Red Light/Camera poi's.

I've had my 660 do this once, not recently though and I never lost any data after the reset.

Thanks for the backup idea. I'd backup my favorites.

It sounds like it executed a hard reset. That will put your settings to factory default. Some have said that it also flushes your Favorites. Custom POI remain untouched in a Hard Reset. While I've done a Hard Reset on my 750 and it went to defaults, the Favorites remained intact, so that might be a model difference.

This sort of thing could have been a one-time who-knows-why-it-did-it. If it happens again, I would call Garmin while it is still in warranty. As someone else stated it might be a flaky connection at the battery, or something more complicated.

Waypoints are a odd creature. While you can create, alter and delete them, the do not work as Custom POI. They are stored as a file in a different location within the nüvi and the best way to manage them is with MapSource. You can also copy them to and from the nüvi and PC directly. However, there seems to be a hidden copy of the Favorites file as my experience has been that if I copy out of the nüvi and then delete that file within the nüvi and power cycle it, the Favorites are still there. I would stick with MapSource to work with Favorites and understand that Favorites and Custom POI are different animals.

FYI, the Favorites on my 750 reside in \Garmin\GPX\ You may see Current.gpx and Temp.gpx and others.

On my 880, that is my first one, I would have one at least once a week until I sent it back to Garmin and received a new one, this new one I have happens like once a month if that..

Perhaps an online upade will help. I have had problems with the Zumo in the past where an update fixed one problem then caused another. Eventually, several updates later, all is workig fine. Good luck.

From the nuvi drive, copy x:/Garmin/GPX/current.gpx to your backup location. To restore them, copy current.gpx back to the same folder on the nuvi but rename it to temp.gpx (important). On the next power cycle*, the favorites will be read from temp.gpx into the non-user accessible memory area on the nuvi where they are actually stored (current.gpx is only a shadowed backup of your favorites).

*Note that a "power-cycle" (or power-on/power off sequence) on the nuvi 8x0/8x5 units consists of removing, then reinserting the battery into the unit. Using the power switch on the unit to power it off only puts it into a "sleep" mode.

Thank you for explaining the "hidden" aspect of the Favorites. I knew something was going on in the background as I would open the contents of Current and Temp in MapSource and they appeared to be the same although the file sizes were considerably different. After making backup copies I would delete both, power cycle, and current would come back which you describe as the shadow copy and this fits with what I'm seeing.

If I restore my Favorites from MapSource, Temp becomes a much smaller file, but Current remains larger. I then discovered the Trip Log is included in Current and obviously the hidden copy. Erasing the Trip Log considerably reduced the size of Current. That accounts for the considerable size difference as I was assuming that the gpx files were only Favorites. Are Routes also stored in there?

I have not had any further issues related to system initializations. I think I found the reason for my reset. I created a map of EU from openstreetmaps and loaded in my USA Nuvi. It reads the OSM just fine. I was browsing EU street details when I selected a POI and enabled a route. The unit was thinking for some time how to get me from Chicago to Germany!! I recall just powering it down, as I was done playing with it. When I powered it back up, I got an error that stated something like can not route to destination and then the reset occured.

Moral of my story, I probably caused the nuvi reset. But, thanks to all I have ways of backup my existing waypoints and custom POI to SD so should it happen again(probably will know me), I can restore all my data.

Thanks all for the support.