Nuvi 680 Lockups (Freezes)

Hard reset:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

That has happened to me as well and the hard reset resolved it.

But i did experience the same problems with another model. The cure was to redo the custom POI and get the latest updates for them. A "bad" POI will cause some lockups.

Thanks for the suggestion. However, it appears to me that the hard reset procedure is for the 800-series nuvi, whereas my nuvi is 600-series. As far as I know, removing the battery is a "difficult" job for someone who has never done it before.

For what it is worth, my nuvi has not locked up like it did when I wrote the original post. Then again, I realized today that it had frozen up on me just before I had to make a turn in an unfamiliar area.

This link shows the hard reset procedure for nuvis (one method for the 8x0 and 8x5, and another for all other nuvi models):

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

For your 680, this will work for you (just be sure to follow the link's warning and back up your Favorites in case the reset affects them):

Hard Reset Procedure:

Power the unit off. Press and hold (and continue to hold) the bottom-right corner of the screen while powering the unit on. Continue to hold the screen until the "Do you want to erase all user data?" prompt appears. Press "yes" and the unit will reboot. Reset all your location settings and user preferences.

I had my 680 lock up for the first time earlier in the week. Screen updates stopped, the whole deal. I was lucky, though -- holding down the power button restarted it. No recurring problems (so far).

Just curious...

I have no idea -- in part, because the battery won't hold a charge long enough for me to power it on and find it. I am pretty good about running WebUpdater, so the software is probably fairly current.

As perhaps a bit of a side question, does anyone know what nuvi software is based on?

To illustrate the thought process behind this question, Java is a programming language that periodically runs garbage collection to free up memory. From what I understand, the programmer has no control over when this process occurs. As a result, programs can appear to "hang" or "lock up" while the background process does its thing -- and if the amount of memory that is physically available is low, well... I am sure it is easy to imagine that the device will have a tough time finding places to temporarily move things around while it cleans house.

My device had about 10,000+ POIs, so I deleted a few lesser-used files and the problem -- at least for the moment -- appears to have gone away.

Thanks!

To provide an update, removing the excess POIs seems to have helped. It hasn't locked up since.

While it is still probably too soon for a final verdict, removal of my lesser-used POIs and files has definitely helped. Still no lock-ups this month.

Can you give us a better estimate on how many POIs you had (in how many groups) when it hung up, and what the numbers are now? I've got over 8k POIs total (not sure how many groups, between a dozen and two dozen I'd guesstimate), and have never seen this problem.

cheers--

I don't remember exactly, but it was well over 10,000 individual POIs and the amount of available memory was low. Now I am in the vicinity of 8-9k POIs, and all seems to be well.

Don't remember how many POI files... maybe a dozen... all from this website.

If POI's are the problem...
(Its only happened to me once)...
Keep your POI's on an SD card.
Its makes it easy enough to simply pop out.
If all is well without the SD card in place..well..you just figured out that the problem may be a bad POI file.

When I had some goofy locks ups taking out the SD card fixed it..I reviewed my POI's..removed what was causing the headaches and all was well...

Sigh... I am not sure what is different now, but I have experienced a few lockups over the last couple of weeks. I haven't updated any of the files.

Sigh... I updated the POIs in my nuvi, and it locked up on me again. Don't remember the exact number of POIs, but it was on the order of 90,000 separate POIs.

I had the same problem with my nuvi 855 on a recent trip to FL. When in large cities like St. Louis, Nashville or Orlando, the navigation screen would freeze, but the nuvi would keep tracking and giving audio prompts for navigation.

I was able to resolve the problem by removing the Tour Guide alerts. I originally had 2 mile radius alerts (Tour Guide) on the Offbeat Tourist Attractions and Places to Visit in the US. I changed them to standard proximity alerts, but kept the distance at 2 miles. This of course significantly reduced the number of alerts as it only alerted for attractions directly on the route. But I never got a single lockup after making the change. I think the processor in the 855 just isn't robust enough to handle that many alerts.

I had the freeze/reboot problem with my 755T and emailed Garmin and the response was updated maps (didn't help) or corrupt voice files (fixed the problem).

Alas... I am not using Tour Guide.

I don't think this is it, either. I have been keeping my GPS fairly current.

What did you do to fix the voice files? I am not sure which files I have installed off the top of my head, but I think I have consistently used the American "Jill" voice.

Hmm... still not sure what is going on. Haven't had any recent lockups with roughly 90k POIs.

Hmm... not sure what is going on. I have about 90k POIs and my device hasn't locked up recently.

On my 750, reverting to an older firmware version fixed the lockups permanently.

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you recall which version you switched back to?