If my Garmin Nuvi has lost it's software, can I load it somehow ?

your profile shows magellan. What nuvi do you have?

How did you determine that the software is misaing? What happens when you connect the unit to your PC?

Yes, Magellan was my 1st GPS when I signed up here. This one is a Nuvi 650. I'll post the other answers after trying on PC tomorrow

Hi, when I connect it to the PC, the screen says "no software installed". I did no further testing after I saw that.

Was that the way if was when you got it? In other words did you buy it at a garage sale, on e-bay, etc or did it just quit working?

.....on the PC or the Garmin ??

It could just mean that the driver is missing for communicaion with the PC; maybe at the PC end.

What happens when you just turn the Nuvi on by itself ??

Hi,
I have a Garmin 660 now. I got it so I could load maps for India too. I'm in India right now. After taking a backup of the whole device, I've replaced the "gmapsupp.img" file with the India one, however, I don't even see a map on the GPS. It shows a blank page after selecting the "view map" prompt with the "car icon" in the middle. On top, it says " acquiring satellites" ... it didn't get any, after I left it for about ten minutes.
I didn't use the Garmin Mapsource software from my computer to load the map. Could that be an issue ? Are there other files in the GPS > Garmin folder I should take care of ?

Put the GPS back in the same state it was in when it worked. Get it working before you try anything else. Then why not put both maps on the GPS? Install the USA map on the GPS and the India map on a SD card (at least a 2gig card) and then switch back and forth between the two maps as needed. Use either Mapsource or the upgrade program from Garmin.

Maybe a hard reset would help?
Read this thread & backup Garmin/GPX/current.gpx file like mentioned there. If you can though, I'd email the OP & expert first.. DorkusNimrod
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

Ok, I had backed up the whole GPS before I changed things. There was gmapsupp.img file (we'll call it US img) that I was supposed to replace with India's file which also has same name (we'll call it India img). My Garmin's memory is about 2 GB. US img file was about 1 GB & India's image is less than 100 MB. So, I renamed US img file to "gmapsup2.img" & copied India img as gmamsupp.img (Someone said that Garmin recognizes gmapsupp, gmapsup2 & gmamprom img files as map files). Now, when I go to Settings > Map > Map info, it shows the India map listed & checked. It doesn't show any other map (if it identified gmapsup2 img too, it should show US option too there). Now, when I go to View Map prompt, it still draws the world-base-map somewhere in Colorado (a car icon with a '?' in the middle), keeps showing "acquiring satellites" & doesn't draw my location in India. I went to my terrace, it showed 2 satellites for a minute or so, but then lost them. All this while, it never drew the India's map on the screen.
I'm not sure if this is a map problem or am I simply at a 'bad-reception' location. I'll try bringing it to my office tomorrow. Also, could buying an external antenna help ? At this point, could a hard reset help as well ?

as long as you have a clear view of sky above you will be fine. since its a satellite signal, as long as you have a clear view of sky above, you will get signal.

the gps will take very long time to acquire signal the first time you turn it on in a different country or if it was off for long periods of time.

just take it to your roof and make sure the unit is sitting vertical or perpendicular to the ground as the antenna is on the backside of unit. just turn it on and let it sit there for 10 minutes or more.

you can also set your location somewhere in india as i said in the other thread.

based on what you said, it seems that the gps is thinking its in USA and as such is searching for satellites in usa. it will take a while before it calculates that its in India.

just have to be patient.

I may be misunderstanding what you're going after here, so bear with me.

As others have said, it will take time for the unit to lock on the satellites. However, locking on the satellites I don't believe is going to solve all your problems. Nor do I believe you need a hard reset. I'll try and explain below.

I'm recommending you rename your maps yet again, because unless I'm mistaken your nuvi only supports ONE gmapsupp.img file on the device. If you want BOTH sets of maps to show up on your GPS, and be selectable from the tools menus, read on.

The US map needs to be renamed back to gmapsupp.img. The India map that you want to use needs to be named gmapprom.img. That will take care of the two maps so they both show up on the GPS and don't interfere with each other. Unless this has changed, by default the maps are named "gmapsupp.img" when you do an update and have to be manually renamed. The pre-loaded map that comes on nuvis is named "gmapprom.img", and thus you can safely name the India map with that name and have no issues with both map sets. Both map sets will show up (verified with a test installation of Garmin Topo 2008 and the current North America maps on Garmin Mobile XT).

However, while renaming the map files solves the problem of both maps not showing up, I believe you also will need a basemap that will cover the world. Most GPS units sold in North America only have the North America portion of the basemap. The internal name of the map is usually North America Lite Basemap or something along those lines and the file name is "gmapbmap.img". Getting a basemap that covers the entire world is not difficult. Just look at the following page on these forums and download it: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15809 .

Make sure you back up your original basemap, just in case. Then put the new basemap on the unit in place of the one originally installed and you should be good to go. It certainly won't hurt except to cost you 30MB in space instead of 7MB.

so you are saying that the base map that comes with garmin is not a world base map? how can one verify that in their garmin?

i zoomed out all the way in the map and when i browse around it shows the world map. does this means that i have it?

when you say base map, does base map means the outline of the country boundaries and a few major cities pointed out in the map? as that is all i see for other countries. or does the base map means all the major highways etc... will be included in the base map?

The base map will include cities and major roads and details such as coastlines and rivers will be relatively accurate in shape.

I have a 750 and I must have the base map for the western hemisphere. If I zoom out and scroll down, the towns and cities in S. America along with major roads and route numbers are displayed. If I scroll to Asia or Europe, the maps show cites but no roads and the borders and coastlines appear as line art.

thanks, now i understand clearly what a basemap is. do you know of any sources of free basemap for India? other than the old free version that garmin provides?

or is that the only choice?

This basemap is older than what Garmin puts in their devices today, but given that it only provides coarse detail (cities and major roads between them) I seriously doubt you're going to find anything more accurate at the level of detail on the basemap.

A list of basemaps is available here but I tend to use the 4.01 basemap from an old version of Garmin Mobile XT, because I don't need the DEM capability for my Garmin Mobile XT 5.00.20W Installation.

[EDIT: Noeman requires registration and does not have a link to the 4.01 basemap I use. However, GPSPassion.com also has a discussion on the world routable basemaps.]

[EDIT: Link to 4.01 basemap is here.]

Hi Streph, neo*,
I think I have the world basemap, as I can scroll to India & other countries. I can also see the India portion highlighted with 4 yellow outlined boxes, which indicate that I have detailed maps for that area on the GPS. Right now, the India file is named as gmapsupp.img & US file is renamed to AAgmapsuppAA.AAimgAA, so that I might just switch the two when I go to US anytime. I can see detailed roads of India when I zoom on India (i located & Favorited my House too ). I can also run it in simulate mode to show me directions from my current "Set loc." to intended location. However, the satellites still remain a problem. As soon as I open the antenna of this 660, it again starts assuming it's last known location in US (Garmin loc. around Kansas City). Dunno what's wrong.
The last thing I might try, would be to restore the original GPS contents, put the India map on an SD card, put the device unlock key on SD card too & see, if anything changes. Should the SD card files have any directory structure (like :\Garmin) or can I copy the files directly at root level ?

Well, did you let the GPS lock in on the satellites? You're going to need a good half hour to an hour in a clear location to ensure the unit picks up the signal.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, renaming the files like I mentioned eliminates the issue of having to rename the maps at all and both sets of maps will appear in the device. It really doesn't matter which you rename gmapprom.img, but renaming the maps as I described will eliminate something I consider a unnecessary procedure.

Moving the maps around I don't believe is going to solve your problem. The GPS has to find the satellites and figure out that it's in India, not in the US.

i second that, please let the gps find the signal however long it takes, let it be until the battery runs out or it find signal.

some units take too long to find signal in a new country.