Nuvi 3790 - Bad GPS reception

Bad reception has not been a problem for me. Mine has excellent ability to get and hold the signal. I do think weather conditions and placement in the car can affect all PNDs at one time or another.

No problem here...always a fast and solid lock.

Iceland is located in the far north where the effects of solar activity are much stronger in interfering with radio reception.

dobs108

My nuvi 3790T has been very responsive in locking onto sats until this morning. I loaned it to my wife to use on a recent trip. It was turned off when she returned and had been off for about a week. This morning I turned it on and it took what seemed a long time (3 min) to get a fix. It had been raining all night and there was a very heavy overcast. You can expect weak reception in inclement weather. I do not feel it was too long.

I tried my gpsmap 78sc under the same sonditions and it had a "lock" immediately. Keep in mind it takes a lot longer for the 78sc to go through the start up cycle than the nuvi.

There are a couple of factors that can affect the time to acquire a GPS navigation solution.

1) If the unit has been moved a large distance (usually quoted as >500 miles) since it was last used.

2) If the clock on the unit has an incorrect time.

3) If the GPS almanac is out of date. (Almanacs are considered current for a about a week)

If any of these conditions apply, then it might take longer to acquire a solution.

To properly evaluate the acquisition time, you need to remove each of these factors. Let the unit acquire a solution, then let it continue to navigate for at least 12.5 minutes to download a complete GPA almanac. Ensure that the time is correct (some units require a manual sync of their clock to the GPS solution time). Then shut the unit off, turn it back on, and see how long it takes to acquire.

If it instantly gets a solution, it probably stores the ephemeris data, and you will need to shut the unit off for a few hours for the stored ephemeris to go invalid before you test the acquisition time. I don't know if that many commercial units store the ephemeris data, but I thought it useful to mention it.

Well I started by buying a Nuvi 775. It was a showcase piece and had been in the Duty Free store for quite a while probably because it had a 2009 USA map but the deal with a rebate and USA + Europe + Iceland maps was 2 good 2 B true so I bought it. Well when I got to the US for my vacation I found out it was 2 good 2 B true.... I couldn't charge the battery which went dead after about 30 min when not plugged in ... It restarted every few minutes ... the voice told me to turn right when the display showed driving straight. I contacted the store in Iceland and after they confirmed that they would refund me on return to Iceland I bought a Nuvi 3790 here in Florida and man is this a beautiful unit. I drove from Orlando to New Orleans last weekend and the unit worked perfectly the whole trip and I was even able to get a good reception in downtown New Orleans but the tall buildings there are not as tall as in many cities. Overall I love the new crisp display, quick in redrawing the map and after getting a new update last night I think the voice is back to normal after the update to version 2.5 where it seemed to breakup a little.

Just bought a garmin nuvi 3790lmt and so far it is working ok except that when I connected it to the car cradle the screen was very dim ,I used voice command to check the brightness and it was set at 100%, I then set brightness to 90% and that corrected the problem ,but I can't understand why the screen would be dim at the higher brightness ,has anyone else noticed this with their unit

I have indeed noticed the same anomaly on my brother's Nuvi 765T. When it is set to 100% the screen becomes very dim, however at 90% it is the brightest. So Looks like something in the software tweaks the settings to 0% when at 100%. He is happy with the brightness at 90% .. so we left it alone as everything else is working really great on the unit.

I have the nuvi 3790 LMT and have found it to be very fast when acquiring satellite signals also recalculates in approx 4 seconds ,my previous nuvi was a 755t which took forever to acquire signal , so this new nuvi is way faster ,just hope it will last longer than all my previous garmin nuvis that I have owned ,hope this helps you

My first 3790T was terrible. It took 35-40 minutes for my very first satellite lock. Following satellite signals acquisition were OK. I then traveled East Coast and got the same problem: 30-40 minutes acquisition in 2 different cabs. Came back home: guess what? Same story.

Garmin issued an RMA and my replacement unit is very well behaved. The very first lock took 5-7 minutes, and it acquires signal pretty much immediately when I turn it on.

I noticed however on both units, that it is pretty sensitive to where it is in the car, moving it away from the windshield causes a partial drop in the reception.

best Garmin unit. No problems what so ever. quick acquisition, great traffic and the best garmin screen.

No problems here, my new 3790LMT is fast in acquiring gps fix. It stays locked on rock solid. I also have a zumo 550, the 3790LMT is a little faster at acquiring a fix.