SD card maps

Did you buy the Garmin SD card containing City Navigator North America NT? ...or something else?

If you bought the Garmin card, the map is supposed to be accessed from the SD card--the map is not installed to your nuvi. My assumption (never having used one of these cards) is that when started up, you need to go to your MapInfo page where you'll see your internal City Navigator map and your SD card map. To use the SD card map which I assume is a newer map than the one on your 250W now, you want to check the new map (SD) and uncheck the old map (internal nuvi). If you can't get beyond the "loading maps" screen, you may need to call Garmin for support. Please know that if the SD card map is a Garmin City Navigator North America map and is not a genuine Garmin SD card of City Navigator, it will not work in your nuvi.

A bit more on SD card Garmin maps:

Note that City Navigator maps can come in two varieties: 1) map updates (OneTime or Lifetime map updates) that update the map you currently have in your nuvi; and 2) maps on SD cards.

For most folks in the USA or Canada, Lifetime map updates is the way to go for newer North American maps. SD card maps have some advantages but they cannot be updated in the future and are a 1-time purchase of a map version.

If the North America map you have on the SD card is not City Navigator and is from some free site that offers Garmin-compatible maps, give us details on what you do have.

If this is all Greek, I'll stop now since I'm not really sure what SD card map you bought. Give us more details and we'll try to help you.

Yes it is a Genuine Garmin product,City Navigator 2012. The Garmin is 5yrs.old so lifetime up dates are not feasible.I tried the card in my Astro 320 and it works fine,The specs. for the card says it is compatible with all NUVI'S so I don;t know whats up.I am not real computer literate,as in files and such.

Oh boy, that changes things.

If the SD card shows the North American map on your Astro 320, then the card seems to be working well. In that case, if it doesn't work in the nuvi 250W, it may be a defect in the nuvi's SD port and given the age of the nuvi, I doubt that Garmin will offer much to you short of suggesting buying a new nuvi.

My only remaining suggestions are:

1) Use WebUpdater and see if there are firmware updates for your 250W. When updated, reinsert the SD card and fire up the nuvi and see if you can access the map on the SD card.

2) Give the nuvi extra booting time with the SD card installed. Maybe the "loading maps" screen will finish with a bit of extra time.

WebUpdater:
http://www8.garmin.com/products/webupdater/howtoinstall.jsp

Thanks i will try again.

You could also try inserting and removing the SD card (with the nuvi turned off) from the nuvi a few times in case there's some corrosion on the nuvi's ports connectors that may clean up with a bit of exercise.

Ports are gold plated to avoid the corrosion problem, so I don't think that's the problem. What you might want to try is loading the maps in a friends GPS.

That's a good suggestion, and one that is applicable for all electronics. Oxidation of contacts can often cause problems, and the "remove and re-insert" approach frequently is all that is needed to correct things.

Do NOT scrape or abrade the contacts with a tool - the plating on the contacts is only a few microns thick and you will remove it in addition to any oxidation that might be present.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Well to finish off with my SD card maps I hooked up my GPS to my truck ,turned it on ,inserted the SD card and low and behold under map info there it is fully functional. I guess you can't load maps while hooked up to the Computer.It works fine as stand alone or installed in the vehicle.Thanks for all your suggestions.

I see the OP solved his problem but I'd like to offer this ...

I had a discontinued Zumo 550 (for a motorcycle) that pretty much stopped working, the maps only worked in north up mode and even then were a few blocks behind me.

Long story short, Garmin offered a refurbished Zumo for $150 as a replacement (in exchange for the broken one), with my lifetime maps transferred to the newer unit.

Not sure the cost of Nuvi's these days but a new waterproof motorcycle GPS is well over $600 and it was worth spending the $150

.

In this case, it's unlikely Garmin would have a refurbished 2x0W or 2x5W unit available. More likely the offer would be for a refurbished 40, if an offer was made at all. nüvi units do not have the waterproofing that the zümo units have, which makes nüvi units a lot less expensive. Brand new, a 40LM has a list of $149.99 and Amazon sells them for $119.99. A refurb in this case isn't a great value.