Poiloader

 

I tried to make a .gpi file for redlight/speeds cameras. I used Poiloader 2.7.2 and sox 14.0.1 on Win7 (x64).(.csv .bmp .wav files)
This failed. But I succeed with Poiloader 2.5.3.

My question: Why failed Poiloader 2.7.2.? (either as 2.7.0 and 2.6.x)

it's probably the wave

The most likely suspect is the WAV file. Open it using Media Player. I don't remember if you have to save it again or it rewrites it automatically when you close it but there's a hiccup with some files and W7.

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OK But are the .wav files

OK But are the .wav files good enough for Poiloader 2.5.3. and not for Poiloader 2.7.2.? Both PL were running under Win7.
(.wav: PCM/44.100Hz/16 bit/mono)

Folders

Leo2 wrote:

OK But are the .wav files good enough for Poiloader 2.5.3. and not for Poiloader 2.7.2.? Both PL were running under Win7.
(.wav: PCM/44.100Hz/16 bit/mono)

Welcome to The Factory.

2.5.3 is quite an old POI Loader and at some time in the past, Garmin changed the installation location for POI Loader and didn't remove the older files and folders when installation the new POI Loader--and this left two functioning versions of POI Loader on your computer.

If your sox.exe is in the folder of the old POI Loader, then it may not be in the folder now being used by the new POI Loader. Another thing you could do is a hard drive search for the file POI Loader.exe. See if your computer comes up with two files rather than the expected one.

With POI Loader 2.7.2 in Windows 7, its files (and therefore, sox.exe) will likely be in c:\Program Files (x86)\Garmin\POI Loader. Can you confirm that sox.exe is now in this folder?

The above location is for a 64-bit Windows 7 installation. I think a 32-bit installation is the same except that there's no (x86).

If this is the issue, putting sox.exe in the new folder is a 1-time task for you (or "1-time" at least until Garmin decides to change locations in the future). If you do have two versions of POI Loader in your hard drive, I suggest deleting the older one to avoid future confusion.

Thanks CraigW. Indeed I had

Thanks CraigW.

Indeed I had multiple PoiLoaders installed. I removed them all. After that I installed PoiLoader 2.7.2. again and I put sox.exe in the same (32 bit!) folder of Win7. (C:\program Files (x86)\Garmin\Poi Loader) as you pointed out.

Now poiloader produced a perfect .gpi file with .wav alerts.

Perfect help, thanks a lot.
Leo

craig's right

You need to be certain SOX is in the right folder as it did change between versions of POI Loader.

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Searching

CraigW wrote:

... Another thing you could do is a hard drive search for the file POI Loader.exe. See if your computer comes up with two files rather than the expected one.

With POI Loader 2.7.2 in Windows 7, its files (and therefore, sox.exe) will likely be in c:\Program Files (x86)\Garmin\POI Loader. Can you confirm that sox.exe is now in this folder?
...

@CraigW,
I have only recently moved to Win 7 and I miss the old XP capability to do a WIN-F and then enter my search. I have learned that I can do the same thing by opening a Windows Explorer session and use the search box in the upper right corner.

I think we have a dilemma when we are asking members (particularly new members) to search for the location of things like sox.exe and POI Loader.exe (or the old PoiLoader.exe [no space]) because we do not know what operating system they have (with Mac computers being something I know nothing about). We do not know how old their "poiloader" version is so we do not know how to tell them to search for "POI Loader" or "PoiLoader".

I wish we had a profile slot for what operating system a member is using.

As you may remember, I am a fan of portable freeware which make no entries into my registry (and will run from a thumb drive I carry with me). I found a search tool that works in XP, Vista and Win 7 called ScanFS at http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=scanfs&m=

Admittedly, asking someone to download a new tool and get it unzipped or unpacked creates problems, but if they used such a tool, it looks like it would find all instances of poi*loader.exe - getting both the older and newest versions.

Having such details, it would make helping others debug a problem much easier.

Do you think this would be something we should suggest?

Gotcha!

Good catch, CraigW. When Garmin moved the program installation folder location between versions, it became a gotcha when putting sox.exe in the correct folder. wink

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

Craig's answer is better

jgermann wrote:

@CraigW,
I have only recently moved to Win 7 and I miss the old XP capability to do a WIN-F and then enter my search. I have learned that I can do the same thing by opening a Windows Explorer session and use the search box in the upper right corner.

I think we have a dilemma when we are asking members (particularly new members) to search for the location of things like sox.exe and POI Loader.exe (or the old PoiLoader.exe [no space]) because we do not know what operating system they have (with Mac computers being something I know nothing about). We do not know how old their "poiloader" version is so we do not know how to tell them to search for "POI Loader" or "PoiLoader".

Using the generic "perform a search" leaves it up to the person having the issue to complete the search using the tools that work with their system. Your proposal requires adding still more overhead, and if running from an external flash drive, locating that particular drive, etc., etc.

Just leave it at "perform a search."

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Great news

Leo2 wrote:

Thanks CraigW.

Indeed I had multiple PoiLoaders installed. I removed them all. After that I installed PoiLoader 2.7.2. again and I put sox.exe in the same (32 bit!) folder of Win7. (C:\program Files (x86)\Garmin\Poi Loader) as you pointed out.

Now poiloader produced a perfect .gpi file with .wav alerts.

Perfect help, thanks a lot.
Leo

That's great to hear. And kudos to you for your thorough original message. If you hadn't added that it worked earlier in your (ancient!) 2.5.3, I would have possibly not offered this advice--and then (as so well known to the regulars here) I'd go on a zillion-paragraph reply of the various things that could be your problem. It's always good not to have to wade through one of my long rants wink

I tend to waver

Box Car wrote:

Craig's answer is better
...
Just leave it at "perform a search."

I tend to waver on which is better. When I think the OP is well-versed in Windows computer tasks (as I did with Leo), I'll suggest a "perform a search" but when it appears to be someone needing more details, I may agree with jgermann. And heaven help us all if I try to give advice to a Mac user either because I overlooked their computer type or they forgot to say that's what they're using.

Thanks.

jgermann wrote:

...We do not know how old their "poiloader" version is so we do not know how to tell them to search for "POI Loader" or "PoiLoader"....

Oh goodness, I never realized the older POI Loader program file was missing the space. Thanks--now I just have to remember this for the next time it comes up.

@CraigW

BoxCar made a good point when he said that "perform a search" ought to be sufficient. And, for a lot of people, that would be true.

However, a few times, I have emailed a member having trouble and try to walk them through the techniques for finding the information they have been asked for and then continue to exchange emails until their problem with POI Loader.exe and sox.exe is solved.

The problem I see in situations involving POI Loader (as it is now called) and older PoiLoader (as it was previously called) generally stem from not being asked by the installers as to where to put the program. That might have given a clue. I almost always put software I install into a directory called just "Programs" so it is easier for me to find software I chose to install rather than something "installed" for me.

So, we have the issue of "Program Files" versus "Program Files (x86) to confuse someone still on XP or Vista.

@BoxCar - I have been pretty impressed with ScanFS and hope you will download it - doing the "manual install" and see how you like it. It seems to me to be much faster and have more options than the Windows search. Plus - it does not impact the registry and it is portable, so I can help someone out on their machine (using only my flash drive) when I am debugging some problem and trying to find something.

@CraigW and BoxCar, I do not know whether you have Garmin Express (GE) still loaded, but there is a way to solve the problem of it always wanting to update itself at startup.

There is a well known portable freeware program called AutoRuns
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=autoruns&m=

I have used this program to block the two places that GE stores registry information to automatically run.

It puts entries in
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
and
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services

that show up in the Logon tab and Services tab, respectively of AutoRuns.

I simply have unchecked the check box for both of these entries and now GE is still available whenever I want to use it but will not get in the way when I don't.

By the way, Garmin technical knows that GE with XP has a problem and hope to fix that with the next update to GE.

thanks, but no

Thanks, but I'm not interested in installing another search program. Windoze search and I get along fairly well. We're both simple.

Yes, I did use GE until the update came out, then trashed it as it didn't update the computer. I've several other programs, primarily Crap Cleaner - oh, CCleaner as it's now called - I use to edit my autoruns. But I will admit that Autorun is a great little program (I have it too.)

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