Will it charge from a USB?

Yes, I do it all the time.

Yes .... but you have to use the Garmin USB cable, not a standard one, and you can not have the NUVI in mass storage mode.

On the mac, you can take it out of the mass storage mode by dragging the gps image to the trash which will put the unit into the charge mode.

The screen goes dark when charging, but if you tap on it, you will get a message that the unit is charging or that it has been fully charged.

In Windows, all you have to do is plug it in. It doesn't matter what "mode" it is in.

I charge mine in mass storage mode with a 3rd party generic USB cable all the time. It works fine.

Ditto...Any standard USB cord will work

Does the Nuvi 250W do this as well?

It should, the Nuvi's are are basically the same. I discovered it quite by accident. So I suggest just trying it. The worst thing that will happen is that it won't charge.

Yes it work on the 250W, I use my camera cord every day ...

As do I. Something we can agree on.

In fact, I don't even know where my USB cable came from. It might be from my Sony camera, but I use that same mini USB cable for everything and it works fine.

I think the only difference is something about a special cable having an ungrounded pin or something that will allow a Nuvi to be USB connected, but not be "seen" by the computer so you can play around while it charges and not have it locked in "computer mode".

To put the Nüvi in charging mode instead of mass storage mode, you got to change the 200 ohm resistor by a 17.3 Kohm resistor between pin 4 and pin x in the mini USB plug.

Found at PINOUT.RU website.

http://pinouts.ru/GPS/garmin_nuvi_power_pinout.shtml

If you want to do this without a special cable, click the USB device icon on the lower right of the screen and select disconnect. That will disconnect the virtual connection. Leave the USB cable plugged in to keep charging it. You can then turn it on and use it in normal mode.

I'm not sure I'd want to spend the time hacking my own cable when doing the above is so simple.

Dosen't work on my 250W. When I "disconnect" the device" it's is in charging mode, if I put the power back on, it return in mass storage mode..

I'll have to remember to try this again. It seems to me that it worked this way for me. Maybe I'll have to hack a cable yet...

My 200 does the same thing. Can't put it in normal when when connected to a computer.

How do you know it is still charging after disconnecting? The screen is blank. In the car it says it is charging when I turn it off.

Turn the Nuvi on. While it displays "Loading maps", then plug the generic USB cable into it. It will come up in normal GPS mode. Now turn off the power, and you should see the "Charging Battery" message on the screen. I just tried this with my 200, and it's sitting here, plugged into the computer's USB port via a generic USB cable I bought on Ebay, and displaying "Charging Battery. Slide the power key to turn on." (Of course, the screen blanks in a few moments, but if you touch it, the message reappears.)

Just tried it. Same thing happens on my 660. Maybe Doc is on a Mac? I'm on a PC.

Thanks for the excellent piece of information.

Interestingly enough, it doesn't quite work that way on my 660. It won't work from a cold power up. It also won't work by unmounting the device because it simply shuts down and I'm back to square one with a cold power up with the cord plugged in, which will resort to "locked computer mode".

***WARNING***

This probably isn't the safest thing to do, but the only way I got it to work as you say was to let it boot up connected to computer mode. I then pulled the USB plug out (without unmounting/stopping it) and waited for it to boot to the "Loading Maps" message. I plugged it back in and it went to "normal" mode. I don't recommend doing this because people have had problems with crashing their device, corrupted files, etc by not properly stopping the device before disconnecting from the computer. Still interesting, though... Again, another simple little firmware feature Garmin could have included when connecting to the computer. "Mount as mass storage drive?" Yes/No

When I tried to do it the way I had written above, it didn't work. It only worked by unplugging the USB cable, then replugging as you described. In any case, it can be done (and as you said, at the owner's risk).

Thanks for the correction. Just hope nobody screws their unit up by trying this. Forunately, my 660 came with an A/C charger so it's really a non-USB issue for me if I want to charge it while using it.

You can also buy a car charger adapater from place like Radio Shack. Plug the car charge cable that came with you Nuvi IN to the "female" plug of the adaper and plug the adapter in to any wall outlet. I bought one for $5.00

My Nuvi charges just fine with the usb cable. Unfortunately, garmin did not include a house charger.

As long as you don't have to see your unit charging, plug your GPS into the USB port and after bootup and initialization, halt the USB connection via mouse clicks. When your GPS shuts down, it is still charging. And it will charge a lot faster than having the screen on at the same time. And not tricky hot swapping of USB ports is required. At least this works with the 200 & 200W.

what duration should one charge their nuvi for using usb charger from computer? 20min? 30 mins?

should i leave it charging overnight?

Just for general info.
Why would you want to charge from a USB, didn't you get an A/C charger with it? I would think it would charge quicker with the A/C.

Chuck - Nuvi 200 had a good idea. I used a garmin cable off etrex don't know about other cables. I would think if you can get to locked computer this will work for you. When nuvi is locked in computer mode, with unit is plugged in. I used device manager, locate usb mass storage device in universal serial bus controllers and disable it,verify it's gone. This will turn your unit on, may take a minute then just turn your unit off. The black screen will display charging then go out, to check just tap screen. Note: To put unit back to computer mode make sure device manager is open, disconnect and reconnect and wait for device manager to refresh then enable usb mass storage device. You have to do it quick as it is not displayed to long. If you miss the first time just
reconnect.
Flyboy NUVI 255

Mine takes a couple of hours and I'm good to go

It will charge with any USB cable from a computer or laptop. It will probably take longer than using the A/C charger, since the computer's USB amperage output is rated less than the A/C charger is.

I found a way to switch my nuvi from mass storage mode to Ethernet mode. This works on my 855 and may or may not work on other models as well. You'll just have to try it and see. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Switch on device on battery mode.
2. Touch tools option.
3. Touch USB switcher (you may have to scroll down).
4. Touch Ethernet to select that option and touch OK.

Now when you plug your nuvi into the computer via USB, it will at first try to go to mass storage mode, but after about 30 seconds will switch to full user mode. The screen will be dimmed somewhat (but still quite usable) and the unit will start charging. You can monitor the charging progress by touching and holding (about 10 seconds) the battery icon.

If you do not see the USB switcher on the tools menu (my unit did not display it at first) there's a way to get it on there:

1. Touch view map.
2. Touch the speed display at the bottom left corner of the screen.
3 On the next screen hold your finger for 10 sec on the speedometer displayed until you see a diagnostics screen.
4. Back out by touching back several times to get back to the map screen.
5. Touch menu button to get back to menu screen.
6. Touch tools option, touch USB switcher,(scroll down if necessary to find it) touch Ethernet and touch ok.

This works for me and hopefully for you too. Sometimes the USB switcher disappears from the tool menu. But I just go back through the speedometer method and re-install it when I need it.

This is the only method I have found that works for my 855 to get it to be usable while plugged into the computer. However, if all I want to do is charge it using the computer, it will charge whether it is in USB (Mass Storage) or Ethernet mode. And any USB cord works for me as long as the plug fits.