Custom Proximity Sounds Stopped working on Nuvi 350

 

Ok, this is a weird one for you guys. I have all the poi's working and everything is great for months. Then, I download the latest redlight and speed camera files, put them in my POI folder on my PC, run the POI Loader and install the new POIs in my Garmin Nuvi 350, but now I get the default beeps and bongs for proximity alerts and my custom mp3 files have stopped playing.

I tried using a different SD card to transfer the data, but that did not work. I tried using a different computer with the POI loader, but that did not make a difference, either. I tried hooking the GPS up to the PC directly and using POI Loader to load the data without the SD card, also to no avail.

I renamed the mp3 files by copying and pasting the names of the speed and redlight camera filenames and just changed the extension to .mp3 and still made no difference.

I found an old SD card with my previous poi.gpi file and I copied that manually on to the Nuvi and my custom audio proximity alerts started working again.

I pulled just the redlight and speed camera files along with the accompanying mp3 files and tried to load just those, but that did not make a difference either.

I downloaded and installed the latest version of the POI loader software (2.4.2) and updated to the latest firmware (5.20) and still no difference.

So, I've edited this message now three times as I keep trying different things. I finally found the previous version of POI Loader (2.4.1) and it seems to have solved the problem. It also offers the option to IGNORE THIS FILE, which is nice when I have my directory full of POI files, I can select to ignore individual files without having to remove them from the directory. It seems there is a problem with importing the custom audio alerts in version 2.4.2. Should I report this to Garmin? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks,
Carey

WAV or MP3?

Carey934 wrote:

I finally found the previous version of POI Loader (2.4.1) and it seems to have solved the problem. It also offers the option to IGNORE THIS FILE, which is nice when I have my directory full of POI files... It seems there is a problem with importing the custom audio alerts in version 2.4.2.

There was an earlier version of POI Loader (not sure exactly which one), that supported .wav files as well as .mp3. Could it be, that your .mp3 files aren't really .mp3's at all? ... that might explain the symptoms you are seeing

Re: the ignore option - I just double-checked: V2.4.2 has the "Ignore this file" option too (only in Manual Mode)...

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

Oh yes, the files are

Oh yes, the files are definitely MP3, as the file size is very tiny (51kb) and WinAmp shows a setting of 160kbps/44hz, which is an mp3 standard.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Carey

um

Carey934 wrote:

Any other ideas?

Well the fact that copying the old POI.GPI cures the problem, implies that it's not a problem with the Nüvi...

Do your .mp3 files play ok in Winamp? POI Loader does no checking at all, beyond looking at the file extension. It just kind of bundles everything together!

Assuming they are ok: Do they actually make it into the POI.GPI when you run POI Loader V2.4.2?
If you poke around in POI.GPI with a 'hex editor', you should be able to find the 'ID3' tag and some readable text just after it. (If you look a the beginning of the .mp3 file, you'll see the header and you should be able find all that in the o/p file.)

I'm working on the theory that either a) The .mp3 files are corrupted or b) POI Loader isn't finding them and is silently not incorporating them into POI.GPI - POI Loader only has one error message, and it doesn't relate to this condition wink

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

The POI file size appears to

The POI file size appears to contain the mp3 files, but I can't be sure. I copied the mp3 files to the MP3 directory on the Nuvi and it plays them just fine as audio files, and as I already mentioned, I uninstalled version 2.4.2 of POI Loader and installed version 2.4.1 and everything now works as it should.

I am completely baffled by this.