Garmin 60Cx display fading away, auto switching off and hanging - data card 129 files?

[rick]

My GPSmap 60Cx showed some odd behaviour while on a trip:

After switching it on the display would sometimes fade after a few seconds,
automatically switching off

or:

After switching on it would look for satellites, but lock up after a few
seconds, not responding to any buttons, including the power-off, so I needed to
remove the batteries to switch it off

I tried the hard reset, I tried updating/reinstalling the firmware, all to no avail.

Then I thought about the 2GB data card. After removing it: no problems! Putting
it back: trouble. Tried this a few times with and without data card.

Inspected the data card: 129 files, mostly old track files. Hmm. One more file
than 128. Deleting the track files with my Mac did not help. Then I erased the
data card: no problems since, so far.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Does a 60Cx indeed have trouble with more
than 128 files on the data card?

(firmware version 4.00, battery setup Ni-Mh)

Thanks,
--
rick

[rick]

Hm. With a newly erased memory card it happens too.
Not (yet) with the original 128MB memory card.
I now suspect the 2GB memory card.
--
rick

[rick]

Well, bought a new 2GB micro memory card, installed the maps, no problems
after 20 power-ons.. Will report if problem resurfaces.
--
rick

[Mike Lane]

If you're using a Mac to open the sd card, the problem may be due to the
hidden files that OS X leaves on any folder it opens.

I have a GPSmap 76Cx which will crash if I open or format the sd card using
my Mac. The solution which works for me is a small utility 'BlueHarvest'
which will erase all hidden files on any non-Mac disks. The details are here:
<http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest4/>


--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

[rick]

Thanks for that suggestion! However, the card was never in my Mac before the
problems, so it cannot have had hidden files and trashes at that time. I think
the SD card went bad for some reason, and a GPS device cannot handle problems
with it. (Still going strong with the new SD card!)

The symptoms were a lot like those battery-contact problems described in some
pages on the web. The difference being that my GPS would also switch off/hang
when connected to USB, so it was not that.
--
rick

[martin.b...@gmail.com]

I got the same fading out problem. Thanks a lot for the tip! Removing the SD card fixed my screen problem! You save my Garmin!!

[martynas...@gmail.com]

GPSmap 60CSx with Sandisk 128MB card - same problems with fading away.
That card was in there for the moment of purchase, there was no problems. Fade away issue appears suddenly while navigating to some address. I thought batteries may run out, but they not.

The solution (thanks for all who answered here too):
1. take out memory card.
2. wonder what might have happened here.
3. put memory card back into device.
4. device works fine.

There are no miracles, only bad contacts.

[Mark DiVecchio]

Mike Lane had a good hint with the same problem on my GPS60CSx.

Had a 2 GB card that was working fine in the Garmin. I used a USB on-the-go adapter on my Android based cell phone to read off the gpx files. When I put the memory card back into the Garmin, the display faded away after a few seconds after turn on. I plugged the card into my Windoze 10 computer and saw that the cell phone had added two folders to the card: "Android" and "LOST.DIR".

I deleted both of those folders, inserted the card back into the Garmin and it worked fine.