Can't locate satellites - please help

waterloo700

waterloo700

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Brand new Zumo 660 - loaded all the software yesterday (blimey what a long winded affair). Everything looked OK but the thing never gets past "Locating Satellites".
I've tried all the obvious - outside, clear view of the sky etc. Tried master reset - no help. Checked around for advice - not geting anywhere.

Question is - if you press and hold the satellite signal strength icon (top left) and go into the bar chart - what is normal? How many solid bars do you need? How many blocks/how many satellites?

Finally - bought the thing off a registered business on fleabay but only have the paypal payment statement - will Garmin support the thing if its faulty?

Lots of questions I know but any help would be appreciated.
 
Go into settings not sure what its in on a zumo
gps press menu choose new location, give it an address where you are or find it on map press ok
it will then look for you with the correct satellites for that area.
found this out the other week in spain gps was loking for me at home :augie
 
waterloo700 said:
... the thing never gets past "Locating Satellites". ... Question is - if you press and hold the satellite signal strength icon (top left) and go into the bar chart - what is normal? How many solid bars do you need? How many blocks/how many satellites?
Click to expand...
How long have you given it? :nenau I seem to remember my original SPIII took about 20 minutes to acquire satellites originally, as it still thought it was in the Far East somewhere. After it did eventually acquire them, it obviously worked a lot faster after that.

IIRC I think it can work with 2 satellites, but it's more accurate if it's got 3.

Given that it's a Garmin, my guess is that if it's not working, the chances are that it's down to human error - not a faulty unit.
 
Taff said:
Given that it's a Garmin, my guess is that if it's not working, the chances are that it's almost certainly a faulty unit.
Click to expand...
Fixed the typo for you :)
I won't bore you with the hassles and returns I've had with faulty Garmins

However, in this case, I suspect giving it n approximate location will sort the problem
 
Are you sitting in your house? I have walls about two feet thick stone... no satellites in here either!
 
Thanks for all the responses - stick with me cause I'm new to all this.

I've tried to give it my location without success. I can give it a place to go to (e.g. my current location) but can't see how to override its default (London). Anyone guide me through the settings on this unit?

Tried it out in the open for over 30mins. Well away from obstructions, out of the car - still nothing.

Garmins website Q & A suggests an external antenna - really helpful that.
 
waterloo700 said:
... Tried it out in the open for over 30mins. Well away from obstructions, out of the car - still nothing.
Click to expand...
Don't know if your screen is the same as my old SPIII or my trusty 2610 but those screens show the number of satellites available to be acquired and which ones have been acquired - from memory, the block changes to green.

Has yours picked up any satellites in that 30 minutes?
 
Might be time to call Garmin

Their telephone support is quite good. At least you can rule out/in a faulty unit.

Phone (within UK): 0870 850 1242
Phone (outside UK): +44 870 850 1242

You'll probably have to jump through some registration hoops first.


BTW what software did you need to load - I though 660 came with maps already loaded?
 
I think there may be a clue here.......

What software did you have to load, 'cos mine worked straight out of the box? If you had to load some software onto the unit you may have fecked it.

I did what it said in the quick start guide and switched it on in the open (my back garden). Now, it works even indoors and sitting here in the lounge it can "see" 9 signals. It does say somewhere in the manual about being very carefull about removing/replacing files.

After mine arrived and only after I got the thing up and running did I register it on the Garmin website and do any software/map updates.
 
Stop press - it works. Plugged in my home address as the destination and that seemed to speed up the locating process.

When two worlds collide - BMW farmyard engineering and Taiwanese electro trickery.

Thanks for all your help - p!ss taking included.
 
stolzy said:
Fixed the typo for you :)
I won't bore you with the hassles and returns I've had with faulty Garmins
Click to expand...

AGREE AGREE! But I'm going to! Why is it everyone seems to think that Garmin is the the complete dogs b*****ks? Ones only got to look at various posting to on this site to realise the problems we put up with. So take my personal experience spread over 4 years:
2610: - screen de-laminated within 10 months had to get a replacement unit. (I think Stolzy had 3!)
Zummo 550: Bought to replace 2610 under the impression that they must have sorted things out and this was a better unit. Find several things I could do on the old 2610 weren't now possible. Within 6 months, fed up with crashes and ultimately the whole thing froze, Garmin replaced with new unit.
Last month, using it with the car mount, found it wasn't charging and no sound. Problem tracked down to car mount. Garmin accepted and replaced.
Used this week in car again with new mount, in space of 250 miles, unit crashed twice and then froze. Thought I was going to have to remove battery this time but eventually managed to reboot.

Nuvi: - bought for other half. After 10months, reinstalled upgrade, soon after sound died and not amount of reinstalling and support could fix it. Garmin again accepted faulty and replaced.

Garmin Road trip - I use a Mac. So thought it was great when Mac software was available. Its painfully slow and clunky. will probably go back to using Windoze and install Navigator on virtual machine.

I'm seriously unimpressed. Or am I just having incredibly bad luck. Surely I'm not the only one.

Hate to say this but considering TOM Rider - but have no experience. Cant be any worse though.
 
Garmins are like all electrical devices, they have problems

So the Garmin devices are not perfect, can you tell me an electronic device that is?

All electronic devices have problems because the software that controls them and the people that make them are humans who make errors!

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself do the problems out weigh all the advantages? If I took your Garmin away would you be happy, I suspect not. So you paid good money, but goods can't be designed to last these days so that we can all stay in work, sad but true.

My Garmin isn't perfect but my 660 is better than my 550 and that was better than my Streetpilot III. The 660 computes routes very quickly, has much better mapping.

As for the satellite problem, yes its very annoying sometimes when it won't pick them up. I often have to switch it off and start again and ride slightly blind in London until is gets my position. Thing is that all sat navs do it. At the end of the day I put up with the inconvenience sometimes for a few minutes because the rest of my 90mins is trouble free.

Its about time we all started posting what we do like about our Garmins, bet more plus than minus.:bounce1
 
wknight said:
So the Garmin devices are not perfect, can you tell me an electronic device that is?

All electronic devices have problems because the software that controls them and the people that make them are humans who make errors!


Its about time we all started posting what we do like about our Garmins, bet more plus than minus.:bounce1
Click to expand...

How delightfully understanding of you wknight. So...... I'm sitting in my tank somewhere out in the battle zone, with enemy bearing down on me and I need pretty damn accurate, reliable information fast! (Yes, apparently Garmin make the military stuff too.) "Sorry Major, my screens just delaminated while I was fixing the power connection on the side!" Mmmm ..... cant see what this has got to do with electronics. This is a design and quality issue not simply an electronics problem. Something the military wouldn't put up with. Oh and the software: since when was the beta version 'better' than the one that is eventually provided in the box? I'd rather be told: "actually the Mac version is crap and we cant sort it at the price so use the Navigator in Windoze" (like I have for years) than waste my time. Again that's nothing to do with the reliability of electronics. No I have to seriously disagree with you. these are not cheap units and we should complain. Thats how things get better. And anyway, I use electronics a lot and generally its increasingly reliable. More than I can say for the Nuvi and the Zumo to date. But thanks for the advice, maybe I need to shell out hundreds more for a 600 series:) You are right though, when its working its great but always carry a map and be able to read it!
 
wknight said:
Its about time we all started posting what we do like about our Garmins, bet more plus than minus.:bounce1
Click to expand...
Don't quite get that as an attitude - when my washing machine works as advertised, I don't rejoice and post in forums about it - its just what I expect.

Apparently we're to use different criteria to judge Garmin.

But, for the record, I think Garmins replacement service is good - mind you, it needs to be:D
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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