"Frozen" SP3. Why?

[Taff]

During my last trip, while recalculating a route, my SP3 "froze" about 5 times in the space of a week - the recalculating icon in the bottom left of the screen just stops moving and nothing happens. I admit that most of the time, I may have contributed to the problem, as I either pressed a button (eg zoomed in / out or kept moving) while it was recalculating. It has done it very rarely (approx 3 times in 6 months) before but I've never used the GPS for a whole week solid before, so for all I know this could be just one of those glitches you have to expect with technology.

Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong and making things worse? I did pull up on one occasion - thinking I would just wait it out to see if it starts up again on its own, but after about 10 mins of bugger all happening, I lost patience and switched the unit off, then back on again. It would then work fine.

 

[Greg Masters]

It might be worth checking that you have the latest firmware installed. It should be v2.80 which is a free download from here

Greg

 

[Taff]

I've just checked and have V2.8 on the unit at the moment. Don't know if this would make any difference, but I remember that I did not download the latest Driver/s when I downloaded Version 2.8. It was a separate download.

Would this make any difference? What do "Drivers" do anyway?

Greg, bearing in mind that you use your GPS far more than I do, have you had this problem ? What I'm thinking is that if you have not had this problem with your previous "Tossers On Tour" trips, what's so wrong that Taff gets the problem 5 times in 1 week ?

 

[Fanum]

I used to get this from time to time with my SPIII.

Didn't really solve it, but as you did, I just took a battery out and then restarted.

If it continues, I'd try clearing the memory card, then reloading the maps, and maybe even reinstalling the maps on your PC from scratch...it may be that the files and data gets corrupted.

It would only take a tiny error in the imformation to cause a relatively slow processor like that in the SPIII to get stuck up......this could be caused in data transfer when you load a set of routes or WPs up, or in the mapping data itself.

I load programmes up to eprom chips at work, and if there is too much 'electronic noise' around, the uploads just don't work and the info gets corrupted........proximity to any machinery (fridges, even a pc with a dodgy fan) could cause this, so it's not hard to get corrupt info on the GPS unit.

Perhaps it might be worth looking at a quest ?

I loved my SPIII, but TBH I really couldn't stand to go back to it now.