my zumo is a useless crock of shite

midnitemo

midnitemo

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My Zumo 550 only seems to work when it feels like it.....went to gloucester today , listening to music on it and twenty minutes into the journey it found the sattelites and started to work....on the way home it spent the entire journey"locating sattelites" 140 miles and two and a half hours....this is my second one as the first one had faults....anybody any ideas why it can't/won't find the sattelites? it's really doing my head in...not hugely technical by the way.
 
Suggest you try turning off the music playback and use it as a sat nav only - see how it works. If you've got heaps of mp3 files on the SD card I've read somewhere that these can slow the system down if they're not in a particular folder structure. Try deleting all the mp3s, use it as a sat nav only.

Once you have it working properly for guidance you can try loading back mp3s and see if it stops working again :augie
 
I've been on an IT course...turn it off...and here's the clever part...on again!

I found my 550 was slower calculating routes once I switched the preferences to back roads, avoiding everything else possible. But, even in Gloucestershire, once it had found the satellites it stayed locked in. Check what preferences you have set (but that shouldn't effect the satellite location).

Granted the voice to the headset for some of the local Welsh towns is a bit "interesting".
 
My 550 and 660 never take more than a few seconds to find sats - with SD cards full of music. Route calculation using shortest (back roads) will always take longer as a lot more junctions to think about than just using trunk routes. Never a problem locking on, the 660 in particular will stay locked on in the middle of the house with no direct line to the sky. Both have been used all over west and east Europe without a problem, only losing lock in long Alpine tunnels but they soon find sats once back outside.

Pronunciation in Italy can be really interesting unless the voice is changed to Italian.
 
How big is your house that you need a satnav?
Click to expand...

It's not the size of the house, it's an age thing. Can't remember the way to the front door.

Now all I have to do is remember where I left the satnav
 
andyclift said:
It's not the size of the house, it's an age thing. Can't remember the way to the front door.

Now all I have to do is remember where I left the satnav
Click to expand...

If you send me your address I can use my 550 to locate your house. I'll knock on the front door. That might help!
 
andyclift said:
Now I just need to find my hearing aid so i can hear the knock.
Click to expand...

"Mother was right. You are hard work"
I'm leaving you, you deaf, geographical and spacially challenged, low retention memory man you. I'm going back to where people will appreciate me".

Hope you can read this in such small type size?

I once knew a guy who had a hearing, seeing and doing, capucin monkey that helped him get through life. Not sure garmin stock those though. Plus, I think he lost it and capucins are crap at adding via points on a 550 anyway.

Is any of this helping the OP with his problem?
 
I'll give you senior gentlemen £30 each for your 550's, and £50 for the monkey.

C'est bon?
 
A sensible post

My 660 has just taken me through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, back to Hungary and Austria, Czech Republic and home.

A with my previous 550 and 2720 it did not let me down (small glitch as below) In addition to faultless navigation it provided me with music, located fuel stops, cash machines, hotel and, with Archies Camping POIs, some great campsites. Oh and it answered the phone a couple of times. It also kept an accurate log of the route taken which was downloaded onto a laptop every night so I now have an exact record of the route, mileage, speed and elevation. The Garmin software on my Mac links with Google Earth which lets me "fly" some of the more interesting parts of the route. Great for memories of trips over the Transfagarasan Highway for example.

The small glitch. The ON/OFF switch stuck a couple of times. No big deal but when I got home I phoned Garmin to ask if it could be lubricated. They immediately said "send it back and we will send you a new one" even though it was out of guarantee. New one arrived four days later free of charge.

To complain that a satnav takes 20 minutes or 140 miles to find satellites is not a complaint about the satnav, it is an admission that the way it works is not understood.

- No satnav has ever been capable of reliably and quickly locking while moving. As quick as it works out the co-ordinates of a sat someone moves it!!

- Satnavs are designed to lock on a lot quicker when they are started at the same location where they were last used. That way they can short cut the location process as they know where they are already. Starting it at a different location can greatly extend the lock on time.

Taken from 660 manual

Acquiring Satellites
1. Go outdoors to an open area, out of garages, and away from tall buildings.
2. Stop your vehicle, and turn on the zūmo.
Acquiring satellite signals may take a few minutes. The bars indicate GPS satellite strength. When one bar is green, the zūmo has acquired satellite signals. Now you can select a destination and navigate to it.

If all else fails read the instructions
 
an almost identical reply that I was going to post.
Whether I need my sat nav or not, I'm in the habit of just turning it on every time I use my bike.
That way, I know it will always lock on very quick and the on-board fuel guage is useful too.
Ade
 
I've found with my 550 that if you turn it on when inside i.e.in the garage prior to riding off it does take a few minutes to get a satellite lock once you've ridden away.

Conversely if it has a clear line of sight from switch on it only takes a minute to lock on to a signal

My SD card is full of music and has never affected the GPS function but it does take longer to set up the mp3 player the more songs that are on it.
 
A sensible post too!

Have you done a Master re-set recently. Always useful to do if it is playing up.

To do a Master Reset:

With power off hold the bottom right corner of the screen (Use finger or pencil eraser) and turn power on while continuing to hold the screen. Don't hold power button down continuously just the screen. You will get a screen asking if you want to reset, Say YES.

If you have any favorites on your unit save them before the reset or you will loose them.

After the reset your unit will be factory fresh and require you to reset your settings and install your favorites back. Usually you have your favorites in Mapsource already so that's not a issue.

Resetting the Zumo is nothing more than rebooting your computer. It just clears the cobwebs out from months and months of use similar to what Windows requires after a update.

Plus is always a good thing to do when you have upgraded to the latest software.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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