Garmin modes ?

[Erik_G]

My Garmin Zumo has been strange lately.

Some times, the screen changes.
The info says "Continue to road xxx"

Nothing about how far. In what direction.
The little symbol up to the left showing direction and distance to next turn disappears. Also speed limitations and warnings disappears

And the GPS is almost useless.
I was guessing that it had to do with maps.
Since if first time happened, when I changed country.
But later it happened in area that had been working perfect the day before.

Any clue what is going on ?

[Toyark]

You do not say which model zumo you have. it would help others help you.
Very unlikely to have anything to do with mapping (but a faulty map or two maps enabled for the same area can will cause chaos)
A hard reset may be needed to reset unit to factory setting (save your own data and maps etc FIRST) as everything will be erased.

The steps I take before fault finding and when there are too many things don't make sense:
1- I save ALL my data, routes, tracks, waypoints, maps, unlock keys etc etc
2- I try a soft reset- if that works ==> use garmin express for unit software update
3- if soft fails, do a hard reset- then ==> use garmin express for unit software update
4- allow clear view of sky to allow unit to 'find' itself
5- reinstall your data
and.... pray

[Turbofurball]

It sounds like the dashboard template thingy has gotten changed or corrupted, can you switch to other layouts ok?

[Erik_G]

It switches itself between 2 different "modes"

I have installed OSM maps for some areas.
I suspected that.

But once in France, I was going around in a town i the evening => everything OK
Next morning => the strange layout on the screen.
Same unit. I did not change anything.

I have browsed all possible menus, to change whatever...
But.... I can not impact this.

BTW Zumo XT 535

[Toyark]

on their way to Santiago de Compostela on foot (mostly- and not with motorised transport...), a lot of time is needed dedicated to learning how these units function and also learning about their foibles. None are perfect, some are better than others.

To avoid what can be a long winded problem hunt, often the quickest way is do a soft reset- If that fails then a hard one both followed by an update check via Garmin Express as stated in post #2.
If doing the latter, remember to save your data before you start. Good luck

BTW you can have as many maps as you can store but having two (or more) for the SAME area and BOTH enabled will result in crazy routing, very strange unit behaviour and unit crashes - especially if they have the same name...

[PanEuropean]

Hi Erik:

I think Toyark identified the probable cause of your difficulty in his post above - it is a result of having two different maps (Garmin + OSM) installed for the same area.

If you dive deep into the settings on your device, you will find a settings page that allows you to turn different maps on and off. Turn off the OSM map and see if that solves the problem.

For the areas that you ride in (presumably Portugal and Sweden), I can see no benefit at all arising from having OSM maps installed. The Garmin maps have excellent coverage in those areas. In particular, the Garmin maps contain invisible road attributes (width, lanes, surface, speed limits, time of day restrictions, nature of barriers in the middle of the road, etc.) that OSM maps rarely contain.

I'm not denigrating OSM maps, they have their purpose in life, but based on my 20+ years of experience using Garmin navigators, OSM maps are only useful in countries where Garmin has limited map coverage... and there are no longer any European countries that Garmin's cartography suppliers have not mapped 100%.

Michael

[TheWarden]

Originally Posted by PanEuropean

Hi Erik:
I'm not denigrating OSM maps, they have their purpose in life, but based on my 20+ years of experience using Garmin navigators, OSM maps are only useful in countries where Garmin has limited map coverage... and there are no longer any European countries that Garmin's cartography suppliers have not mapped 100%.

Michael

Garmin started using OSM basemaps in their maps several years ago now. Im not sure its used on all but certainly their topo maps are