problem with Vista HCX

[menjr]

I just got a Vista HCX from my lovely wife for christmas. everything works fine except for one problem. when i have an SD card in the unit and i shut it off it keeps making a continuous tone noise. it's pretty faint but it is there. the only way to get it to stop is to take a battery out. and once in a while when i turn it on the Garmin screen comes on but then does nothing. this only happens when an SD card is in. with no card it works fine. is there something wrong with the unit or the card? I don't have any other cards to try in it now.

[Indrid Cold]

I've read where other have had this fixed the problem by reformatting the microSD data card. Never seen it myself though.

[menjr]

thanks for the info. now, how do i reformat an SD card? i'm pretty new to this stuff. great site though. i downloaded the Michigan topo map and it works great on my vista.

[Indrid Cold]

With Windows, mount the datacard and right click on it and select format.

[Boyd]

Somewhere I think I read that one source of this problem is cards which have been used in a Macintosh. The Mac writes some invisible files which begin with a dot, like .Trashes for example. It's something about those hidden files that messes up the GPS.

I also think this may have been fixed with firmware update. Are you running the newest firmware on your Vista? You can check and update by downloading Webupdater from Garmin's site. There are Mac and Windows versions.

[Indrid Cold]

Somewhere I think I read that one source of this problem is cards which have been used in a Macintosh. The Mac writes some invisible files which begin with a dot, like .Trashes for example. It's something about those hidden files that messes up the GPS.

This can easily be fixed by setting Spotlight correctly in the System Perfs on the Mac.

[menjr]

just did the update on Garmin's website and it worked like a charm. no more freezing up. thanks a ton fellas.

[Indrid Cold]

just did the update on Garmin's website and it worked like a charm. no more freezing up. thanks a ton fellas.

The GPS unit software? Guess I thought you were up to date with that to start. Good luck.