Nuvi 550 crashing

[NinjaBob]

I made a 1400 mile road trip last weekend on my motorcycle. While navigating some long routes my Nuvi 550 would crash everytime I tried to search for fuel along my route. The first 7 or 8 crashes the unit would just cycle off and back on but on the last it just went black and would not come back on until I temporarily removed the battery. After that I avoided any further "along my route" searches.

My guess is that my routes were too long and the unit ran out of memory. Anyone have any ideas how to work around this other than breaking the routes into shorter legs? One route was 730 miles but the other was only 350.

[Boyd]

I think you're hitting the limit of what the unit can calculate without running out of memory ("memory" being high speed RAM and not flash memory storage). This is Garmin's FAQ

How many via-points or stops can I add to my custom route on my nuvi series device that supports Multiple Point Routing?

11/23/2010

Up to 200 waypoints can be used when creating a custom route on your nuvi. However, this will depend on the length of the route. If you were to use 200 waypoints and the total distance was a few hundred miles, it is likely that this would be calculated properly. Due to memory constraints within the device, you may receive a route calculation error if you attempt to insert 200 waypoints into a route that is more then a few hundred miles. To avoid this possible issue, please break your single custom route into multiple routes.

[Seldom]

Does a 550 have vehicle options like "pedestrian"?  My OR300 ran out of memory on a 2000 mi. CNNANT route when I had it set for pedestrian, but routed just fine when I set it for car/motorcycle.  Of course I wasn't trying to search for POI along the way, but it might be worth checking your settings.

[NinjaBob]

The mode options are driving, walking, cycling or scootering. I only use driving, although I usualy use the GPS for motorcycling. I am not sure what "they have in mind by "scootering".

Also I don't use many waypoints at all, usualy just my start and end points. I do use a dozen or so via points.  On the first two crash episodes I was able to see that it was saying the closest fuel stations were 200+ miles away just before the crash. Subsequently it would crash before any POI were displayed.

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

[Seldom]

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

How many map versions do you have installed?

[NinjaBob]

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

How many map versions do you have installed?

CN NA NT 2011.40 US & Canada is installed on the Nuvi 550 but I use CN NA NT 2011.10 US to make routes on my Desktop PC.

[Boyd]

Using different maps doesn't usually cause crashes, but it can cause routing problems. Regardless of the cause, I doubt there is much you can do other than break the route into smaller pieces.

[NinjaBob]

Using different maps doesn't usually cause crashes, but it can cause routing problems. Regardless of the cause, I doubt there is much you can do other than break the route into smaller pieces.

That is good to know. I am familar with the routing problems and have learned to avoid them pretty well. Are there any tips or tutorials on how to make efficient routes and avoid crashes? Any way to maximize available RAM?

Thanks

[alpine]

The mode options are driving, walking, cycling or scootering. I only use driving, although I usualy use the GPS for motorcycling. I am not sure what "they have in mind by "scootering".

Also I don't use many waypoints at all, usualy just my start and end points. I do use a dozen or so via points.  On the first two crash episodes I was able to see that it was saying the closest fuel stations were 200+ miles away just before the crash. Subsequently it would crash before any POI were displayed.

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

I use my 500 in "scooter mode" when using it in my truck or on the ATV. Of course I have removed all the other language voices and help stuff from the unit to gain more available memory, and have never had it crash when searching for bathrooms or other stuff.

[NinjaBob]

The mode options are driving, walking, cycling or scootering. I only use driving, although I usualy use the GPS for motorcycling. I am not sure what "they have in mind by "scootering".

Also I don't use many waypoints at all, usualy just my start and end points. I do use a dozen or so via points.  On the first two crash episodes I was able to see that it was saying the closest fuel stations were 200+ miles away just before the crash. Subsequently it would crash before any POI were displayed.

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

I use my 500 in "scooter mode" when using it in my truck or on the ATV. Of course I have removed all the other language voices and help stuff from the unit to gain more available memory, and have never had it crash when searching for bathrooms or other stuff.

I assume you mean a truck in off road operation. Can you describe any differences between driving mode and scootering mode? I have also deleted superflous stuff from flash memory but if I undertsand Boyd's comment above that is different from high speed ram which I think is what the unit uses for route navigation and calculation and search results.

[Boyd]

Yes exactly. This is like the high speed DIMM modules in your computer. The "memory" that Alpine is talking about is like the hard drive on your computer.

[alpine]

 Scooter mode is for driving to the end of pavement, where I unload and move the 500 to the ATV.
As for routes with the 500, what they say about via points (200) just doesn't work. I get problems after about 75.
And as for way points, I keep those down to less that 35 (they say 50).
Just build a route keeping under those limitations. I only use turn points for off road routes, and know that the directions and distance will be "as the crow flies".