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Oregon 450 - USB not recognized by my pc (Windows 7)


D11outman

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Hi all,

 

I've owned my Garmin Oregon 450 for about a month now & I've had problems trying to get my home pc (Windows 7 - 64bit) to recognize the device.

I keep getting a message "USB device not recognized...one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned...".

 

The thing is, it used to be recognized but it seems that after I loaded the Garmin communicator software to download caches, I started having problems.

I've also uninstalled the Garmin software that I could locate on the pc...then reconnected the Oregon 450 & had temporary success (as it reloaded it's drivers again), only to be foiled again after I had reinstalled the Garmin communicator software.

 

Another strange thing - the Oregon 450 USB connection works on my office pc using Windows Vista Business system.

 

Obviously, I've tried working with Garmin support - I was instructed to do a "Boot Block" procedure...this also worked temporarily.

 

I'm getting very frustrated trying to use my Windows 7 pc to communicate with this Oregon 450.

 

Can anybody help?

 

Thanks for listening.

 

D11outman

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Yeah - I've tried that....there are (4) on the front & (4) on the back.

 

Garmin asked me to try one of the USB ports on the back of the tower...that's the only thing I didn't do (fairly hard to access without moving furniture).

 

I have tried all (4) front ports - still won't recognize the Oregon 450.

I've only got the cable that it came with.

 

All the USB ports work fine with my digital camera.

 

D11outman

Edited by D11outman
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Insert your Usb in the Gps ONLY, push and KEEP PUSHING the on button while inserting the Usb into the computer, about 20 seconds after inserting nto the computer, release the on button.

Now it should work, let the computer work, maybe it needs to find a driver.

 

Is the Oregon in spanner mode?

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The procedure you describe, sounds like the "boot block" method that I tried...it worked the first time but not anymore (but I usually keep holding the power button until it either recognizes the unit or doesn't recognize it)....I'll try your method.

 

Spanner mode??....Do you mean the Setup/System/Interface choices of:

Garmin Spanner

Garmin Serial

NMEA In/Out

Text Out

RTCM

 

The Oregon 450 is set to Garmin Serial....what is Garmin Spanner?

 

Thanks,

D11outman

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It's important that the cable is ONLY connected to the GPS, then press on, then insert in the computer.

 

If the first doesn't work try spanner, you will get a choice of mass storage and ???? (Don't remember)

 

Else goto configuration screen in windows and look for a yellow flag at the Usb section, if you have, delete that one.

 

Else delete the Garmin communicator software and for now just download the PQ's to the computer, unzip them and with windows copy paste them in the GPX folder.

Edited by splashy
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Hi all,

 

I've owned my Garmin Oregon 450 for about a month now & I've had problems trying to get my home pc (Windows 7 - 64bit) to recognize the device.

I keep getting a message "USB device not recognized...one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned...".

 

The thing is, it used to be recognized but it seems that after I loaded the Garmin communicator software to download caches, I started having problems.

I've also uninstalled the Garmin software that I could locate on the pc...then reconnected the Oregon 450 & had temporary success (as it reloaded it's drivers again), only to be foiled again after I had reinstalled the Garmin communicator software.

 

Another strange thing - the Oregon 450 USB connection works on my office pc using Windows Vista Business system.

 

Obviously, I've tried working with Garmin support - I was instructed to do a "Boot Block" procedure...this also worked temporarily.

 

I'm getting very frustrated trying to use my Windows 7 pc to communicate with this Oregon 450.

 

Can anybody help?

 

Thanks for listening.

 

D11outman

I've had one or two minor irritants like that on my new-ish Oregon 450. Once in awhile it'll just freeze when plugged in to my PC (also Windows 7) and stays frozen after unplugging. The screen will only show the "plugged into PC" image and will not change until I disconnect, remove the batteries, and try again, then it's okay. This rarely happens but it's worrisome when it does. By the way, did your avatar suddenly develop black bars like mine did? I wonder what that's all about?

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This may sound stupid but it works as often as not.

 

Shut down your PC normally, meaning by using the Shutdown option under the Start menu (I never stop feeling silly saying that).

 

Now, once the PC is shut down physically disconnect it from the power source by pulling the plug from either the back of the computer tower, or the wall socket. Walk away from the computer for a good five minutes or so (go make a cup of tea or something). After a few minutes (seriously, a few MINUTES) plug everything back in, reboot and see if your USB controller is playing nice now.

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After a few minutes (seriously, a few MINUTES) plug everything back in, reboot and see if your USB controller is playing nice now.

I REALLY don't understand this solution - but had heard of it and darned if I didn't have to employ it for the first time last week. However, NONE of my USB devices were being recognized. Darned if it didn't work, though.
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This may sound stupid but it works as often as not.

 

Shut down your PC normally, meaning by using the Shutdown option under the Start menu (I never stop feeling silly saying that).

 

Now, once the PC is shut down physically disconnect it from the power source by pulling the plug from either the back of the computer tower, or the wall socket. Walk away from the computer for a good five minutes or so (go make a cup of tea or something). After a few minutes (seriously, a few MINUTES) plug everything back in, reboot and see if your USB controller is playing nice now.

Not stupid at all. I had the same problem with my laptop running W7 not recognizing USB devices. For the laptop, I unplugged and then removed the battery pack for 4 or 5 minutes. Popped the battery back in again, plugged back into the power outlet, turned on, plugged in the OR450 and voila - it was visible as a device. Worth trying.

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After a few minutes (seriously, a few MINUTES) plug everything back in, reboot and see if your USB controller is playing nice now.

 

I REALLY don't understand this solution - but had heard of it and darned if I didn't have to employ it for the first time last week. However, NONE of my USB devices were being recognized. Darned if it didn't work, though.

 

The short answer is that in Windows XP (and Win7 from what I'm seeing) after a USB port isn't used for a while the USB driver built into the operating system sets the OHCI controller to "Suspend". Whose decision that was, I don't know but if ever find out I'm going to slap them for it. Anyway, when you plug a device back into the now-suspended USB port, it can sometimes fail to wake up properly and voila... An error is reported. There's a registry "hack" that corrects this, but I don't really "do" registry hacks over a forum. The suggestion to perform a "Power Up Master Clear"™ simply resets the OHCI and, hopefully, gets it to properly recognize USB devices as it should.

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The difference is that I'm all over my USB host chip on a regular basis. Even my keyboard/mouse combo make use of it, so there was no reason that it should have gone to a suspended state. Was the first time it had ever happened to me, and I've had days of idle time (on vacation) where it never happened. This was during a day's use. Strange stuff.

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While I don't know if it would help with this specific issue, I can understand the idea behind the "shutdown, unplug, and wait" procedure. Even when a computer is shutdown, power may still be supplied to the motherboard. Since motherboards use capacitors, which store electricity, a motherboard may still have power even immediately after it is unplugged. That's why you wait, letting the capacitors discharge. (My desktop's motherboard has an LED that shows when it has power.) Letting the computer totally run out of power (except the backup battery for the clock) will cause the computer to do a full cold boot rather then a normal warm boot, and makes sure that all the memory is wiped.

 

I once had a situation where after a power outage a desktop PC didn't want to boot, it had some weird problem in the BIOS/CMOS memory. Unplugging the computer, letting it sit for a while, and then plugging it back in and booting fixed that issue.

 

As far as the problem at hand, I would say get/borrow a USB->MiniUSB cable (like the one that came with it) and try it out. A bad cable could easily explain the fact that it worked sometimes and not at other times. (Shouldn't be hard to find USB to MiniUSB cables at Best Buy or similar type stores, it's a pretty standard cable used by lots of stuff, from smartphones to PS3 controllers.) It's also possible the MiniUSB port on the GPS has a problem, which would require getting it repaired.

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Thanks for your help everyone!

Well - the trick about replacing the batteries worked......once.

Replugged the Oregon 450 into the pc about 2hrs later....no go.

 

2nd - changed to Spanner mode.....no go (but I kept it in spanner mode - is this ok?).

 

Next - tried the shutdown / unplug / rehit the pc start button procedure.........it worked!

It allowed me to remove the geocache .gpx files.

 

I'm afraid to reconnect it again (for the moment) :)

 

Still doesn't explain why the Oregon 450 always seem to work with my Windows Vista Business machine at work.

 

D11outman

 

P.S. I noticed that my avatar image changed too - I replaced it but then the black bars happened..mmmmm?????

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The black bars by the avatars I think are sideboxing by the website for non-square images. (The image file does not have the bars, but the space allocated to the avatar image is square shaped.)

 

Forgot about the GPS always working with a different computer, that sounds like the problem is on the PC side. Maybe see if there are updated chipset drivers for your motherboard, or you could try re-installing the high level USB device drivers. Maybe double check the cables leading to the front USB ports and make sure they're not loose. (Bad cables could be possible there, but I would be surprised if the cables for all the ports would be bad.)

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