Explorist 510 firmware update 7.24 issues

[+rassilon256]

Originally posted in the newbies forum:

 

The story so far: I'm a recent convert to geocaching and have been using the iPhone app, which is great but occasionally a bit jumpy. So I figured it would be worth buying a proper GPSr for the accuracy, durability and general usefulness. Also, I have an overseas holiday coming up and I thought if I got a paperless geocaching enabled unit I could preload caches for the trip and not have to pay for international phone data.

 

So, with extensive research I looked at all the stores near me that sold GPSrs, Googled reviews, read the ratings here and on geocaching.com, and decided that the best unit I could afford was the Magellan Explorist 510. I duly bought one, got on the Magellan website for a full manual, and discovered that there was a firmware update that sounded very useful (see here). I downloaded it, followed the instructions to the letter, and 10 minutes later had a brick. It brought up a BSOD message, I can't remember the exact words but it was close to

File is incorrect. Please cold boot and try again.

If I cold-booted it it simply returned to the BSOD.

 

Assuming I had a faulty unit, I rang Magellan. They said return it to the store where I bought it for a replacement. I did that today, brought the new unit home and carefully reread the instructions on the firmware and ran it again. I now have what may be a brick. For the past 4 hours it has displayed a blue screen with the words

Updating image...

in the middle and

NOTE : This is Iboot fail

Please wait for the proced

at the bottom. I'm assuming it has simply frozen, and a cold-boot may fix it, but I'm tempted to just let it run down the batteries overnight and see what happens just in case.

 

Practical upshot: does anyone know anything about this problem or have any suggestions to fix it? Feel free if you do to be technical, my experience of WinCE systems is limited but I was in tech support for a few years so I should cope.

[+gpsblake]

The only fix I know of to restore your unit is the moment you buy it, save the entire file system on your computer. That way if there is a problem, you can simply put the 510 into your computer, delete out all the files, the reload the old file system you saved and it will restore the unit to that version of firmware.

 

My opinion, I would return the 510 unit. There's a reason why Garmin's outsell Magellan's 20 to 1. Buy a Dakota 10-20(touch screen) or Etrex 20 (buttons) are far better units, and so many options for free maps with Garmins. I know the 510 comes with a complete USA road map but it won't auto route, the Dakota and Etrex does auto-route.

[+gpsblake]

One more suggestion... Try an older firmware version.... The site I am going to list below has an archive of all the previous firmware versions for the 510 (and other Explorist x10 units).

 

www.jungleghost.com - scroll down, way down to find the firmware versions for the 510

 

Best wishes

[+rassilon256]

Firstly, thanks gpsblake, sorry I didn't reply but your suggestions were useful and appreciated.

 

Well, it took over two months and six devices but I finally got a resolution from Magellan. One of the reasons I chose a Magellan device was that a number of recent reviews I read noted that their customer service in recent times was far better than Garmin's. I can safely say that they have the WORST customer service I have ever encountered, and my career has encompassed the IT industry, education, science and government agencies. I know bad customer service. If you're Australian, Magellan make Telstra look like the most competent company in the world. I'll be complaining to the ACCC. Their service department seemingly consists of no more than five people in India whose job is to apologise from a script, incorrectly enter your data into their system, provide solutions that wouldn't work to problems you don't have anyway, and their special trick: promising to contact you within a set timeframe then ignoring you until you call them, at which point they are completely baffled because they thought they had already resolved a different problem for you.

 

I started by telling them I suspected that they had either a faulty batch of 510s or a buggy firmware update. I tended to assume the former because I only found a little evidence of similar problems. After I and an authorised store representative of theirs replicated the problem on four devices and sent the fifth back to them untouched (at their request), they finally sent me a fully up-to-date 610 with a piece of paper in the bottom of the box saying that there was "an issue with the 510 firmware update". Given that the same update package was used on the 610 and the main difference is a few additional features on the 610, that seems improbable as I said. Still, I did get a 610 at a price that was quite cheap for a 510 in the end. I've spent a few days trying it out and it seems like quite a good unit.

 

In the end, I'm 95% sure I'm happy with my Explorist 610, but if you want a 510 I would highly recommend you buy an Etrex 20. Or Etrex 30, which is only a bit more expensive when on sale and I was days away from buying.