AQUIRING SATELLITES PROBLEM NUVI 200W

[845kat]

I've had my Nuvi 200W for 5 Days and I'm going to return it. It was ok the first day when I was getting use to it in my house. I dl the latest firmware and POI LOADER. Then I put it to the test. I tried to get from work to home a 30 minute drive. IT TOOK 15 MINUTES TO FIND A SATELLITE. Ok I'll try again. Daughter wanted to go to friend house. 15 minutes away. She turned it on. It never picked up a Satellite. I tried it again yesterday and it took about 4 Minutes to find a Satellite. All day that I have been trying this unti out it takes to long to find the satellite.

I live in Upstate NY there are no tall buildings. It has all of the streets in my area once it started to work. I was surprised that it didn't have my local Target in the POI it has been there for 2 years. I couldn't figure out how to, or if I could, enter it as a POI myself. The other stores in that location that have been there longer are listed there.

This summer I had a Magellen in a rental car from Enterprise and the Unit never said aquiring satellites. I just turned it on and it worked.

I'm would like to know if othersa are having this problem. I wouldn't mind exchanging it to see if another one would work better.

PS
I tried to find a couple of places I know like JONES BEACH.( which is a beach ) Well it never found it. Why, because there are 2 Jones beaches that are actual cities in NY state I didn't know that so it gave me directions to that city. I knew something was wrong when it was taking me way upstate. I had to go online to find Jones Beach to see exactly where it was. Well it's called JONES BEACH STATE PARK. I plugged that in and it still never found it. I went back online and Found out where exactly it's located and it's listed in a city in long island. I typed in the city and then did a work around and it finally found the beach. Can you imagine doing that one summer day.

I did the same for Rye Playland. - It couldn't find it. You have to know the EXACT NAME & LOCATION of the place it seems.

Well I would like to hear from others. Hopefully before I return this. I still may exchange it.

[Sawdust]

I just got a Nüvi 200W, too. As far as the Jones Beach State Park goes, I was able to find it by searching for "Jones Beach" under "Points of Interest" and then "Recreation". Using that sub-category should eliminate the chance of accidentally finding a city or another type o' POI.

(I couldn't find "Rye Playland". It may simply not be in the Garmin's POI database.)
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I have seen another post of someone suspecting the latest firmware patch for the 200W (v2.90) of making the unit less able to acquire satellites than it was under the previous firmware version (v2.80). I had noticed the same thing...maybe. It is hard to tell because I had the unit for such a short time before I upgraded to v2.90!

It would be cool to be able to downgrade the unit back to v2.80 as a test!

[Tim]

845kat - While the GPS was trying to acquire satellites it sounds like you were driving. GPS devices will take a much, much longer time to find satellites, if they are found at all, when the GPS is moving.

Take the GPS outside, turn it on, and leave it sitting still. Wait however long it takes for it to get a signal. After it gets a signal, leave it sitting still for at least 30 minutes.

Then check to see if it subsequently finds the satellites faster when you turn it on. (But still don't start driving until it connects.)

Your GPS has more POIs than most... about 25-30% of all known POIs. So "most" will not be there. Especially those that are only a couple of years old. Two years is still very new as far as mapping goes. The maps in your GPS were produced in 2006.

[rapriebe]

My one week old Nüvi 260 has never taken longer than 2 minutes to acquire a signal, even inside of my house. It too is upgraded to latest revision.... I think 3.50 for this unit.

I just turned it on after being off all night... it took 1:30 to acquire a signal just sitting her on my desk. There may be something faulty with your GPSr.

As far as finding things... it's my experience with computer generated maps that the "most current" version is usually about a year out of date when it's released... it takes that long to compile the information and get it into production. So I'm not surprised that a 2 year old Target is not shown. The POI database is usually the most likely part to be off... stores open and close and they don't exactly pick up the phone and call Garmin to notify them when it happens. A lot of that info is available for download online in various custom POI's. I just downloaded and installed a POI for all Target stores in the US from the POI Factory.

[845kat]

I can't take it outside right now because it's raining really bad.

I did however put in on my windowsill and after 8 minutes it said it couldn't find the satellite and did I want to keep searching.

I just shut it off ......... it's going back.......... I think I'll exchange it and not dl the update when i get it.

[845kat]

Well heres the update. I exchanged the Nuvi 2000W for another one.

I did what was suggested ant let it aquitre the satellite and left it outside for 30 minutes.

I tried using it twice today and so far so good. I was timing it and it took about 2 min to pick up the satellite.

I tried it in my house and it picked it up also in about the same time.


Now I'm wondering should I do the updates to the 2.9 version. I have the 2.8 that came with the unit.

IS it really going to make a difference? I'm thinking if it ain't broke don't fix it.