Bricked 1490, please help!

**francisld** · 14th September 2015, 11:40 PM

1) Bricked device Garmin 1490 LMT, firmware 6.3

2) Why and how the device got bricked: I installed updates through Garmin Express (new firmware and maps 2016.10 North America. An error occured, and the unit is unusable since then.

3) Symptoms: what's wrong in your device: It boots, while loading maps the Garmin Logo splits up on the screen. When I try to use the maps it says no maps founds and no firmware installed. Reboots frequently out of the blue.

4) Does your pc sees your device ? Yes it does

5) List all the procedures you already tried to unbrick it and their results and errors messages obtained: When I connect to the computer, All I see is files name that are made of symbols with modifications dates that don't make any sense (see attached image, no folder can be opened, it says the ressource is unavailable)... I guess the update blew up all the files. I tried garmin customer service and they kept sending back automated emails which were of no use at all. I called them and the person could not answer any of my questions and didn't seem to understand anything I was saying... All I need is to make the device recognized again to express to reinstall firmware and maps isn't it?

6) Do you have Garmin USB Drivers installed ? Garmin express and webupdater installed and up to date.

That's pretty much it for now. If anybody know what I should do, I would really appreciate the advice.

**smokefree** · 15th September 2015, 02:22 AM

Have a look here: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

**Neil** · 15th September 2015, 03:29 AM

@francisld
Don't load a cure firmware to your 1490 because it can be seen already by your PC. Just reformat it with [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], safely disconnect from PC and let it boot, then if you have a backup from before you ran GarminExpress so tragically you can restore all 'known-good' files from the backup. Read this post too: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. GarminExpress seems to brick a lot of units, but really yours is hardly bricked at all, it just has corrupted folders and files preventing it from working properly. I'm mildly surprised it actually boots fully.

If you don't have a backup, connect to WebUpdater after the format to replace as many of the files as possible, forget about using GE it's a useless device-bricking piece of

. Use [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] to replace your detail map. Get a basemap from here: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Any other files you can't get from WU we can help with as both smokefree and I have 14xx devices.

**francisld** · 15th September 2015, 10:48 AM

First of all, thank you both for your quick reply, it gives me hope that my gps is not totally trashed. I ran RMprepUSB and it asked to erase everything. Even with the mixed files and folder, I am reluctant to do so without a confirmation that I should...

**Neil** · 15th September 2015, 10:59 AM

Yes, confirm the erase provided you've got all the correct settings as shown in the [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Your unit is far from thrashed, i've brought many units with corrupt folders/files back to normal by doing exactly as i've told you to do. It's usually a very easy fix.