Formatting Garmin Nuvi, crashed. Now does not start

garminsky1 · 16th June 2010, 12:55 PM

Hi ya all !

Your an awesome bunch of people!

I'm glad i signed up here..

---------------------

Garmin Nuvi 255W

We have a Garmin Nuvi, its Internal drive was being formatted to Fat 16 or Fat 32. One of those two, but the pc crashed half way.

We can use it but without voices, only the sound of tapping on screen is heard.

We have resorted to using the SD card to use the map, and if that SD card was not in there the Garmin Nuvi 255W just would not start up properly.

-----------------------

Details below......

Now it does start but after turning it on, a few seconds (maybe 4seconds) later it turns off then on again, and keeps on doing it non stop.(THIS HAPPENS WITHOUT THE SD CARD WITH A MAP ON)

I tried a soft reset, hold the slider on the top left, to the left and hold for 8 sec. no luck
I tried hard reset, hold bottom right of screen before power on and keep holding until it starts and says do you want to erase all user data , etc, but i need it to stay on for for more than 4 sec. Howerver it won't let itself stay on for more than 4 sec.

p.s. i can soft reset if the sd card is in, as it stays on and can be used normally without voice.
But doing a hard reset just does not seem to work with sd card in. i did a hard reset before the internal became messed up , like a week before.

any one help us out.

Thank you again, really glad we got your support

**plyy** · 16th June 2010, 09:24 PM

You can get back some of your files through Garmin WebUpdater. Download Webupdater from Garmin & connect nuvi via usb.

You need to know your nuvi's "region" EU, US or TW and goto respective web site and get software update for 255W, for some of the missing system file

garminsky1 · 17th June 2010, 03:06 AM

Plyy your a really nice person, thank you for your advice.

We ran through as you advised, we found a small problem, the Nuvi 255w does not seem to appear in "Computer" where you see all the drives attached.
Seems like nuvi is just not being recognised, so we also did a "disk management", in case it was there and just needed adjusting. Howerver it was not there either. We tested it on 2 different PCs both no joy.

Any further ideas you can help us with.

P.S. Your really nice for assisting us, thank you

**plyy** · 17th June 2010, 11:53 AM

Since your PC cant detect it can you go into diagnostic mode. With SD card in, hold the battery on the screen icon until you are in diagnostic mode. You can run some test and see how it goes, & connect to your PC while still in this mode. If still the same you may have to send it back to Garmin.

**catymag** · 17th June 2010, 02:51 PM

you can find a thread on GarniaK (Google for it, the title is:nuvi 205 po formacie...sorry you have to translate polish) where a user has a similar problem, the experts response is : send it to Garmin, especially if it's under guarantee.
Edit: now use Kunix's cure sticky thread in firmwares section

garminsky1 · 17th June 2010, 04:28 PM

Thank you both of you, you really are too kind

Wish more people in the world were as nice as you...

p.s. i shall try the diagnostic mode....

**jackspratt1** · 18th June 2010, 10:03 AM

Your unit should have a reset button on the bottom edge - I can see a button when I look at a photo of the unit, between the E and the tick.

You can click on the photo to get a larger view.

garminsky1 · 18th June 2010, 10:35 AM

OW MY WORD !! thats a RESET ! , i took up the white site that looks like a bar code!!

wow.. I will get to this, as soon as I can, you are a saint!, truly all of you are really great people :-)

lets hope lady lucky swings by when we do it

WknThDg · 18th June 2010, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by jackspratt1

Your unit should have a reset button on the bottom edge - I can see a button when I look at a photo of the unit, between the E and the tick.

You can click on the photo to get a larger view.

Only the older 255W units have the reset button, the newer ones do not (I have both).

garminsky1 · 18th June 2010, 03:03 PM

hi there,

i have not managed to get a hold of the garmin quite yet, i been told there was no reset icon, however but the person checking for me was in a rush (checking my individual garmin, not a garmin support person XD).

If there is no reset, i think that it will look like this image, at this link that some reviewers did.
testfreaks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/windowslivewritergarminnvi255w-741bnuvi15-2.jpg

how do you reset your newer one?

thank you to all you who are helping us. Your awesome!