nuvi 2599 bricked?

We should now load cure firmware to region 14 to re-enable Mass Storage Mode and try to finish the job. If any part of the following doesn't work then we could be dealing with some kind of physical damage so cross your fingers. You'll need to use a clean empty microSD for this kit, if you use the same card as before make sure to keep a copy of it's contents before cleaning. Again, generally just follow Post #384 for the method. Look behind the spoiler for the flash kit and further info:

Spoiler: Click

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• Once the flash finishes the device should boot to the start-up screen screen showing only the Garmin logo with no text below it (it may then either go blank or just stick on the logo screen)
• Don't try to turn it off or re-start it
• Connect it to the PC and you should be able to browse the file system
• Delete the entire contents of the Map folder
• In the .System folder delete gmapprom.img and any associated GMA files and also UNL files if present
• There should be no GMA or UNL files left in either Map or .System folders and the only IMG files left in the latter are to be gmapbmap.img and gmaptz.img
• Don't remove anything else from .System for now except as above, i.e. the detail map gmapprom.img and all files with .gma and .unl extensions, all the other files and subfolders can stay there
• Don't disconnect from PC yet
• Open GarminExpress and select the option to update the detail map and wait patiently for it to finish, do not disturb it or let the computer sleep or turn it off - this is crutial!
• When GE has reported the update is done, safely disconnect the device from the PC (Note that the device still won't completely boot yet).

Finally, you'll then need to flash the original firmware as an RGN file in preboot. Look behind the spoiler for further guidance and flash files:

Spoiler: Click

• Extract this ZIP file somewhere convenient - your PC's desktop will do: [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]
• Drag 175801000880.rgn on to Updater.exe to open its GUI
• Select the radio button next to "USB Device" on the GUI and leave it open and visible with the mouse cursor positioned ready over its "OK" button
• Attach a 'known-good' USB cable to a USB2 port of your PC (use a rear port if possible, no hubs or USB3 ports)
• Ensure the nuvi is fully OFF, not just in standby - force it off it necessary
• Hold the top left corner of the nuvi firmly (i use my left thumb with my fingers behind to secure it)
• Plug the USB cable into the nuvi which will power it on, System or Loader may appear on the screen but keep watching Updater's GUI for the device's details to appear in the window to the right of "USB Device"
• Immediately you see the window populated click OK on the GUI or just hit the Enter key on your keyboard
• Keep holding the screen firmly until the flash finishes or at least until "Software Loading" shows on the nuvi's screen.

If all has gone to plan the nuvi should now boot up and function normally.

Quick update on the situation. Followed your above steps, also downloaded latest Garmin Express. Got to the downloading maps part of the process and to about 57%, then download failed message on the red banner. Shortly afterwards realised that the unit no longer connected to GE. A further message came up saying usb not recognised. So I believed This is what happened the last time and soft bricked it. Im going to see if I can sort out the usb error then try again.

Update no2. Started the reg 14 part again on clean sd card. This time computer and GE recognised the device. Successfully download the map. Used updater and rgn file and successfully downloaded that too. Switched unit on, loading maps appeared for about 20 seconds then the white screen has come back .... Think your'e right and something else has failed in the unit.

Well i can't say i wasn't expecting that you may have some kind of hardware defect, it's very likely a flash chip problem.

The procedure i suggested in my previous post is not a standard method, so just to be sure i hadn't made any mis-steps in my previous post i tested it on a nuvi 2xx7 with an old detail map before i posted it - as said previously i don't have a 2xx9 device available but 2xx7 and 2xx9 series are very similar. The procedure went perfectly, updated properly with GE just as it did for you on your second attempt, but in my case the nuvi boots fully and operates perfectly after original fw was loaded.

Usually a 'soft-bricked' device has preboot available but won't read from or write to a card, that's because it first has to load all required files during booting and it then checks the card for Garmin\Updater\XXXX\update.txt nearing the end of the boot process. Therefore if a corrupt start-up file freezes the boot-cycle, or causes a boot-loop or a power down the card isn't even checked for any text commands.... unless we use a modified ramloader as an RGN in preboot to force it to read the card earlier. Because the latter wasn't necessary for your device it made me suspicious that the boot was actually sufficiently completing behind the white screen, enough to read the card for commands anyway.

So you have a couple of options (i) strip it for parts like screen, battery etc. which are saleable on ebay and toss the board in the e-waste, or sell it on eBay as damaged and only suitable for parts being honest about the likely flash damage; (ii) try one last attempt to repair the flash in the hope it's just some bad blocks which are able to be ignored by properly reformatting which will isolate them, and then re-load the file system from a backup (that's what i'd try but i'm a stubborn old b@st@rd who never gives up and has wasted a lot of time generally on stuffed-up Garmin devices.... but i've also very occasionally pulled off a miracle). If you want to give it a go, first try to determine the extent of the flash damage by doing a non-invasive surface test with a suitable tool. You might like to use the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard:

Code:

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https://cdn2.minitool.com/?p=pw&e=pw-free

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Go to the device in the list of disks and right-click it then select 'Surface Test' from the context menu. If you end up with something like this it's toast:

Spoiler: Click for Image

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That's an old nuvi 255W with a damaged flash chip so bad that it's impossible to fix other than by replacing and reprogramming the flash memory which is not economically feasible even for a fairly recent device like yours.

However if you only see a few bad blocks when it finishes then you may be able to just re-format it with [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] only (don't use Windows built-in tool under Disk Management, it might mess it up). I would additionally use a low-level format tool as a revival method before finally finishing with RMPrepUSB to make the end-format acceptable to Garmin's OS. This is great and also free:

Code:

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https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

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Of course even if you get it going again it might eventually die because sometimes the damage is progressive regardless.

@Butters
Certainly rustybin's problem is quite unusual as you pointed out. We'll give him a chance to reply to the above post and then I'll move all relevant posts to a dedicated discussion thread because there's some very interesting and particular facts eventually uncovered here. Flash damage can have many guises and this certainly looked just like a simple soft-bricking until it became obvious there was a flakiness of preboot but card reading was available .... a VERY unusual presentation.

@rustybin
I encourage you to try what Butters suggests above. Check for bad blocks then if there's very few of them re-formatting as suggested, initially using the LLF Tool and then RMPrepUSB.

Please report back in any case. thanks.

Success !
Restarted the last process again from the installing region 14 part, deleting all the files you said with the two exceptions (gmapbap.img and gmaptz.img ). GE worked again, and then I used updater to flash the software rgn file again. Switch on and its back, fully working. I didnt see any gupdate type of file in any of the folders afterwards ? but its working thanks to your persistance and knowledge. Ive kept a note of all your information which you've passed on. Miracles do happen and the old git here can travel ...... superb Butters

Well done. Persistence sometimes does pay off. There's no gupdate.gcd in the .System folder because we deleted that as the first txt cmd when we dumped 154.bin. I included that intentionally because sometime a corrupt GCD can cause boot problems if it's been newly added by GE as part of the updates. You don't need it because you now have the latest V8.80 loaded directly to its regions because that's what was used in the final RGN file with Updater.exe.

As a final thought, check that the USB socket is tight. If there is even slight movement and a dry solder joint to the PCB it can cause devices to drop in and out of preboot and Mass Storage Mode even though they will charge fine. It only takes one data connection to be 'making and breaking' to cause problems with PC connection continuity.
:mn: All posts to here moved from [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] and this thread marked 'solved'.