Thread: Garmin Oregon 700 Will only boot to GArMIN Screen

Originally Posted by patjetta

I'm assuming after the format it will request a boot image?

No, that's not how Garmin ARM-type devices work. A re-format only affects one device-dependant region of the flash memory, either 48 or 83, where the visible file system is stored. Regions holding the main system software and other regions (i.e. the firmware, kernel etc.) remain completely unaffected by a re-format. Many Garmin devices will boot with the file system region completely empty provided the system format is correct, some require a Garmin folder on-board at least and a very few might require some other additions. Read kunix's brief explanation under "The typical curing algorithm...." in the initial post here: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Powering on a healthy device involves it rewriting the GarminDevice.xml into the Garmin folder (which it may or may not be able to also re-create itself).

If it fails to boot after reformat, its then bricked isnt it?

The only reason for not booting other than a soft-bricking is a potential hard-bricking which is what i'm strongly suspecting. Many eventual hard-brickings are preceded by intermittent adverse behaviour where the device will sometimes boot and sometimes not. Soft-brickings are nearly always consistent where the device will consistently either (i) freeze at the same point on the splash screen during start-up; (ii) spontaneously power itself off; or (iii) continuously boot-loop. It will consistently be one of those 3 things. One the other hand, a bad flash chip may die without warning where the device will be completely unresponsive to power-on attempts, or experience the 'death of a thousand cuts' and act up randomly. It's commonly the latter.

So, long story short, if we eliminate any possibility of there being a file system corruption (either bad file or bad format) it only leaves a hardware problem. Whatever we try is totally at your risk of course regardless.... however i absolutely don't think attempting software solutions can make it worse and if it's gonna die, it's gonna die anyway.

PS: Just seen that you added some info:

Originally Posted by patjetta

........
ah, having looked into it a bit..
Format the device, load a "cured" firmware to enable Mass Storage Mode, followed by running webupdater to re-install the OS

Loading Cure fw enables Mass Storage Mode immediately as it by-passes loading files at boot. If your Oregon exhibits the same problem with cure fw procedure completed it's definitively not a corrupt file or other software/firmware problem. Cure fw can't boot the device, its SOLE purpose is to stall the boot so MSM is re-enabled so bad files can be removed and/or re-format done .... but in your case the device sometimes boots and then has MSM mode anyway.

You're thinking of Garmin devices being like an x86 computer. They're not like that at all. If you format the system drive of a PC you need to re-install the OS. The "OS" of your device is completely separate to the visible file system. You've already re-installed the firmware previously (v6.00 and v5.90) attempting to correct the problem.