IMPORTANT! If you want HELP in case of a bricked Garmin device, please follow this

**asprin624** · 1st January 2024, 05:35 PM

askelly,

I think it is time to take your wife's advice here and take it to the dump to be recycled.

You can get Second Hand working Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT Touchscreen GPS -Tested (Pre-Owned) from ebay.

US $22.50 plus shipping.

Spoiler: Check ebay out

Or a newer Second Hand Nuvi at a good price from ebay.....

If you do not want to take it to the dump to be recycled it make a good paper weight.

**askelly** · 1st January 2024, 06:14 PM

It's dead, Jim.

I have a DriveSmart 61 fully functional (for now). All this learning should prepare me for any future mishaps

Have a great day (appreciate your efforts!)

**Butters** · 1st January 2024, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by askelly

.......
I have not attempted RMPrep because the device does not show in disk management - a requirement for RMPrep to work, yes?

Yes. However we may be able to format using SD card depending on the exact outcome of that failed last attempt.

Originally Posted by asprin624

askelly,

I think it is time to take your wife's advice here and take it to the dump to be recycled.

What's the fun in that. I've still got some things to try depending on what's in Update.log! That was a test as much as an attempted fix which i had him do with the SD text commands.

You can get Second Hand working Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT Touchscreen GPS -Tested (Pre-Owned) from ebay.

Yes i'm sure he knows that. Plus if he could be bothered stripping it he might get the money back selling the parts.

Originally Posted by askelly

It's dead, Jim.

Probably it is mate, but i'd still like to know what's in update.log and also whether it was able to dump a ~4MB copy of region 41 as 41.bin in the card's root?.

........... All this learning should prepare me for any future mishaps

Yes that's the point, and that's the same whether we succeed or fail. The learning! Not just you but me also .... and the many unknown readers who don't comment but DO learn from this too. That's the essence of a public forum such as this .... co-operation and shared learning.

Have a great day (appreciate your efforts!)

You have a great day too. Please at least let me know what i've underlined above, even if you don't wish to try any further fixes. That way i can add to my experience otherwise i'll get nothing out of this because so far i haven't actually increased my knowledge. You see your 1490's problem is not typical of a soft-bricked device but neither is it clearly hard-bricked for sure.

**iwriteall** · 10th July 2024, 01:02 PM

hello

my device is zumo 396
ı accidentally format internal drive
i find the original firmware
i install garmin cure
than i flash it to prebooth mode.
i can see device as a usb disk, it is ok
but when i flash the original software, it restarts and it freezes at the "loading map" screen
also i recover alot of files after i formatted the internal drive, and i tried to copy all to internal drive include .system folder. but it didnt worked.

any suggestion?

**nsPerFoot** · 15th February 2025, 05:10 AM

I have a bricked Nuvi 1390 LMT which I'm 90% sure has a bad EEPROM, but I've continued to play with it. It bricked in Jan2025 at the end of the latest map update, when it stayed at the Garmin logo. I've tried:
- QuickCure3 (loads successfully, but no mass storage seen)
- GarminCure3 (won't load, get the white Updater popup saying 'could not program requested memory region, contact Garmin...')
- GarminCure3 with only boot.ini (loads successfully)

I've tried the above many times on three different PCs, all Win10 or Win11. Also tried different cables. The unit USB connector looks OK. My unit uses the same RGN file as in the posts below.

Most recently I tried the SD card-based FW approach in the thread:
"IMPORTANT! If you want HELP in case of a bricked Garmin device, please follow this", post #357.

I got a somewhat similar result to 'askelly' (a green bar, though no logo), and it went thru 'loader' and some other screens before it stayed on 'software loading' until I powered it off (after >15min).

Of note here is that a 4Mb copy of region 41 ('41.bin') was dumped to the SD card, along with an update.log file (text below) and a small 'last_id.bin' file. This may help us nail down how to tell if the HW is bad vs. a soft error of some sort.

Thanks!

update.log content:
nüvi 13xx Series Software Version 6.30, UID: 38(...), HWID: 38(...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parsing "del,0:/.System/gupdate.gcd"
Success
Parsing "rrgn,41,1:/41.bin"
Success
Parsing "xrgn,14,1:/14.bin"
Error
Parsing "xrgn,127,1:/127.bin"
Error
Parsing "reboot"

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

**Neil** · 10th July 2024, 01:05 PM

Freezing on "Loading Maps" most likely means one of the .IMG files is corrupt. Try removing the detail map first, it's usually the culprit.

**Neil** · 18th October 2024, 02:16 AM

@Bellmac

Welcome to GPS Power and congratulations on making your first post here. Please make your next post as an intro thread in [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

Worst case is that it's suffered some kind of hardware failure and if so, no software solution will help. Best case is that it's accessed some corrupt data while in use and that's temporarily 'soft-bricked' it. Let's assume the latter until proven otherwise.

Seems some of your info is contradictory. You say it's not "properly getting into pre-boot mode by plugging in the USB cable". However, preboot mode is required both to use G7ToWin and flash an RGN file with Updater.exe and you've been able to do so. BTW, GarminExpress uses only Mass Storage Mode or Media Transfer Proticol, neither of which are available unless a device can fully boot. Preboot is invisible to it. WebUpdater on the other hand can use preboot mode (aka "Garmin Mode") as well as MSM/MTP. Lack of MSM/MTP is also why Windows doesn't recognise it ... however when you press the upper LH screen corner Device Manager will see it under "GARMIN Devices" in preboot but only for about 30 seconds unless a flash is initiated.

It's unclear what you used to make Cure firmware. If you used the MTK version (for HWID 1104) and named 11041000630.rgn, then Updater would refuse to flash it because the file name and actual device's HWID don't match (Updater queries the device to check). Using the QuickCure RGN would flash however, if named 097201000630.rgn even though it's actually universal and HWID independent. QC3 doesn't always work to reenable MSM in all device-types and series, but in my experience, it has worked with all soft-bricked nuvi 1xxx devices to restore MSM. Keep in mind that a device with correct Cure3 or QC3 fw loaded will still appear to be 'bricked' because it sticks on the logo screen as it's designed to do, but importantly with MSM reenabled. The sole purpose of any cure fw is to stall the boot process BEFORE any essential files can be loaded. No corrupt files are used in the partial-boot even though they're still onboard.

So here's the link below to HWID 0972 V6.30 firmware. Re-make Cure3 from it named only "097201000630.rgn" and try to flash it.

Code:

Please Login or Register to see the links

If it does successfully restore MSM, follow the steps in "How to Unbrick ...." thread but keep in mind you might not need to re-format but only remove some files (see the initial post in the Cure3 thread). It you do have to re-format, use only RMprepUSB with correct settings and make a full file system backup beforehand too. If unsure, don't worry. There are no silly questions as far as i'm concerned so ask first - i won't bite ..... unless you don't make an Introduction thread in Members Presentation!

.

**Bellmac** · 18th October 2024, 09:13 PM

Thank you for getting me straight on the differences between pre-boot and MSM terminology.

So, I used GarminCure3 to generate both cure and original rgn files from the gcd file link you provided (I think that is what I used before).

Although I can initiate flashing of both files using Updater with it showing 100% upload, when it goes to erasing, I always get the attached error message
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I have tried used Webupdater. It finds the Nuvi1350, but stays stuck on updating. I am not sure where the update file should be in order for Webupdater to access it. I assume Webupdater is looking for the RGN and not the gcd file. But again, where is it looking?

When I remove the flash drive, there is nothing in the drive except for the hidden System Volume Information folder that was created when the drive was formatted using RMPrepUSB.

**Neil** · 18th October 2024, 10:42 PM

Did you make a copy of the file system at anytime prior to doing the re-format? If so, look at the Garmin folder to find the file named GarminDevice.xml and open it in a web browser or text reader to look for this: <Model><PartNumber> near the start of the file. Behind it will be either 006-B1104-00 or 006-B0972-00 (my emphasis).

Can you say which 4 numerals written there please.