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

BTW, you can use Hex Compare for 15 days free without obligation to purchase.

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Just click the Download button rather than the Order button. I'm still happy to do the comparison for you if you want, just upload the BINs, preferably compressed, to MegaNZ. You can make a free basic account there to upload:

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But i understand if it all just seems a bit overwhelming and not worth it. Anyway, in truth the combined value of its separate working/good parts are likely worth more than the value of the complete device working.

Just let me know because if you really don't want to press on i'll move our posts to a dedicated discussion thread to finalize things.

I respect your decision and appreciate your sentiments and stating that the effort was "beyond the call of duty". I of course want to help you however there's a slightly selfish motivation as well because i can often learn something out of these 'unusual' brickings. On probability, it's likely a hardware problem anyway.

If you want to try erasing the nonvol without examining the firmware BINs you can simply change the update.txt file to read:

ergn,41
reboot

That'll completely vacate region 41 if successful and it'll stay that way until the device reboots, if ever, when the device itself will re-write fresh data but only partially restore it. If the source of the problem is poisoned nonvol data it will in fact boot successfully or at least boot far enough that Cure fw can be properly used.

BTW, your concern about the 14 & 127 bin files is understandable but entirely wrong. There's absolutely nothing personal or individual in those files which can be used by anyone else - nothing more that can be found in general info by examining the BIN components from a firmware GCD or RGN file for sure. I hate to tell you, but it's data in 41.bin that can disclose personal and device info, if a malintent had the ability to decrypt it and know what and where to look for in the jungle of the clear data. Very few ppl do know, outside Garmin itself, i can assure you. Have a look back at your [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], you'll see i removed the attachment immediately after i downloaded it to negate any chance of someone else getting their hands on it. As a Mod, i could see that i was the first and only downloader. I'll also remove the copy of it from my PC as well, not that i'd ever try to misuse it. Good luck and thanks for hanging in there thus far.

@zserv
Unfortunately, there's no known way to 'cure' Android firmware for Garmin devices. Your best approach might be to throw yourself on the tender mercies of Garmin service desk drones. If you get the run-around ask for it to be escalated to a supervisor due to it having been soft-bricked by their software using their own proscribed method. You might get lucky with an even-exchange replacement as it's most likely out of warranty.

1) Bricked device MODEL, Firmware version, HWID.
Nuvi 30, V3.7, 1349
2) Why and how the device got bricked.
It is not necessarily bricked, it is rather resetting to the default file system upon a reboot. If I try to update it either through Express or manually with a GCD file, the file gets erased after a reboot. I tried deleting the onboard gmapprom to put my own custom one onboard, but my custom one was gone and the default gmapprom was put back. Even system settings won't save after a reboot, I have no clue what to do. I got the device used and first noticed the issue when it wouldn't properly update
3) Symptoms: what's wrong in your device?
What I said in 2
4) Does your pc sees your device ?
Yes
5) List all the procedures you already tried to unbrick it and their results and errors messages obtained.
I have tried factory resets, messing with some developer options but even changing dev options (like turning on demo mode) don't save through a reboot.
6) Do you have Garmin USB Drivers installed ?
Yes
8) Write down if you already read and tried everything in these two threads: GarminCure3 tool - the new way to create cure firmwares for Garmin devices and How to unbrick a nüvi - step by step guide
I'm wondering if I should go through the process of GarminCure3 to reflash it, looking for advice as I am quite a newbie here.
Any help would be appreciated

@nsPerFoot
Assuming there really was a file named gupdate.gcd in the Garmin folder before you used the SD card, it seems to have been deleted according to the update.log file. However, my strong suspicion is that the device's internal regions can only be read but not written to. That's backed up by your unsuccessful experience trying to flash Cure3 firmware which is intended to be written to region 14. QuickCure on the other hand is universal and is not firmware dependent, in fact it doesn't involve a device's firmware in any way at all. Similarly, the attempt to flash the 14.bin and 127.bin failed.

I think almost certainly that you're correct, it has a failing flash chip and it will eventually die completely. As you're likely already aware, it's exhibiting much the same symptoms that a bad media card does, i.e. it doesn't save files written to it and deleted files simply re-appear.

@Zakk
Unfortunately it seems your nuvi 30's flash chip is also failing, it just has somewhat different symptoms from those of the previous poster's.

Ah, i see you have solid knowledge of EEPROM workings - in fact far more than i have at granular level given your professional background. Garmin is a queer fish at best and a very closed one at that. It's easy enough to replace the EEPROM physically, it's a common chip i believe and you can swap 13/14xx between other series, such as using a doner unsweated from old 2xx/7xx PCBs with reballing. I've also heard that a simple everyday media card like a small microSD can be micro-soldered in with jumper wires if you know the correct corresponding pinouts. The problem then comes in re-programming the replacement, i have no idea how to do that but unfortunately, it's certainly not as simple as re-loading fw, whether by the SD card process with individual bin files or by loading an RGN file using updater.exe. There were some very skilled users on this and other forums who did know and who had access to the necessary equipment to do such stuff, but they all seem to have disappeared these days. Sorry. I think that with older Garmin devices being so very cheap now that it'd be impractical to pay someone to re-program it anyway but its other individual parts like screen, battery, USB socket (it's a less-common type) and case components like the bezel have some value sold as spare parts anyway. There's still active selling on e-flea for such bits.