Thread: Unbricked Drivesmart 70 ...

Thanks Butters- these links are priceless. There is another I am searching for that perhaps you know where it might be? It details using the SD card to have Garmin Express load to it? As I remember, you put a folder named Garmin on the SD and then inside of that folder, you place the file: GarminDevice.xml. Garmin Express will then see the SD card and load the file: GUPDATE.GCD onto the SD card. The GarminDevice.xml needs to be from the device that GUPDATE.GCD applies to. Anyway, I'll post the details below as promised...

Edit:

It all began when I connected to Windows 10 for the first time. I run Manjaro Linux on my machines so to connect to the Garmin, I use VirtualBox. This has worked fine with a Windows 7 virtual machine in the past. I was already working on a Windows 10 virtual machine locally so for convenience, I connected the Garmin to that. Wondows 10 indicated the Garmin storage was damaged and did I want Windows to fix it? As I said before, I stupidly clicked on yes. Windows said it was fixed but the device bounced in and out of the virtual machine. Disconnecting and turning the device on revealed that something was bad wrong. My Drivesmart 70 would boot to the warning screen and freeze no matter if I agreed or just let it time out. A quick Google search came up with references to some strange 'Cure', a universal firmware patcher of some sort, and a ton of cryptic solutions involving some kind of update.txt with poorly explained commands to be entered into this text file. Almost everything required joining a forum and referenced Nuvi devices almost exclusively. I joined what forums I could and waited for this one to send a confirmation email. I also searched all over for this 'Cure' software and actually found a copy in some obscure corner of the internet. When extracted, it turned out to be all in Polish. After reading a few posts, I was able to get my device to briefly go into some kind of loading software condition but still unable to get it to boot. I had also moved to a Windows 10 laptop to ensure my issue was not related to anything with my virtual machine. At this point I contacted Garmin:

Web Self-Service Email Form Submission

Description: I am unable to update my Drivesmart 70. Map Update successfully loaded the current map on my device but Garmin Express only shows Invalid Chart when it searches for my device. The Software Update program indicates the software is current at 6.0. I could only get Software Update to recognize the device by holding the upper corner on power up and the device display "system" and then "loading". Windows shows the device as two USB drives when the computer connection is white on the device display but then only shows the device as a windows device (Garmin Drivesmart 70) when the computer connection is orange on the device display. When the computer connection is orange on the device display, Garmin Express does not recognize any device on the computer. This all started when I stupidly allowed Windows to 'fix' the device so it would read properly.
Product: Garmin Express

Garmin replied within a day:

Hello*Michael,
It sounds like Garmin Express is thinking you have a marine device since it's saying Invalid Chart. I would remove the device and add it back to Garmin Express.*
Adding and Removing Devices in Garmin Express
Please try just connecting the device (orange screen) first. If that doesn't work to add the device try the steps you did before that the computer recognized the device.*
Thank you for choosing Garmin,

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Product Support
Garmin International