Has anyone even found their Nav system to get... um... worse all of a sudden. It seems like in the last month, my 2004 Nav is doing a lousy job. Sometimes when I make a detour, it will refuse to recalculate. At the beginning of a trip, it rarely will recalculate if I don't adhere to its initial route plan. It also seems as if it gets "lost" more often -- it can't find the road I'm on and has me driving through buildings, Godzilla-like. (This seems like 2 different problems -- hardware and software.) Can the software just get glitchy all of a sudden? Thanks.
Sounds like something's broke to me. Does it still say "GPS" in the upper left-hand corner of the map? If it does right now, glance up there when it's having difficulty. A less likely possibility is your tires. Have you done anything unusual with them lately (like putting an unusual size on)? The only thing I can think of at the moment is it might not recalc routes if it doesn't think it's on a street at the moment. Both those things can confuse the system if they aren't compensated for. You haven't done any wiring mods to your car, like the NAV defeat wire mod, right? I doubt it's software if it worked before. You say it's intermittent -- but your preference is still set to "Auto Reroute" in Setup, right? That's all the possibilities I can think of at the moment...
We had a "funky" nav problem on a recent trip up from SoCal. We were going west through Bakersfield headed for I5. I wanted to go a ways north on 99 before taking a backroad across. Anyway, the nav wanted me to head west at each exit so it was recalculating constantly and taking a long time. So, I tried to cancel the guidance and that option was grayed out. I then tried to delete the destination but that took even longer. It finally returned to the map and tracked ok, but I couldn't input a new destination. It kept saying my home desination was outside the map area (but the region was still correctly displayed) and asked if that was ok. I tried both yes and no - neither worked. I also tried to enter a destination from a map location which didn't work either. So we continued without nav guidance. Ultimately, when we stopped for gas and "re-booted", the problem went away. The whole problem was probably caused by trying to modify the route during a recalculation but I hope it isn't something more...
Wow... I am totally uneducated on the NAV system yet since I don't yet have my car and I haven't located a NAV manual yet.... I would figure a NAV would track mileage based on gps readings just like a handheld gps would while walking down the street? Is the NAV dependant upon the rev of the wheels to be accurate?
The NAV system actually monitors the distance the car travels and any rotation (turns) in order to estimate position in the case where the GPS satellite signal is too weak or unavailable due to obstructions. You don't get that in a handheld unit; it gets a signal or it doesn't.
Like WRPrice said, the nav system "dead reckons" as well as uses GPS. There's even a "Tire Reset" button in one of the screens for when you change tires. Odometer distance and MPG are calculated off tire rotations.
While using mine on Friday, It told me to exit the highway I was on, even showing the turn and next roadway. As I was getting off it went back to the original highway and told me to continue on that route. What a pain in the nice person, I almost got smashed from behind.
Yes, it gives you a nice, smoothly-moving position indicator between GPS updates too. So even when the GPS is easy to acquire, there's an advantage to it.
Humm.. is this just the nature of the beast?.. or at least fairly common?.. or is this just a rare occurence by other users?
In my experience it is fairly rare, and happens with my laptop Delorme every once in awhile too. As a driver, you have to pay attention to everything, including what some bread-box is telling you to do.
It's happened once (so far) for me. I just happened to have the NAV screen up and had exited a freeway and was on the off ramp. The screen went blank and then put the information up s-l-o-w-l-y (first background, then road and so on). On top of that, the information was wrong (it added a lake and a golf course). After about 34-40 seconds (I wanted to pull over and power down) it went back to normal. Something had messed with it's tiny little mind until it got the information from the GPS signal, I suppose. And no, I didn't go under something to block the signal.
I guess thats the real question is there anyone who "has not" had this happen?... I suppose we have to realize it is a computer and all computers crash from time to time... I know some which are linux based rarely crash... even after a year of running, but they aren't interfaced with a gps link? Like most tools.. none are perfect.. but as long as its 98% reliable or better, thats wonderful!.... a once in a blue moon glitch would be expected.... even playing CD's in your player messes up that much!
As always, there are various things that could be causing your issue. I believe the GPS antenna is built into the top of the navigation screen hood so putting anything between it and the satellites, depending on the material, could degrade the signal. Some people have reported similar issues after getting window tinting done. Certainly putting something like a hula doll on top of the nav screen could cause a problem. There are some diagnostic screens you can get into to determine if the GPS receiver / antenna is working correctly and allows one to see how strong the incoming GPS signal is: To get into this diagnostic screen do the following. 1)Push MENU Button on bezel 2)Tap the VOLUME soft button 3)Tap top left of screen (where the speaker icon is), then the bottom left, then top left again and finally the bottom left again. **Perform these taps in rapid sequence. Do not be tentative or it might not work. 4)The Service Menu should appear. (Tks Brent) You could get yoursel into trouble here so suggest that you don't push any buttons indiscriminately. There is a GPS button; go there and look to see what kind of signal levels you are getting. Once in the “GPS infomation†screen (yep....that's how they have it spelled) you will see your signal level under the forth column “LVLâ€. You should have at least 3 of the 6 rows showing above 20s. In my garage I have 4 of 6 rows showing18-30s and it has locked in. Once outside of the garage the numbers are in the upper 30 to 40s. Hope this helps to sorting your problem out.
Some people have experienced things that might be described as a crash I suppose (actually that's probably too harsh a description), some just have experienced lags due to the loading of DVD data. What I was describing are inaccuracies in the database. When you try to put every road in the US on a CD, there are bound to be errors or omissions. The routing problems I have experienced (very few) have been repeatable and obvious. As I say, I experience the same thing on rare occasions with my Delorme, a driver just has to pay attention to what the bread box is telling you to do. I don't consider it an issue, it just doesn't happen often enough. WBJohnston is back on topic, reminding us that we are hijacking someone else's thread.
Nice tip!... did you get your info from a manual that comes with the car or just playing with it?... seems the NAV manuals are abit elusive!
We call the NAV in our car "Gloria" --- for no known reason...---- and she did that to us once, too... told us to take an exit, and at the exit, told us to re-enter the same interstate we'd just pulled off of... very annoying. and more often than not, here in the Raleigh, NC area, the voice instructions just "go away", leaving me to try to drive AND follow the blue line on the nav screen at the same time. MORE THAN very annoying. has this happened to any of you, and is is a "feature" or a "bug"... +af
