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| Loading And Unlocking Your Garmap Maps |
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Posted By: Mark Roach |
Posted On:
Monday, May 28, 2007 |
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Everyone get many queries on a daily basis from people battling to understand / download / update / unlock their Garmap Southern Africa Streetmaps v.1 detailed map software to their StreetPilot or Nuvi GPS unit. Here are some tips and pointers for new Garmin owners.
Note: This guide is for new StreetPilot and Nuvi GPS unit purchases only and not applicable for map update registrations or other Garmin unit purchases.
When you purchase a Garmin StreetPilot C510, C550 or any of the six Garmin Nuvi units, you get the choice to use the "Plug-and-Play" option straight out of the box or to go through the whole map loading, unlocking and registration process of the "CD" option.
Plug-and-Play option:
The detailed streetmaps are already loaded and unlocked to an SD memory card and you simply take this card, insert it into the GPS and... you now have the detailed maps on your GPS. How easy is that?
CD option:
The maps on the CD first have to be loaded to your PC, registered online, unlocked and then transferred to your GPS (either to the internal memory or to an SD memory card). During the map registration process, your GPS unit (with the preloaded SD card inserted) must be connected to the PC and the preloaded SD card is "invalidated". You can however (after you have finished the whole process of course ;-), simply reformat the SD card and then use it as a blank memory card to load your maps/music/pictures to at a later stage.
CD Maps Installation Process
When loading the CD to your PC and selecting "Install Southern Africa Streetmaps", you will have two choices:
"My CD has a 20-digit product serial number" and
"My CD has a Plug and Play sticker"
Select the "Plug and Play" option (with these GPS units, you will see a green "Plug & Play" sticker on the inside of your CD cover).
Do Not select the first option ("My CD has a 20-digit product serial number") unless you already have a 20-digit product serial number. [This option is only for Garmin Quest series, GPSMAP 60 and 76 series units and eTrex series units that come with a 20-digit product serial number printed on a white sticker in the place of the green "Plug & Play" stickers on the inside of the CD cover.]
For the next screen, remember that your computer sees the GPS attached to it, as well as the inserted SD memory card, as external drives – you should check in Windows Explorer (under My Computer) which drive letters are assigned to both the GPS unit and the SD memory card.
You will now need to type in the GPS serial number (on the StreetPilot units, this will be on a small white sticker on the back of the unit and, on the Nuvi units the sticker will be under the flip-up antenna).
From the drop down block you will need to select the drive letter that corresponds to the SD card in your GPS unit (as described above).
Click on "Request product serial number" and then
Type in (or copy and paste) the product serial number in the open block for Step 4.
Click on "Continue with installation".
[Very Important Note: Requesting the product serial number on this screen will invalidate your preprogrammed SD memory card immediately and there is no way to reverse this. Do not close this screen before you have completed this whole process as you will then always get an error message every time you try and request a product serial number again after the first time. You will never be able to complete this screen if you have already invalidated your SD card.]
Now simply follow the wizard as it guides you the rest of the way through the registration and unlocking process.
Known Bugs
With the recent release of the latest Garmap Southern Africa Streetmaps v.1, it seems that some of the older firmware versions (the actual operating system software of the GPS unit) on some of the StreetPilots and Nuvi’s are not optimized for these "state of the art" mapsets and will need to be updated straight "out-of-the-box" as it were (remember that although your GPS unit is brand new, it may have been sitting in various warehouses around the world and been in transit for some time before finally being placed in your eager little paws.
Important Note: Please be careful of using the "Automated" WebUpdater program offered on the garmin.com website – with our inconsistant internet access in South Africa, even a millisecond break in the download using this program will corrupt your GPS unit. We would strongly suggest manually downloading the firmware update to a folder on your PC first (right click on the firmware update file link on the website and save it to a folder on your PC’s harddrive) and then, after connecting your GPS to your PC, double click on the .exe file in the folder on your PC to update your unit.
Some of the signs of this firmware "incompatibility" are:
Unit freezes or switches off when any map function is used i.e. like zooming in or out on the map screen, selecting an address or even just scrolling the screen.
The unit freezing/rebooting when the "Map detail" setting on the GPS unit is set to anything higher than "Least"
Note: If your GPS unit displays the "can't unlock maps" error message after loading, registering and unlocking the CD maps on your PC and then loading them to your unit - you have made a mistake somewhere during the process. Please phone your GPS dealer for further support.
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