Strange problem with Garmin GPS (navigation system)

Nice video, thanks for posting…

If I really get in trouble and don’t know where I am, I hit the go home button on the nav system. Then it guides me out. A five minute wait wouldn’t be the end of the world. Coulda used it in Chicago but that was before nav systems and cell phones. In the good ole days as some like to reflect on. In South Dakota once I stopped at the same gas station twice for directions home as I drove in a 30 mile circle.

I was in a gas station/mini mart some time before the GPS revolution and in comes these younger guys asking the clerk for directions to the local lake. They seemed normal and not impaired. He says, “take a right going out of the parking lot and go straight. You run into the lake a couple miles down”. The driver pauses, looks confused and then asks if he can write that down… the clerk looks at me and then back at the driver- “turn right and go straight…”. I paid for my stuff and left before they did. Wonder if he ended up writing those confusing directions down for them…

Back in my gas jockey days at a service area on the Southbound NJ Turnpike near exit 16, a guy drove into the station via the “police only” turnaround road from the northbound lanes, and he asked how to find Exit 9. Without trying to be condescending, I told him that if he exited correctly onto the southbound lanes, and then watched the exit signs carefully, he could simply count-down from exit 11, to exit 10, to–finally exit 9, which was only a few miles past exit 10. Pretty simple, or so I thought.

About an hour later, the same guy drove in (via the same “police only” turnaround road from the northbound lanes), and he seemed to be very upset. He said that he had followed my directions and he still couldn’t find exit 9.
:smack:

At this point, I was looking around to see if I was on Candid Camera, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. So, all I could do was to tell him to drive South, and count-down the exit numbers until he got to exit 9. At this point, I had to assume that this guy didn’t pay close attention to what he was doing, so I also told him to remain VERY alert once he passed exit 10.

My shift ended less than 1 hour later, so I don’t know if he returned to ask the same question–again–of a different gas jockey.

I don’t know if it is little known or well known but the exit numbers usually correspond to the mile markers. So exit ten would be at mile marker ten. Also start with one at the state border one way and 300 or whatever the other direction. Hard to get confused although it did happen to me once in North Carolina but we turned around pretty quick.

It depends, sequential numbers were used years ago in many areas, recently in the Northeast.

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Yes, it happens at other locations.
Wherever I am when I start the car, It takes about 5 minutes to figure out where I am.
And pressing the Home button won’t help because if it doesn’t know where it is, then it also doesn’t know how to get home from where it is.
Alan

Please let us know what the problem turns out to be. Thanks.

No. Even when the location is wrong, the clock is still right.
Alan

I think you may have multiple issues with the system.

From an absolute cold start, the GPS system has to download information from numerous satellites in order to function. It has to know the current time, position and a valid almanac. On a warm start, it already has the last location information in memory and can start up much faster if the unit hasn’t changed location significantly while it was powered down. Yours appears to be losing that memory when it powers down and has to recreate it each time it boots up.

However, modern GPS systems have multiple channels they can listen to at any given time and this cuts down the time it takes to receive all this information. The fact it takes 5 minutes means that likely, a number of those channels are no longer working properly.

If I was to hazard a guess, your GPS unit is on the way out and will need to be replaced. That, or the software inside of it is seriously corrupted and needs to be reprogrammed but my bet is on hardware failure…

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Usually, but not always. The NJ Turnpike was laid-out in the early '50s, and its exit numbers are sequential, but are not an indication of mileage from either the beginning or the end of the expressway.

In the case of the NJ Turnpike, exit 10 is located at mile marker 88. In total, the turnpike runs for 117 miles, and there are only 18 exits. By contrast, the Interstate highways have exit numbers that correspond to the mile markers.

Same for DC. It’s a confusing road system even if you know where you are going. I used to remember a few main roads and drive in the right general direction until I got to one of them and then continued to my destination. GPS came in handy when I worked in SW DC and decided to get off the highway because of snarled traffic. I ended up using one of them as a go-to detour when traffic was a mess around the DC295 and I-495 intersection.

Yeah try walking there. I forget where we were and where we were trying to get to, I think the holocaust museum, but it was hot and I gave up and we just took a taxi. Short ride and about $7. Like the go home button.

I always say when you go walking to have taxi money. We were in Amsterdam and wife had evening events so I went exploring. Got lost and couldn’t get back to the hotel, so taxi again.

I’ve walked in DC and the surrounding area for 72+ years. Tell me something I don’t know about it.

Unfortunately, NOT in all states. Massachusetts just started changing their exits a couple years ago. NH and VT are NOT going to change any time soon. Exits are sequential (1,2,3…etc). NY started to change, but has a long ways to go.

It’s odd that I first posted my question 28 days ago and that posting has received 55 comments of varying types, but so far, no one has answered my question.
Alan

Because no one really knows what is wrong .

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Yep, you are asking the question that the dealer is most able to answer and resolve. In this case the dealer is your friend.

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It was answered, possible firmware update, likely at dealership.
In the 28 days, have you asked your service advisor?

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This does sound like a problem for someone with repair experience to address, are people replying to the OP just to score forum points? You have the top score for this thread.