Well here are the first 5 things that we recommend you do as soon as you take your New Garmin GPS out of the box, to ensure that your unit runs smoothly and without hassles.

1. Charge the battery:

With the GPS Street Navigators like the Nuvi and Zumo units, you can either charge the unit using an AC charger (if you have one) or, use a standard USB PC cable to plug the unit into your PC and charge it that way. The charge from the PC is quite a bit slower than that from an AC charger but it works just as well. The unit will go into “mass storage mode” as soon as you plug it into your PC (i.e. a picture of a PC will appear on the screen and you will not be able to do anything on the unit while it is in this mode). The unit will also upload all the necessary drivers to your PC at this time.

For the outdoor handheld GPS units you will have to insert your own AA (penlight) sized batteries. If you are going to be using alkaline batteries, we would recommend using a decent brand (like Duracell) rather than just the cheapest you can find.

2. Get a First Fix:

If your New Garmin GPS unit came with preloaded maps on a memory card, pop the card into the unit, take it outside and switch it on. Make sure that you have a good (unobstructed) view of the sky and don’t move around too much. Allow the unit about 30 minutes to get a decent first satellite fix. This will give it time to download a full set of GPS almanac data which will speed up all subsequent satellite signal searches. After this, it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two at most to get a satellite signal again (usually only around 30 seconds or so).

Note:
When you first switch a Garmin Nuvi or Zumo unit on, it will ask you to complete a few basic Setup steps. These steps are different on each unit but can include:

• Setting your location (country) – some of the older units do not have South Africa on the country list. If this is the case then simply select the United Kingdom (UK) and then further set your timezone to be +2 hours.
• Daylight saving preference (for SA it is always “Off“).
• Language.
• And sometimes even the “Units” (km or miles)

3. Register your unit and your map software on your new GPS:

For South African Garmin users, you only need to register (your ownership of the unit and the map software) on the Garmap.co.za website and not on the Garmin website. Halfway down the Garmap main page you will see something like this:

For “Plug-and-Play” users (i.e. owners of the Nuvi and Zumo series units) – click on the first link. Outdoor handheld unit owners (eTrex mapping series, GPSMAP 60 series, GPSMAP 76 series, Colorado and Oregon units) – click on the 3rd “CD Users” link to register your products.

International Garmin users (i.e. those with City Navigator USA, Europe, Australia etc maps) would need to register their units and maps on the International myGarmin.com website.

4. Update your Garmin GPS Firmware:

You never know how long your new GPS unit has been sitting on the shop shelf and it is highly probable that there has already been a firmware (the operating system or “Software” for our American and European readers) update released for your unit in the meantime. Go to the Garmin.com website and download a small (4.31MB) program called WebUpdater for your PC or Mac.

Once you have the WebUpdater program loaded onto your computer, simply connect your GPS unit to your computer and run the program. WebUpdater will automatically detect which unit you have connected and then download the relevant firmware updates for you. See our post on Nuvi 200 Hardware Updates for more info on Nuvi unit hardware updates as well as step-by-step instructions.

Important Note: Please remove any preloaded “Plug-and-Play” memory cards from your unit before updating your firmware. We have had a few reports of people who have had their detailed maps on the memory cards corrupted during this process.

5. Update or Load the latest Speedtrap data:

As in the previous step, your preloaded speedtrap database may also be a bit out of date by the time you open the box of your new Garmin GPS. This step is only applicable to those of you with Nuvi and Zumo units (and of course this is also only for the South African speedtrap database – Garmin users in other countries will have to do a Google search for their local databases and instructions). This step can be a bit confusing for those of you who are not regular computer users so you may want to ask if your local GPS dealer can do it for you before you take delivery.

Firstly you will need to go back to the Garmap.co.za website. Just to the right of the previous “Register your unit” links you will see a grey column and at the bottom this column will be the following links:

The first link is to the international Garmin.com website where you will need to download and install another small program called POI Loader onto your computer.

The second link is to a PDF document with full of instructions on how to download the Garmap Speedtrap database from the Garmap website, unzip the database files, organize the various files and folders and then upload the database to your unit using the POI Loader program. Please read through the document before you continue (I know. I know, it’s boring but it is necessary .

You will then have to log in to the Garmap website (using the email address and password that you used to register your unit and maps in Step 3) before you can download the database. Once you are logged in, click on the third link and on the next page look for the following text (Note: the text only becomes links once you have logged in):

Before logging in

And after logging in

Then simply follow the instructions in the PDF instructions document to update or load your speedtrap database on your Nuvi / Zumo unit.

I shall be posting a slightly more advanced “Set Up” tips list for your New Garmin GPS unit in another day or two as well as a few more posts on Search Tips, Creating & Uploading Routes and other Tips & Tricks (including hidden menu screens on the Nuvi units), so please come back and visit us soon. If there is anything that you think should be included, please leave a comment below.

Very often it is simply the local distributor who decides to stop importing a specific GPS model, or even a whole range, due to a variety of factors. For example, a particular GPS model may well be popular in another country but it just does not seem to sell well to the market in your country. Sometimes, and this is also the reason why some models are never imported into South Africa at all, the infrastructure of a particular country might also limit the usage of certain features that are available on a specific model and although model “x” may have more features than model “y“, the only features of both model that are actually usable in that country would be the same ones (i.e. there would be no practical difference between the two GPS models capabilities). It then makes sense to only import/keep importing the GPS model with the cheapest pricing point.

Of course it must also be remembered that we are dealing with a product where new technology seems to be released on an almost monthly basis and often the rate at which new GPS models are brought onto the market outstrips the rate at which older models are being discontinued. This can cause great confusion amongst customers when there are so many different models on the market that all seem to be doing exactly the same thing (and when sometimes the only difference between two models might be a newer GPS chipset or a slightly updated operating system with a faster screen refresh rate).

In cases where the local distributor stops importing a particular model into their country, they would also stop importing the accessories for that model. Given the levels of stock that they usually carry, this would mean that within about 4-6 months those accessories would no longer be available in that country either. Since most models within the same range/series use the same accessories (i.e. the GPS 60 series includes the GPSMAP 60Cx and GPSMAP 60CSx and the Nuvi 2xx series includes the Nuvi 200, Nuvi 200W, Nuvi 205, Nuvi 205W and the Nuvi 250) this is generally not a problem if only one model out of the whole range/series has been discontinued. However, in cases where the whole range has been discontinued – Beware, some of the accessories (particularly the mounts) are not compatible between ranges/series.

Purchasing a discontinued model will have no effect on your 1 year warranty period for the unit (as long as the unit is purchased from an authorised dealer) as the distributors do tend to keep some stock one side specifically for warranty replacements and repairs of these units.

In summary, I would recommend doing a bit of homework before you purchase a discontinued model (and especially if you come across a dealer that is selling a particular model at a “bargain price” – they may simply have excess stock of a discontinued or even a “soon to be discontinued” model). Find out if there are any other models in the same range that are also being discontinued and why.

I would really like to get some feedback on this and I would value any opinions you may have. Please leave your comments in the box below.