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[Eyesbad, Very Bad]

I am having a nightmare trying to determine how to transfer waypoints,routes, tracks & maps between my Garmin eTrex Vista GPS unit and my Sony hi end laptop PC. I have the FHS Digital Map Series and the Maptech US Terrain Series Digital Map (MN, WI, & MI Region) CD's.
I am getting little/no useful help from Garmin, FHS or Maptech. The Garmin eTrex Vista owners manual is silent on this procedure so it becomes has become quite a dilemma. The Garmin unit was updated(v2.12 to v2.24)recently by downloading a patch from the Garmin website which among other things adds support to the FHS CD. Likewise for the FHS CD itself, I upgraded from v1.65 to v1.91 via a FHS websight download. I have the PC/GPS interface cable. I could use some help from someone who may have been there and/or any computer experts out there.
Thanks,
Frustrated in WI

[EyeJacker]

How did Amerigo Vespucci ever navigate in the 15th century without all this modern day equipment and determine that Columbus had not landed where he thought had? :)
Jack

[Juls_WI]

They used to look at the stars, now we look at the stars wondering how long its going to take for the satellites to find us...;-)

Juls

[Fuzzy]

Eyesbad - what is the Windows version on your laptop?

[Eyesbad, Very Bad]

Windows 98 is the O/S

[Fuzzy]

We had to upgrade to XP to get around a similar problem. Talk to Maptech, Garmin and MS about support on 98. I was thinking you were running Windows ME - 98 should work. Win ME is a POS. If you can upgrade to 2000 or XP, it might work. Talk to them first. Did you talk to Sony? Also, most laptops run fulltime from power supplied from the internal battery which is recharged constantly when plugged in ....because of this many laptops do not 'push enough juice' from the power source thru the USB cable to complete a successful comlink with the Vista unit or anything other device. I know it sounds messed up, but this does happen and there isn't a solution. It might be your problem.

Another option is to contact a GPS site like joe.mahaffey.com and post your problem on a message board there - these are the GPS nerds who love fixing these things.

Good luck!

[EyeJacker]

Thanks Fuzzy for the suggestions. I have my laptop plugged in 99% of the time and I don't think the power is the problem, rather buying the CD digital maps before the Garmin etrex vista was released on the market. I have tried to raise Mike from FHS with no success as yet. Garmin has not responded either and Maptech has indicated that their maps should work. Maptech response has been very brief with no procedure info. provided.

[Fuzzy]

If it wasn't for cars, computers and women the world world would be ok. Hang in there. You might be 'beta testing' the Vista for them. Try that joe.mahaffey site - they are up on these things. Just to clarify, your laptop is running off it's main batt even though it is plugged in. That's how they are designed - I dunno maybe Sony is different.

[Juls_WI]

>If it wasn't for cars, computers and women the world world
>would be ok.

Maybe so, but it sure would be a lot less fun. And well, you wouldn't be here typing to strangers if it wasn't for a woman and a computer. ;-)

It would also take forever to tow that boat of yours to a lake behind a couple of horses too! lol The things men say sometimes...geez.

Juls

[Eyesbad, Very Bad]

You are no doubt right about the battery being primary. The good news is after many hours of beating my head against the wall I have the Maptech CD data tranfer capability between the eTrex Vista and the Sony laptop functioning! Thanks again.

[Fuzzy]

Aw Juls - I was just adding some levity to a frustrating situation.
I didn't aim to offend - sorry if that comment got your bunnies in a bunch.

[Tom B]

I connect my Garmin to my Mac, but have to run fake windows to download waypoints. There are several shareware programs available, do a search "gps" and they will come up.

I have all my waypoints on my computer and only download waypoints for the lake that I am going to. Works darn well.

Tom B

[BGunn]

Juls_WI

It's like my Daughter keeps telling me;

"Men...You can't shoot 'em, and if you leave them along the road, they keep finding their way back".....just that some of us need the GPS to get back !!

[Eyesbad, Very Bad]

Thanks for the reply, I'll perform that GPS search. This GPS technology is great!