GPS without the navigation

February 1, 2009 2:00 PM

My Garmin Nuvi (350) won't navigate when I attach it to my car's charger, which is a bummer for obvious reasons. It turns on, but the screen shows an image of it being attached to a PC, and it only goes back to navigation mode if I unplug it.

It charges the battery fine, just doesn't do what it's supposed to do when I'm driving and in a bad need of directions. Am I using the wrong car charger? The bit that plugs into the Nuvi from the charger is the same one that's used to plug it into the PC, and I can't find one that's different.

I'm missing something here, right? Right?

posted by Bakuun to grab bag (5 comments total)

Tangential, I know, but I once had a similar problem with a Samsung phone (charged ok, but couldn't do anything with the phone whilst doing so). The phone was faulty.
posted by gene_machine at 2:21 PM on February 1

Garmin GPSs work only in PC mode unless you plug them into a Garmin charger. There is a difference in the pins or something like that (don't remember the details). So, you have to buy one of their car chargers or use the one that came with the GPS.
posted by advil at 2:29 PM on February 1

There's a mini-USB port on the side of the unit and another on the back of the mount. See the image on the left of page 55 of the manual. The car charger should be plugged into the latter port. If you're using the port on the side, that may be why the Nuvi is in file transfer mode.
posted by ionnin at 2:37 PM on February 1

I read about this on some forums. One page (I can't find it yet) mentioned there was a workaround that involved plugging, holding buttons, unplugging and replugging the USB charger...

The tip is the same, but as advil says there is a difference to the charger.
posted by devbrain at 2:54 PM on February 1

ionnin, you got it! I can't believe I forgot about that port. Thanks so much!
posted by Bakuun at 4:20 PM on February 1