Easy solution to install City Navigator maps on PC/Mac

[paynes1]

My problem with loading the maps (unlocked) onto my laptop has been solved.

Having moaned about the Garmin help desk not solving the issue, I feel it is only right to put on here that they finally did solve it. A Senior specialist for Automotive devices called Tiphaine emailed me and apologised for the lack of an earlier solution.

I was send a couple of things to try, including an unlock code and something else to try if the initial code did not completely solve the issue. To be honest, this was what I was expecting from the very beginning, but it is good to see that their system allowed for someone to pick this up and offer the required solution.

Now I can get on with planning my trips that I lead around the UK, and hopefully Europe.

Steve P

[jfheath]

Ah.. that's the thing, I don't have an XT, I'm a bit old school I suppose, still using my trusty and reliable Zumo 660 alongside Mapsource (since about 2007) so would not have encountered Explorer.

Sorry - I didn't check back.

In which case - good for you. Keep that 660 and Mapsource for as long as you can. It is a brilliant bit of kit, and its routing behaviour is so forgiving and predictable. In my opinion it was the best Zumo that they ever produced. Yes - the speed is a bit on the slow side, memory is a bit low, and all satnavs should have the bright screen of the XT - but for usability when riding, the XT has everything that you need.

It got a bad press because the numpties that managed to negotiate the top loop of a figure of 8 twice, rather than taking the bottom loop shouted loudly that it was useless, and complained that it had got them lost. I quite liked that flexibility - very good when you hit a by-pass or a new bit of road. Just rejoin the route and it would continue navigating without telling you to go back. It does mean that you must remember to keep your brain switched on when you plug the satnav in though.

(For XT users - this is like having a route on the XT with only shaping points - the XT will do that).

I keep thinking that it would be nice to have that model back again. But people selling are expecting top dollar. Not that I can blame them !

[jfheath]

Having moaned about the Garmin help desk not solving the issue, I feel it is only right to put on here that they finally did solve it. A Senior specialist for Automotive devices called Tiphaine emailed me and apologised for the lack of an earlier solution.

Thank you for updating us on that. Its nice to see positive outcomes from contacting Garmin - not many people do that.

Technical support get a bad press - sometimes the people who you first speak to don't seem to understand the problem and simply quote pages from the instruction manual. It's a bit like a triage at a hospital. Eventually you get to someone who really knows their stuff. In this case, that would be Tiphaine. She is excellent.

You have to be patient, because she (? - I assume Tiphaine is female ) is looking at problems from a different perspective from you. She has to assume that you simply don't know, or that you are doing something incorreclty, or that there is a setup issue. The person who has been tearing their hair out with the problem is adamant that it is the Garmin is at fault.

She sticks at the problems and either solves it for you, or decides that this is something that needs looking into and passes it to the development team. She has to eliminate the obvious user errors before that can happen. You will probably get fed up of repeating the same stuff that you have told everybody else. But just go through it all again patiently. She needs the information from you first hand before she can move on.

I gave her some really awkward problems (7 of them) recently. She took each one in turn, she spent time reproducing the problem (and got the same results), suggested a way to work round it for me for the time being, and then gave the issue to the development team.

[paynes1]

Having moaned about the Garmin help desk not solving the issue, I feel it is only right to put on here that they finally did solve it. A Senior specialist for Automotive devices called Tiphaine emailed me and apologised for the lack of an earlier solution.

Thank you for updating us on that. Its nice to see positive outcomes from contacting Garmin - not many people do that.

Technical support get a bad press - sometimes the people who you first speak to don't seem to understand the problem and simply quote pages from the instruction manual. It's a bit like a triage at a hospital. Eventually you get to someone who really knows their stuff. In this case, that would be Tiphaine. She is excellent.

jfheath
In the email Tiphaine gave the definite impression that the other staff should already have given me this solution after the issue went to the development and other teams. I am just grateful that Tiphaine got involved and took the time and was knowledgeable enough to send me the solution. She had the same access to all the same info that I sent previously, but no one else had a clue.
I have sent her an email thanking her.
Steve P