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Garmin Express Kills My Mouse!

Former Member over 10 years ago

Hello,

I recently purchased a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Mouse (connects via 2.4 GHz USB but NOT Bluetooth). I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with all updates current.

When attempting to update my Garmin GPS unit with Garmin Express, the mouse immediately disconnected and would not reconnect. I attempted to fix the problem by restarting my computer, but once I restarted Garmin Express, the mouse went dead again. I attempted to fix the problem by removing and reinstalling Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center and USB drivers, then restarting - the mouse went dead again once I started Garmin Express. I finally uninstalled Garmin Express via keyboard, and restarted the computer. The mouse works fine again.

Has anyone heard of Garmin Express interfering with wireless mice such as this, and, is there an alternative method for me to update my Garmin GPS unit other than with Garmin Express?

Thank you.

0 pshare over 10 years ago

I think it's definitely a usb driver conflict. I had a similar issue with an old USB hub. I had a flash drive and a mouse on the same hub and the mouse would stop working the moment I plugged in the flash drive.

The way I solved it was to plug a second usb hub into the first and then plug the mouse into the second hub. It's been working fine this way for about 4 years now.

If you have an extra hub lying around, it might be worth a shot.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

What purchased add-ons? Sorry but you've lost me.

Custom icons and voices, most for extra charge:

support.garmin.com/.../case.faces

"To load custom vehicle icons and voices using Garmin Express..."

We bought one awhile back...for $9.99.

As for lightning fast. I've used both Express and MapUpdater and seen no difference in overall speed.

The Map Updater software gave me zero trouble installing it, and was ready to go in seconds.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Like SUSSAMB, you have lost me with your claim that Express is a means to sell "purchased add-ons". Would you mind providing an example, please?

I'm puzzled that neither of you claim to know what I'm talking about.

No Express = no installation of custom icons & voices.

As Technical Support indicated, I can not image how a "software" package would cause a piece of "hardware" to malfunction.

Huh?

All hardware is controlled by software. Garmin Express clearly accesses USB controllers in order to provide connectivity to the device. Whatever it is doing it is "killing" the mouse USB driver.

But, since it seems to be happening to you, I hope you will post whenever you solve the problem.

Uninstalling Garmin Express worked quite fine. Interestingly, uninstalling Garmin Express also caused WeatherBug to start working well with the mouse, too, with no changes to mouse driver or WeatherBug settings. Poor coding within Garmin Express (built atop .Net Framework) is clearly the cause of my problem, as so many problems with it. I can't continue troubleshooting because now I can't even reinstall GE to do more testing - I now get one of the the infamous errors.

There are other ways of updating maps as you have discovered. Look over at poi-factory.com for some alternatives.

"Lifetime" maps come with my device. Why should I have to hunt down non-OEM solutions? As noted in the earlier post, Garmin "support" didn't even bother telling me about Garmin Map Updater.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I think it's definitely a usb driver conflict. I had a similar issue with an old USB hub. I had a flash drive and a mouse on the same hub and the mouse would stop working the moment I plugged in the flash drive.

The way I solved it was to plug a second usb hub into the first and then plug the mouse into the second hub. It's been working fine this way for about 4 years now.

If you have an extra hub lying around, it might be worth a shot.

Thank you for the idea! I do have the USB dongle plugged directly into a USB 2.0 port, but I could always try a hub since it would install as a "new USB device." However, as I noted in my just-posted previous post, now I can't even reinstall GE due to one of the infamous errors that has no effective solution.

0 SUSSAMB over 10 years ago

OK, we're going around in circles here and now getting off topic so I'm closing this thread and moving the last post to a new one as the Express team should look into that specific query. Clearly you have an issue with Express and the mouse on your computer that no one else has and, as pshare, I and others have commented, that is almost certainly due to a usb conflict of some sort on your PC. You could try clearing it up using the info here http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/usb-drive-or-flash-problems-how-to-cleanup-and-remove-old-usb-storage-drivers.145884/