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Nuvi 1490T Bluetooth problem

Former Member over 14 years ago

Hi all,

I've had a 1490T for some time now and like it a lot. Unfortunately, lately, it has started doing weird things, coinciding with the installation of the latest firmware (4.30). It won't stay paired to my phone (RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700) after it (the nuvi) has been shut off. The "Friendly Name" on the nuvi is erased (blank) every time I check, and it doesn't remember my phone (the button is "Add" instead of "Change"). Disabling/re-enabling Bluetooth does nothing. Adding the phone again works about 10% of the time, if I delete the nuvi's profile from my phone first. To boot, when it is having this problem, there is no sound (voice or keypress tone) from the nuvi. Rebooting it may make it work in 1 time out of 6 or 7 tries. I've checked the diagnostics pages (accessed via the speedometer) and other than "Abnormal Powerdown" reported a few times, there's nothing I can really see that jumps out at me.

On the About page, in Software Versions, I have GPS ver 4.30, Text ver 4.20 (American English), Keyboard ver "Unknown", Audio ver 2.60 (American English-Jill), and Bluetooth ver "Unknown". Doing a reboot (holding down the power key until it goes off, restarting so the Garmin splash screen comes up) - over and over until I get a beep from pressing "Agree" - when I go back into "About", I get still Keyboard - Unknown, but Bluetooth - 1.73. At that point, going back to the Bluetooth setup page, it still has forgotten my phone, but the proper "Friendly Name" is back.

My email to technical support received a less-than-helpful reply. I got exquisitely detailed instructions on how to download and run WebUpdater to make sure I have the latest version of firmware - despite the fact I mentioned in my email that I already have the latest firmware, and wanted instructions on how I might download/reinstall it, and perhaps the Bluetooth firmware as well. I was also told that my phone may be too new to be compatible with the nuvi. Well, true enough, it's not shown on the website as being compatible, but it's been working with the device day in and day out for months prior to the latest firmware update.

I thought that WebUpdater used to allow you to reinstall the existing firmware if there was no new update to be had. I tried running it just now, and all I get is "There are no new updates. Press Next to look for other updates like voice and text" etc.

Anyone got any advice? Either 4.30 is badly screwed up and needs a bugfix (and judging by the frequent reboots going back to the normal map from the traffic map, this is probably true) or I need to reinstall 4.30 and/or the BT firmware. I'd love to do it, but I can't find a way to do so.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

0 berriochoa over 14 years ago

Problems with 1490T Bluetooth connection

I've had similar problems keeping my nuvi 1490T connected to either my Motorola Razr or my Blackberry. The nuvi loses the contact settings when it is shut down. I returned it to my retailer and got a new one, no questions asked, but even the new one has issues. It connected to my Motorola OK but can't locate my Blackberry. And the phone book function that links to my Motorola is intermittent. It only shows up occasionally. Garmin has not been too helpful on this issue. Anyone have any thoughts?

0 jasonoki over 13 years ago

Android phone bluetooth fixed

I've been having the same bluetooth problem, where I could get my phone to connect to bluetooth, but the connection would never be saved after a garmin reboot.

I have a Nexus One Android phone and it worked fine for a while, but it stopped working after my garmin was updated to the latest firmware.....or so I thought. It might've been when I upgrade the firmware of my andoid phone to the latest firmware (gingerbread). Because the fix is that I needed to factory reset of my android phone and the bluetooth connection worked again. I did the reset on my phone because my phone would never go to landscape mode, so I didn't think that it would fix the bluetooth.

I hope this helps out someone out there.
c-ya

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

1490T Bluetooth and reboot Problems

:mad:

I purchased a 1490T a few weeks ago and found that if I mute the voice navigation I can't hear the bluetooth speaker phone. I called Garmin and they said bluetooth volume and Voice nav volume is separate and sent me out a replacement unit (after charging my credit card the full list for deposit).
They did NOT send me a prepaid shipping label. I guess they expect me to pay for their problems. The first unit also tends to reboot and if you make a wrong turn 50% of the time when it recalculates, it does not show your location.

Just received the second unit and it has the same bluetooth problem, I hate the voice nav on long trips and can't believe there is no way to turn this off without disabling bluetooth. very POOR design. I going to return it all and another brand I am done with Garmin.

:mad:

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

Garmin 1490T is garbage Garmin support is garbage

My family has purchased at least 5 GPS's over the years. A month ago I decided to give my TomTom GPS to my wife and get a new GPS with bluetooth. From the ads the Garmin 1490T GPS seemed to have the features I was looking for.

After the first week of use I came to the conclusion it had some major design flaws.

1. There is no way to turn voice navigation off, without turning the master volume off and thereby making the bluetooth speaker phone unusable.

2. On occasion if you miss a turn when the GPS recalculates it does not show you a corrected coarse, you have to stop the current coarse then start it again.

3. The unit occasionally reboots for no reason (3 time in one week about 10-15 hrs of driving).

4. There was no mention in the ads that even though you are paying for lifetime traffic you have to watch pop up ads on your GPS whenever you use traffic. Thats double billing. Billing the consumer and the advertiser.

The big deal breaker for me was the issue with the speaker phone. I called tech support and they informed me that the master volume should not have any effect on the bluetooth speaker phone and they sent me out a replacement unit.

The replacement unit not only had exactly the same problems but Garmin wants me to pay to ship their defective unit back.

I called Garmin a second time and now they informed me that there is NO way to turn voice navigation off without turning the volume off on the speaker phone.

Garmin obviously does not care about their consumers I can't believe they expect the consumer to replace their defective merchandise.

Needless to say I will never purchase another Garmin product again.:mad:

0 EDWARDHILL1 over 13 years ago

Phone book transfer

I've had similar problems keeping my nuvi 1490T connected to either my Motorola Razr or my Blackberry. The nuvi loses the contact settings when it is shut down. I returned it to my retailer and got a new one, no questions asked, but even the new one has issues. It connected to my Motorola OK but can't locate my Blackberry. And the phone book function that links to my Motorola is intermittent. It only shows up occasionally. Garmin has not been too helpful on this issue. Anyone have any thoughts?

Bluetooth uses radio waves 2.4gh I think.Interference is happening from somewhere ,either your car or something else.Try disconnecting the Garmin device using your phones and restarting .You phone contacts should come through if your engine is off and no other bluetooth devices are in your area.I have found this works 75% of the time.