[FONT=arial narrow]Hello from Malta
I bought the eTrex 30 in July 2013 to go on a trekking holiday with it. I bought the latest eTrex version to assure peace of mind while on holiday. I even bought the latest map of full Europe in order to use it in an automotive mode if need be. I did not even check any reviews on the device prior buying it because I thought that the device was trustworthy ... but I was wrong.
The most tedious problem about the device is the compass. It loses calibration quite often. During the 10-day trip, I had to re-calibrate it almost everyday. It simply locks in one direction, regardless the direction you're facing. Moreover, after re-calibration, it indicated wrong bearings. I knew that the direction I was facing was true north from my wristwatch, while the eTrex was offset by nearly 180 degrees. It's shameful ... I don't except the malfunction of a very basic tool by Garmin. It's a compass which supposedly guide you to a destination, or to prevent anyone from getting lost. Anyway!!!
Another problem is that the device switches off and reload immediately while searching for an address. It seems to go nuts and crash. This was really annoying during the holiday. If I only had the eTrex 30 for the use of automotive mode, I think I didn't go to anywhere of the destinations with this problem.
As regards to crashing, the unit sometimes locks while navigating through the menu. The problem goes on for few seconds and then it comes back to normal. Besides, the GPS device sometimes locks while initializing. It remains locked on the front page, saying "Garmin ... Loading Maps ..."
I noticed another problem with the profiles. I needed to find a geocache, so I changed the profile from recreational to geocaching. The profile simply didn't change, except the name above, saying "geocaching". I tried all profiles and they all appeared the same; nothing changed. In order to verify whether this is a Garmin problem or something from the my setup, I changed the profile from recreational to automotive, and the map remained recreational, whereas before, the map changed to an automotive mode.
I thought it would be best to perform a master reset to bring the device back to factory operational mode. I saved all the data from the mass storage and I performed the master reset. Once done, I did the latest update from Garmin Express, and I even did the Webupdater. I did all the necessary things to get it back on track. I did the master reset for at least five times; with and without map, etc. I even did a master reset and left a gpx file into it. When I reloaded the device, the gpx file remained in the system. Nothing seemed to work, so I tend to conclude that it is something from the software.
All the above makes me very unsatisfied with the device. I honestly do not expect this from Garmin, not at all. I have a cheap Mio Navman m400, which I bought for 90 Euros including map, and owned for nearly four years. It never gave me trouble since. I used it for the above holiday trip. Unlike the eTrext 30, Mio worked smoothly without a single problem. Sorry to say, the Garmin eTrex 30 is not even comparable with the cheapest GPS device on the market.
Kindly note that I have paid around 300 Euros for the eTrex 30 including map, in which I am not satisfied at all.
I give an advise not to trust this model as it really (profanity). If you wanna go to the north, rest assured that the eTrex 30 guides you to the south.
Joseph[/FONT]
