1030 TBT is broken

I just rode the week long ride across Georgia last week using 7 routes downloaded from Ridewithgps. The routes worked perfectly and never failed to show a upcoming turn.  Also, the two other members of my group using the 1030 had no navigation issues. Are you sure you have turn guidance on?

Thank you, but yes, I'm a very experienced user and all my settings are correct, as they have been for the last 6 years and 37,000 miles I've ridden with Garmin 1000 and 1030, often with routes loaded for TBT directions.

That it's not a problem for you or your friends does not mean there is no problem at all. It may be a bug that manifests for particular reasons that aren't applicable to you. Other settings, connected devices, versions of maps, and so on can have unintended affects and consequences. That's the nature of software and why bugs almost never affect 100% of the user community. Sometimes they affect a small minority, but can still be very real.

No matter where I am on the route, even though the map displays correctly, it otherwise shows distance to destination as the full length of the route and distance to next is perpetually 12 feet or so. During the entire route TBT acts as if I haven't started the route.

Something in the software is stalling the start of TBT even though GPS is active and the map changes as you ride.

I saw the same problem. The secondary route used for "turn guidance" calculates (you can see the light magenta line and see the list of turns when clicking on the text at the top of the map). But, the turn guidance processing doesn't "launch" (it stays stuck at the start).

I think this problem might occur more often if the start of the course isn't at or ahead of you (that is, it seems the problem is more likely if you load the course when you are after the start point).

I reported the issue about a month ago (I was using 7.2).

Same problem, not working for me either.

I previously used a 705 and I recall many complaints about it's navigation. Mine had a few problems but overall it worked very well. It appears that the same situation exists with the 1030. I think that this must be a hardware problem and I have been lucky in getting a correctly functioning 705 and 1030.what else could it be since I have used navigation at least 20 times with no problems.Garmin must have a hardware quality control problem that needs to be addressed.

I had this same problem on an 820 and 1000 when s loop course came all the way back to the start point.  I modified the route to stop a tenth of a mile before the start and everything worked perfectly.

The units are supposed to figure out where along the course you are (that is, you don't have to load the course at the start location).

If the end of the route happens to be closer than the start from the location you load the course, the units (all of them, it appears) can pick the end point. That's a different issue. One fix for that, as you indicate, is to end loop courses short of the real end point. Another fix is to load the course a bit later.

The problem being described here isn't that the unit picks the end point (thinking you are loading the course at/near the end of it. 

The problem is that the unit never starts processing the second (calculated) route.

No, it's not likely that it's a hardware problem because it's the same problem. A hardware problem would more likely result in a crash. 

It seems the problem is relatively rare. So, it's not that surprising that you haven't seen it.

Does it matter where the problem routes are located? Perhaps less problems in the US maps compared to Europe maps

It's not a hardware problem for the very simple reason that I've used this 1030 with TBT successfully in the past. Something broke with one of the firmware updates.