Nuvi 300 Europe map upgrade

Davidspringall · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 7

First post and looking for some advice, can anyone help with the following?

I have a Nuvi 300 with V8 UK and Ireland maps which I want to upgrade to V9 UK & Europe.

A Garmin dealer has advised that I update with Garmin for approx £40 and the upgrade will include full European maps.

Garmin themselves advise that I don't upgrade with them but instead buy a V9 update DVD from a dealer together with a 2Gig SD card. Garmin tell me that the upgrade DVD they supply does contain European maps but the unlock code they issue will only unlock UK and Ireland, and that they cannot supply the full European maps direct.

So, does anyone know the best way to upgrade a Nuvi 300 to V9 UK and European maps?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

adrian_anastas · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 27, 2006 Posts: 73

Hi David,

I'm pretty sure the issue you'll face with just a DVD is that the 300 won't have the space to hold full europe maps. The V9 maps I have for my 350 take up almost 1.4 GB of the 2 Gb Storage. Even if you did have the space Garmin is correct, you'll need an unlock code to use the full europe maps.

Can you let us know how much storage space is on the 300? I checked by connecting to my PC and checking the properties of the NUVI drive.

philpugh · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:27 pm Post subject:

It would be best to put Europe onto a separate SD card - I don't think there will be enough memory on the base unit.

Also - we (that's us European nuvi users) are "eagerly" awaiting the next release of the mapping- could be anytime up to the end of the year. I believe it's going to be version 2008 (as apposed to V10) - so you may just want to hang fire for a while.
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Phil

Davidspringall · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 7

swing · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:57 pm Post subject: Re: Enough Space?

Davidspringall · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 7

Thanks for the advice.

Every bit of advice I get seems to conflict with the previous! The safest way to get the full updates I want would be to purchase the update dvd from Garmin to update the internal maps, then European maps on a seperate SD card (or DVD plus SD card). If I do that it will cost nearly as much as buying a new unit with European maps pre-loaded, I might as well buy new and have an out of date backup.

If I could be sure that the Garmin unlock code would unlock the European maps as well as UK I would do that instantly, but if I do that and European maps don't unlock I am pretty much committed. Does anyone have any recent experience of whether the European maps will unlock with a Nuvi 300 unlock code? Garmin say no (but they would say that...), and I believe there were some recent changes to the unlock procedure (maps only unlock onto one unit) that may support the theory that Europe no longer unlocks?

Thanks again.

swing · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject:

mikeecix · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 19, 2006 Posts: 2

Not sure if this helps but I have just upgraded from a UK/Eire StreetPilot i3 to Nuvi 310. I ordered my free V9 UK/Europe update DVD from Garmin earlier this year to update the i3 maps from V8 to V9 by using the registration code I received with my i3. This unlocked all of Europe, not just V9 of UK/Eire.

My new Nuvi 310 had V8 maps installed so used the same i3 registration code to unlock V9 maps for use on my Nuvi 310 via the Garmin website. This has again unlocked all of Europe for use on my Nuvi. I believe I was able to do this because Garmin allows you to unlock a maximum of 2 GPS units per code (correct me if I'm wrong!).

Not sure what this proves but I didn't need to pay any extra to get all of Europe unlocked on both my i3 and Nuvi. I still have an unused registration code in the Nuvi box which I'm hoping to use on the V10 update DVD whenever it's released.

Hope this hasn't confused matters further!

-Mikee-

Davidspringall · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 7

Apparently the current unlock codes only unlock one unit not two? A dealer I spoke to suggested that the ability to unlock full european maps on the Garmin update disc may have changed at the same time as the reduction on number of units unlocked?

Thanks all.

swing · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:17 pm Post subject:

mikeecix - the unlock code in the Nuvi box would only unlock MapSource for v8 maps for UK/Ireland only, so you are much better off with your 2 unit v9 unlock code Smile

As for the two unit / one unit situation, I believe the next update, ie City Navigator 2008 (or v10) will only allow one device to be unlocked, so in Mike's case, to upgrade both units to v10 he will now need to purchase two unlock codes...

David - Mike's recent update has also confirmed the situation of last year - the v9 upgrade DVD when unlocked will move you from UK/Ireland only to full European coverage.
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