[stellarpod]

Hello all!

I've just recently purchased a new 8300 Curve and am having a problem with Bluetooth connection to my Garmin Nuvi 680. The GPS has Bluetooth handsfree capability which is quite handy in the car. The GPS syncs with no problems with my previous Motorola phone and my wife's Nokia.

I can sync and it hooks up properly, but then unexplainably disconnects within about 15 seconds. To make matters even more frustrating, it will occasionally stay hooked up and work perfectly all day long (about 10-15% of the time).

Most of the time, when I first turn the GPS on, the Blackberry will automatically try to hook up, with the results as stated above. Occasionally, I will have to manually envoke the connection.

Has anyone had similar experience, and if so, how did you remedy the situation?

Thanks in advance,
stellarpod

[stellarpod]

Administrator(s):

Please move my question to "Bluetooth" section if appropriate.

Sorry for the confusion.

stellarpod

[inosc]

I have the same problem with my 8830 and a Nuvi 660
Did you get an answer?

[BBman]

[QUOTE=stellarpod;668539]Hello all!

I've just recently purchased a new 8300 Curve and am having a problem with Bluetooth connection to my Garmin......

I had similar results until I placed the BB 8320 on the sun-visor.
When I enter the car I place the BB above the sun-visor, install the Garmin (in my case the 770 Nuvi) in the cradle and start the car. 90% of the time the connection works and stays connected.
Hope this helps,
CliffordS

[mdw01]

I have an 8310 and had initial problems setting it up with the 680. Go to the Garmin Bluetooth set up and manually select the 8310 from the list then apply. Mine has worked fine since. The one issue I am having is it does not recognize voice dialing from the 8310. It mutes the entire process on my 8310.

[ggraves]

All,

I was having the same problem with my Curve and Nuvi 680. What has fixed this for me is downgrading the Bluetooth firmware version on the Nuvi itself. I was running version 3.0 (you can check your version by going to Settings -> System -> About on the Nuvi) -- I had success after downgrading to version 2.4.

It's a bit of a convoluted process, but here is the procedure I followed:

1. Download the old Nuvi BT firmware from the Garmin Italy website:

http://www.garmin.it/files/FileBluetooth.zip

2. Connect your Nuvi to your PC.

3. Go into the X:\Garmin\RemoteSW and look for a file called 006B055301.GCD (where X: is your Nuvi drive)

4. Back up that file to your computer, and delete it from the Nuvi.

5. Extract the file in the zip downloaded in step 1 to the X:\Garmin\RemoteSW directory

6. Disconnect your Nuvi from your computer, and let it reboot

7. Click on "View Map," then touch the "Speed" in the lower left corner.

8. You should have the "Dashboard" view up. Touch and hold the "Moving Average" box for ~15 seconds until the diagnostic screen appears.

9. Press the "next" button until you arrive at the "Bluetooth Status" screen (5-6 screens in)

10. Click "Updt PR" and then click "Yes"

11. Reboot the Nuvi, delete the existing bluetooth pairing, and attempt to re-pair with your BlackBerry.

Seems to work perfectly now -- please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

-gcg

[gteague]

coincidently i have just 'upgraded' this week from a garmin nuvi 360 and a bb 8700g to a nuvi 680 with the bb 8320. and i have noticed that my 680 is much more likely to give me the 'phone disconnected' error message. the old 360/8700g pair was rock solid, but i only had one device in the phones bluetooth list with that pair. somehow i suspect that the 8320 is looking for the other devices on the bluetooth list.

only had this a couple of days, so not enough data yet to make any sort of guess. but i will say that those of you with a similar pair of devices are likely not hallucinating ... [g]

/guy

[joec]

Same problem with my 8310 and the Nuvi 760. Garmin acknowledges teh problem. They could not offer a solution. My other phones stay connected and work perfectly.

[gteague]

Originally Posted by joec

Same problem with my 8310 and the Nuvi 760. Garmin acknowledges teh problem. They could not offer a solution. My other phones stay connected and work perfectly.

well, the situation has degraded since i posted. the phone disconnects right after connection or pairing. this is with my new 680.

i spoke with garmin and they suggested i test with my 360 and note the bluetooth version on it. which is v0.0 according to the about screen. in any case, the 8320 does the same thing with the 360 and the 360 worked perfectly with my 8700g, so i suspect the 8320 is at fault, not the nuvi.

i haven't called t-mobile yet and i suspect they will not help since the phone works with many other bluetooth devices without problems. in this situation both vendors, garmin and tmobile, have plausible deniability since the nuvis work with many other phones including the 8700g and the 8320 works with many other bluetooth devices. i think this is a case where both devices need a tweak to work together.

this is nearly frustrating enough for me to return one or the other of the devices since i depend so much on the bluetooth speakerphone. i'm not quite desperate enough to try downgrading to an italian bluetooth version though. it may come to that shortly, however. [g]

[later note: i find i _am_ that desparate. downloading the file now ... the unzipped file has exactly the same name as the existing one. replaced it. the 'moving average' button doesn't work on my 680, but you can touch the clock at the top right (have to get right up against the top frame) for about 6 seconds and enter the diagnostic mode. the bluetooth test screen is about 6-8 screens from the front, but there is no 'updt pr' function. so i just hit the 'reset dev' button, hit the reset button on the back and rebooted. this has changed my bt version to 0.00, same as the 360. since that version doesn't work on the 360 with the 8320, i doubt it will work on the 680 either, but we're trying it now. i read somewhere to use the phone to initiate the pairing although so far it has made no difference ...

... it worked for about 5 minutes. when i tried to xfer the phone book it started spitting out error messages and then reverted to the 'phone disconnected' behavior at every connect attempt. tks for the try anyway ... i sure wish i knew enough to use the bluetooth diagnostic screen. i'm betting that someone knew what he/she was doing could diagnose the problem in a few minutes using those tests.]

/guy

[gteague]

i spoke with garmin again today. i did learn one thing: when you see bt v0.00 it means bluetooth is disabled. which makes sense--you have to disable it or go crazy with the popup screens saying 'phone disconnected'.

the tech did say she saw a note attached to the 'curve' saying something like 'pairing coming soon' or 'support updated soon'. and she directed me to the maps page to put in a ticket direct to the engineers even though this isn't a mapping problem.

i wish i'd noted the version number i got from the bt file at that link. evidently i had bt disabled at the time i checked it, so i didn't get a valid vers #.

/guy

[Hondo Lady]

ggraves:
I can't thank you enough! This thing has been driving me nuts between the Nuvi 660 and the 8320. I got to the point where I went out and purchased a BT headset on eBay to use with the BB because I was so frustrated. (guess that'll be going up for sale this afternoon <G>)Garmin wasn't all that much help either, as 2 tech guys there told me they absolutely couldn't get me the file for v 2.4-----the farthest back he could get me was 2.8, which I tried and had the same disconnect problems with. You are my hero of the day!!! (OK--make that month!)

[qsimpson]

I just recently purchased the Nuvi 660 and have the same problem. it sucks. i will try flashing it to the older version thanks for the instructions!

[phredd]

This worked for me!!! THX!!!!!

I have a BB8800 (CingularAT&T) and the Nuvi760.

When I get new toys the first thing I do is upgrade all the firmware...well that took me to bluetooth 3.0 on the nuvi760....I had the "Phone Disconnected" problems 100+ times...I used the below to downgrade and have not had the "Phone Disconnected" msg even ONE time.

It is NOT a difficult process - just follow the instructions...takes 3 mins.

THX GGRAVES!

Originally Posted by ggraves

All,

I was having the same problem with my Curve and Nuvi 680. What has fixed this for me is downgrading the Bluetooth firmware version on the Nuvi itself. I was running version 3.0 (you can check your version by going to Settings -> System -> About on the Nuvi) -- I had success after downgrading to version 2.4.

It's a bit of a convoluted process, but here is the procedure I followed:

1. Download the old Nuvi BT firmware from the Garmin Italy website:

http://www.garmin.it/files/FileBluetooth.zip

2. Connect your Nuvi to your PC.

3. Go into the X:\Garmin\RemoteSW and look for a file called 006B055301.GCD (where X: is your Nuvi drive)

4. Back up that file to your computer, and delete it from the Nuvi.

5. Extract the file in the zip downloaded in step 1 to the X:\Garmin\RemoteSW directory

6. Disconnect your Nuvi from your computer, and let it reboot

7. Click on "View Map," then touch the "Speed" in the lower left corner.

8. You should have the "Dashboard" view up. Touch and hold the "Moving Average" box for ~15 seconds until the diagnostic screen appears.

9. Press the "next" button until you arrive at the "Bluetooth Status" screen (5-6 screens in)

10. Click "Updt PR" and then click "Yes"

11. Reboot the Nuvi, delete the existing bluetooth pairing, and attempt to re-pair with your BlackBerry.

Seems to work perfectly now -- please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

-gcg

[jokritzb]

I tried this process with a Garmin StreetPilot 550 and it didn't change a thing. I think I did it right. Is there a different file I need for this Garmin, and if yes, anybody know where to find it?

[Triforce66]

Will the above work for a nuvi 360? I am having the same issue with my BB8830.. :(

[Hondo Lady]

I think this only resolves issues with the Nuvi series, not the Street Pilots. It should work with the Nuvi 360.

[Triforce66]

ggraves you rock!!!! Confirmed this works for BB8830 and Nuvi 360..

[aregold]

ggraves you are awesome!

I have been scouring forums to get this to work. Took only a minute or two and now the connection is solid so far.

Previously, the best i could hope for was 30-60 seconds before disconnect.

My Curve is the 8310 with 4.2.2.184 installed. I had previously upgraded the Nuvi Bluetooth firmware to allow 2-way SMS with my Razr.

Thanks again!

[ggraves]

Hello all --

Haven't checked this thread in a while -- glad to hear that this procedure has worked out (and hasn't fried any Nuvis!)

Perhaps we can get this put as a sticky somewhere, as it seems to be a common problem with many Nuvi/BB users.

Best,
Greg

[dentalrep]

I called Garmin today about my problems connecting to the Curve. The tech sent me version 2.8 to downgrade to. Does anyone want it? That way you can use a little newer version than 2.4. I will email someone the file if they will post it here.

By the way I have a Garmin 780 and a BB 8320.