Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??   

Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??

Postby Bungholeo » Wed Mar 18, 2026 3:58 pm

Hi all.
I have a Montana 650 for use on my motorcycle and for years I have struggled with random map freezing when using Garmin maps.
This was really bad with the latest maps (which I got from this site) but if I run an OSM map instead (freizeitkarte-osm.de) the Garmin works perfectly all day.

So for some reason my Montana doesn't see to work well with the latest Garmin maps.

I generally drop the unlocked PC install on to my C: drive so Basecamp treats it as an installed map.
Then I export a small section of that map to my device via Basecamp.

My Garmin has the lastest software version on it (7.60).

Is there anything I can do about this as I'd like to run City Navigator maps on my device but cannot tolerate the frequent map freezing?
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Re: Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??

Postby GarminNuvi » Wed Mar 18, 2026 6:37 pm

[quote="Bungholeo";p=201495][/quote]
The only obvious difference is the OSM maps you say don't freeze are not Unicode able where the latest Garmin maps for Europe NTU are Unicode able.
The UK & ROI are 665 MB and the OSM maps are 1.79 GB so doesn't seem to be a file size problem.
I suggest you try using ImgTool and edit the code from 65001 to 1252 like the OSM and see if the still freeze.
[Please Register or Login to download file]
Before you post, "The archive is corrupt or damaged"
Please make sure your archive software is up to date or just Use the latest [Please Register or Login to download file]
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Re: Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??

Postby Bungholeo » Wed Mar 18, 2026 10:33 pm

It's not one particular map, it's been many releases over the 3 years I've been here.
I initially thought it was hardware related but after trying various things, and then OSM maps, I've come to realise it's an issue between my Montana and the Garmin maps.
The latest I tried was Garmin City Navigator Europe NT(Unicode) 2027.10, which was much worse then any previous releases.
On a 2 hour ride I found the screen had frozen at least 3 times.

I will try the ImgTool method but first I need to find out why my PC won't let me download it.
It seem to be blocking it.
Is this trusted source?
ImgTool 1.8.16
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Re: Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??

Postby GarminNuvi » Thu Mar 19, 2026 1:51 am

Bungholeo wrote:The latest I tried was Garmin City Navigator Europe NT(Unicode) 2027.10, which was much worse then any previous releases.

If you are predominantly riding in the UK I would download the UK & ROI map from post #1 its only 665 MB and see if it freezes
I will try the ImgTool method but first I need to find out why my PC won't let me download it.
It seem to be blocking it.
Is this trusted source?

ImgTool 1.8.16
I uploaded it to Mega and use it all the time ,your PC/Antivirus is most probably complaining.
Before you post, "The archive is corrupt or damaged"
Please make sure your archive software is up to date or just Use the latest [Please Register or Login to download file]
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Re: Garmin Montana 650 map freezing??

Postby Bungholeo » Wed Mar 25, 2026 12:33 pm

GarminNuvi wrote:If you are predominantly riding in the UK I would download the UK & ROI map from post #1 its only 665 MB and see if it freezes


I had a chance to try that and it is much better, 1 screen freeze in the whole day (about 4 hours of riding).
I can live with that.

Previously I was putting the unlocked map on to my PC so it appears in Basecamp and then sending just a small area to my Garmin, typically 120 MB of map. So it's not the filesize that's the issue for my gps, it's how the map is being "made" by Basecamp.. and I suppose there's very little I can do about that.
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