help with brada GPS device

hey, I dont know where else to post this question, but a friend of mine bought the brada GPS from the brick, and it was working very well, up until a few days ago...he turned it on one day in his car and it just loaded up to a windows desktop...i took a look at it and it's windows CE.net based...v4.20...

this is for the people out there who knows anything about windows CE.net...I'm wondering what would have caused the GPS software to "delete"? since it's not anywhere int he file system...not under "remove software" or anything...which is very weird...

so i decided to play around and installed the handheld PC version of TCPMP(Media player) and it worked fine, able to view videos off of the SD slot...however, when i reset the device, it's all erased...i guess it just goes back to it's former state when resetting...which makes me even wonder more how the gps software got erased :S...

I'm gonna try installing it in the "resident flash" directory since that directory seems to be the only one not getting erased on reset...

if this does work, I guess I could install another GPS software on this which would be better than the 2005 version of Destinator that came with the device...

anyone know of this problem? can i just format it and put in the latest Windows CE.Net OS? does it have to be CE.NET? can i put in like say Windows Mobile professional 6.0?

and this brada GPS device has a built in GPS receiver, would this be automatically recognized by whatever GPS softwrae i install? the weird thing is, unlike traditional windows, under Control Panel, and "System", it does NOT list devices n such...so i have no way of telling if there is a receiver detected now...but 'im assuming it did since it had GPS software installed previously...

I cant find anything on Brada, so I cant email them and ask what software was originally installed...I dont know how to do a hard reset to return to factory settings, or if there even is such an option on this...any help is appreciated, thanks.

PS is there a way to return this back to factory conditions if i got another one? like another brand new one that works fine? i read something about an image, but can i create an image out of someone else's brada GPS? like if i were to go buy one at the store for this purpose?

hmm, well nobody's responding yet,i've done some reading around and in one of the other threads, people were talking about loading ROMS and images n such...what program can i use to back up the software/ROM/image off of another device? basically get another brada GPS and copy everything so that this one can work just like from the factory?...

ok...update lol since nobody has responded yet...ok...i took a look at another file system of the same device...the destinator GPS stuff is under "Storage Card" directory...weird since there is no storage card in this one..these two are the exact same model...the one i have only has "storage card" when i insert an SD card into it...i tried activesync backup, that doesnt work...any programs out there to FULLY backup 100%? like a ghost image? cuz then i'd want to reload that exact image onto my friend's GPS so it goes back to normal...

I'm no expert on CE 4.2 .net-based PNAs (GPS devices), but I always assumed that the GPS software is in ROM, which would mean that it can't be simply "deleted" unless the ROM has been corrupted somehow. (And even then it seems to me it's possible that it could still be there, but just can't be read by the OS - meaning that it may be recoverable in theory.) Unless I've heard wrong, I don't think these PNAs can be soft reset out of the box - every reset is a hard reset (thus erasing what has been installed by the user).

hmm that's what i thought, I was wondering how could it have just deleted itself since it's probably programmed into the ROM...I emailed destinator since I dont know who "brada" is lol...and their answer was to hit the reset button, but there is no reset button! haha...that was the first thing i looked for when my friend passed it to me...

I'm thinking about buying one today, any update on your problem?

Hello
I just got one of these for my Hubby for Xmas... it just did the dame thing.... what did you do to "fix" the GPS??
Thanks

had it exchanged. if the same occurs i will return it and get my money back

Don't ever buy BRADA GPS! It sucks alot! The DVD player is good, but not the gps cuz the maps are pretty old.
The brick doesn't even know how to upgrade it! I was told to go to 'buygpsnow.com' and go to 'download' from 'community' menu but there's nothing for brada destinator v5.7.2.130. I emailed 'buygpsnow' and i was told they don't have any compatible software. I'm getting no reply from 'destinator technology' either.

As of now there's no update. BRADA sucks!!!

The same thing happened to my wife's Brada, WinCE desktop. I tried downloading Destinator 7. It went well using acive sync, however, I am unable to find North America maps, specifically Canada.

I spoke to Brick and this device has been discontinued, hence really cheap price. I have e-mailed Destinator and I got no reply. They did have an office in Richmond Hill, but it no longer exist.

Hope everyone have any luck with this.

Getting rightously ticked!!!!

how do you get update on the brada?

Hey man,

Not sure if this helps but..

I picked one of htese up at the Brick today for 48.00 CDN dollars.. I figured for 50 bucks, what the heck..

Anyway - I got home, turned it on and it booted in to Windows CE mode.. no trace of Maps etc..

So - I opened it up (took the screws out of the back and then with a bit of force, pulled the unit a part..

I noticed that this unit HAS a compact Flash card, in fact, it's a 2 gig Transend card without an enclousure (no case) .. The CF card slot on the actual unit looks pretty standard.. Anyway, I re-sat the CF card, and POOF!! Everything booted up normally... the as documented OLD Destinator and all...

Anyway, then pulled the CF card and placed it in my laptop to see if I could read it.. YEP!! no problem.. now gonna screw with it a bit so see if I can update the GPS program...

anyway, best of luck!!

I have had the exactly the same proble. one day i turned on my gps and my mapping software dissapeared. only the bare windows was on it. so I took it in to the brick and they exchanged it for me. if it happens again ? is there a way to load it up with the map again without taking it in to the brick

ROD CAN U CALL ME , NEED HELP WITH GPS SAME PROBLEM AS U CAN FIGURE IT OUT 705 266 3341 THKS TIMMINS ONTARIO