GARMIN eTrex Vista Software Upgrade Information
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WARNINGS:
If this software is uploaded to a GPS unit other than the product for
which it is designed, you will not be able to operate that unit.
If the upload software fails, verify that you have good batteries installed
and try again. If repeated upload attempts fail, you may need to return
the unit to GARMIN for service.
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Instructions for uploading the new software to your eTrex Vista using Microsoft
Windows 95/98/NT:
1. Download the appropriate self-extracting archive file for your eTrex Vista
onto your hard drive.
2. Unzip the files in the archive by running the downloaded executable file.
3. Connect your eTrex Vista to a free serial port (Com 1, 2, 3, or 4) on your PC
with a PC interface cable.
4. Turn on your eTrex Vista and ensure the Serial Data Format is set to "GARMIN".
You can find this setting in Menu Page -> Setup -> Interface.
5. Change to the directory in which you unzipped the files, (i.e., C:\GARMIN),
and run the update program, updater.exe. Select the appropriate serial
port and click "OK" to begin the software upload.
During the upload, the Vista's display will indicate "SWT LOADING"
The upload process should take 5-10 minutes to complete. When the upload
is completed, the eTrex Vista will reset itself and turn on normally.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.00 to 2.11:
1. The View Points option on the Altimeter page will now be disabled if there are
no points logged.
2. Fixed bug when loading maps while GPS is turned off.
3. Fixed memory bug that causes unit to lock up.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.11 to 2.12:
1. WAAS improvement in shaded and reflected signal environment.
2. Fixed logging incorrect elevation from altimeter during system mode transition.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.12 to 2.13:
1. Added multi-language support (Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German,
Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish ).
2. Fixed the Turn configurable field so it does not apply north reference offset.
3. Fixed memory corruption that occurred when clearing all fields on the Find
Address/Intersection pages.
4. Added Demo Mode to the System Setup page.
5. Added search indicator when doing a Spell 'N Find search.
6. Made cursor movement on keyboard smoother when doing a Spell 'N Find search.
7. Increased list-scrolling speed when doing a Spell 'N Find search.
8. Save User Grid Settings.
9. Fixed Delete All Waypoints Bug, where unit would shut off.
10. Added support for the Fishing Hot Spots CD.
11. Added support for the Points of Interest CD.
12. Fixed inconsistent elevation values between marked waypoint and current
elevation.
13. Fixed pressure field on Altimeter Calibration page so all the digits can
be entered.
14. Fixed bug where elevation plot was not getting completely drawn.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.13 to 2.14:
1. Fixed bug that was introduced in software version 2.13 where the unit would
freeze for about five minutes when the Poor Satellite Reception page pops up.
2. Moved zoom scale back to the lower left-hand corner of the map where it was
originally intended.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.14 to 2.15:
1. Fixed map update anomaly.
2. Fixed map not updating after loading new maps.
3. Added support for finding Geographic points if they exist on map.
4. Fixed irregularities that occurred when switching from pressure plot to
elevation plot on the Altimeter Page.
5. Backlight can now be turned on/off while changing elevation ranges.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.15 to 2.16:
1. Fixed a problem with the project waypoint feature that occurred when using
a north reference other then true north.
2. Fixed the Transportation Points of Interest subtype menu to be in the correct
order.
3. Improved support for the upcoming Points of Interest CD.
4. Improved support for the Fishing Hot Spots CD to display fishing areas on the
map.
5. Improved Spanish, French, and Dutch translations.
6. Renamed existing Hu-Tzu-Shan datum to Taiwan, and added a new datum named
Hu-Tu-Shan, which conforms to the NIMA definition.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.16 to 2.17:
1. Correctly determine the date the first time satellites are acquired after the unit
has been stored without batteries.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.17 to 2.18
1. Allow negative elevations.
2. Changed the compass to displays MILS while the unit is set to MILS.
3. Fixed the delete notes on the calendar.
4. Fixed problem when activating a goto, where the waypoint is not on the active route. Now the route will be deactivated.
5. Added new NMEA sentence, PGRMM, for reporting datum parameters.
6. Added the ability to select more choices for the configurable fields on the map page, comps page, and trip computer page.
7. Added new accessory for calculating area of a track.
8. Display the area of a saved track on the track detail page.
9. Added measure distance feature to the map page.
10. Improved Swedish and Hungarian (VISTA and LEGEND only) translations.
11. Fixed sight and go feature to lock in compass headings correctly.
12. Made the elevation ranges on the altimeter page more comparable for meters and feet.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.18 to 2.20.
1. Fixed the pointer field on the compass page.
2. Fixed date field so it no longer allows invalid dates on the hunt and fish page.
3. Fixed a lock up problem in the track area accessory.
4. Saving a point of interest as a waypoint now gives the waypoint a meaningful name.
5. Fixed track log so it saves the user setting of on or off after the unit is powered off.
6. Fixed problem with overlapping maps where no map detail would be displayed at certain zoom levels.
7. Fixed sight and go off course problem where it was not displaying the correct value.
8. Added precision to distance fields.
9. Improved German translations.
10.Fixed appearance of small compass on the navigation page.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.20 to 2.21.
1. Improve WAAS operation when more than one WAAS satellite is visible.
2. Added geocache icons.
3. Fixed shutdown problem related to low battery.
4. Unit will now save latest altimeter calibration information between power cycles regardless
of how much time has elapsed between power cycles.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.21 to 2.22
1. Improve WAAS operation when transitioning from areas of ionospheric data coverage.
2. Add support for blue chart data.
3. Fixed translations of power up warning.
4. Added RT-90 map datum and position format.
5. Fixed option menu on the mapsource information page to display all subsets of maps
to be turned on and off as a set.
6. Made the external power down page count down by one and always pop up when external power is lost.
7. When saving a waypoint after a find by name made the waypoint have a meaningful name.
8. Fixed shutdown problem related to European road and rec maps.
9. Fixed the route list displaying multiple active routes when more then 15 saved routes existed.
10. Fixed auto daylight savings time setting.
11. On the trip computer page when using big numbers made elevations over 10,000 ft display.
12. General improvements to operating system that correct system lockups and shutdowns.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.22 to 2.23
1. Reverted display of active track log to three pixels.
2. Made water mode display map boundaries.
3. Added description to some bluechart features.
4. Fixed the moon phase.
5. Reverted to outputting the heading sentence via NMEA.
6. Fixed Italian translation of nautical miles.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.23 to 2.24
1. Reverted to outputting the GPGSA, GPGSV, GPRTE, GPWPL, and PSLIB
sentence via NMEA.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.24 to 2.25
1. Improved submerged icon visibility in land mode.
2. Fixed backspace button on the keyboard.
3. Added time zones for Auckland, Katmandu, and Helsinki.
4. Made the location field a long small number configurable field and also a big number
configurable field.
5. Created a latitude / longitude configurable field. This allows for viewing two position formats
simultaneously.
6. Added supports for yards as a distance.
7. Allowed GPS altitude to be viewed from the satellite page.
8. Added calculator accessory.
9. Various translation updates.
10. Added a calculate area enclosed by route feature.
11. Fixed area calculation accessory problem with Hungarian language.
12. General improvements to operating system that correct system lockups and shutdowns.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.25 to 2.26
1. Increased measure distance field on map page to 5 characters instead of 4.
2. Fixed shutdown problem with negative elevations on the GPS
elevation menu option.
3. Resolved diamonds displaying in location and turn configurable field.
4. Allowed trailing zeros to be entered on the calculator accessory.
5. Added GPVTG NMEA sentence.
6. Improved functionality of the yards distance mode.
7. Corrected the output of the heading NMEA sentence.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.26 to 2.28
1. Added Glide Ratio, Glide Ratio to Destination, and Vertical Speed
to Destination configurable fields.
2. Enhanced compass pointer functionality while navigating a route. It
now indicates the direction of the turn to the next point in the route
in addition to the direction to the current point (when within 15 seconds
of the current point).
3. Added elevation configurable field to the elevation page.
4. Made find by address searches display the street name of the previous search.
5. Added ability to do manual waypoint transitioning on routes.
6. Added a unit's selector for depth.
7. Added a unit's selector for vertical speed.
8. Improved responsiveness of vertical speed.
9. Added Hungarian Grid.
10. Changed operation to continue updating elevation related data when
satellite reception has been lost.
11. Improved display update on the calculator after pressing the clear
button or the clear entry button.
12. Improved translations for all languages.
13. Added the ability to search specific map sets on find by city searches.
14. Improved functionality of user datum.
15. Increased stability of firmware uploads and map uploads.
16. Corrected NMEA output of user magnetic variance settings.
17. Made user memory be cleared when backing up firmware revisions.
18. Fixed the use of yards on the horizontal axis zoom scale, on the elevation plot.
19. General improvements to the operating system that fixed various shutdowns.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.28 to 2.30
1. Added battery type selector.
2. Added page up and page down capability using zoom in and
zoom for most lists.
3. Improved accuracy of WAAS EPE.
4. General improvements to the Altimeter page.
5. Improved error handling for scientific calculator.
6. Improved glide ratio to be calculated all the time.
7. Corrected display of City Navigator Points of Interest,
and runways for some European and Canadian maps.
8. Improvements to map selection of city searches.
9. Restore defaults on map setup sets map to Land Mode.
10. General improvements to fix various shutdowns.
11. Changes to support hardware changes. No noticeable change to user.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.30 to 2.40
1. Corrected tracklog so it would not segment on transitions
from 2-D to 3-D or differential coverage. Tracklog will
still segment when switching into or out of satellite
coverage and will track elevation data when no coverage
is available.
2. Corrected potential shutdowns on the calculator page.
3. Corrected potential shutdowns when do find-by-name city
searches with multiple maps types loaded.
4. Removed ability to enter consecutive decimal points into
calculator.
5. Improved page layout consistency for units setup and
system setup pages.
6. Corrected problem when using user north setting that would
not remove the "Hold Level" notice.
7. Set route list page menu options to an order consistent
throughout the unit.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.40 to 2.50
1. Added Jumpmaster accessory.
2. Added South African Grid support.
3. Added Indian Grid support.
4. Added GPS Accuracy as a selectable field accessible from
the trip computer, map, and compass pages.
5. Corrected problem where a full tracklog could
potentially cause lockups and shutdowns.
6. Corrected potential calculator lockup or shutdown.
7. Added ownership page to be shown at startup. To enter
owner data, select “Owner Information” option from the
main menu page’s option menu.
8. Added “yards” label on trip computer page in big
numbers mode.
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Changes Made from Versions 2.50 to 3.10
1. Increased active track log to 10,000 points.
2. Increased saved track log to 750 points.
3. Increased user waypoints to 1,000 waypoints.
4. Increased waypoints per route to 125 waypoints.
5. Added option on map setup page to specify the number of
track points to plot. The most recent points will be
plotted up to the specified number, not exceeding the size
of the track log.
6. Improved South African grid.
7. Corrected problem where MapSource would give an error
message after transferring a large number of map tiles.
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Change Made from Versions 3.10 to 3.20
1. Corrected problem that potentially rounded northing/easting
values when entering or editing waypoints in UTM-based grids.
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Change Made from Versions 3.20 to 3.40
1. Updated French translations.
2. Improved WAAS/EGNOS satellite selection algorithm to select
the satellite with the most beneficial corrections given the
unit's current position. Units will not use a WAAS/EGNOS
satellite if the unit's current position is outside of a
given WAAS/EGNOS satellite's service volume.
3. Added support for RCV_CPO data.
4. Improved external power detection.
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Change Made From Versions 3.40 to 3.50:
1. Fixed potential memory corruption problem that could occur when tracking more
than one WAAS satellite simultaneously.
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Change Made From Versions 3.50 to 3.60:
1. Improvements to RCV_CPO support.
2. Added Croatian language support.
3. Updated various translations.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.