How to unbrick a Navman S30

As you may recall my Navman S30 had decided not to boot anymore. It would get to the start up screen (picture of woman hanging out of car) shows it for a few seconds, display its software version number and then reset. That cycle was then repeated for ever, never getting to the main menu.

I found that it was trying to read some missing .INI and .XML files. Eventually I managed to restore the missing files by doing a reinstall of the Navman software. However the boot up still failed, reporting other files could not be read. Those files existed and their contents looked reasonable. Copying the problem files and renaming the copies to the original names allowed the boot to get slightly further and then fail on yet another file.

I also found that some directories had more than one file with exactly the same name and identical contents. They appear to be one file with multiple directory entries, so I suspected the Windows CE Core 5.0 file system was corrupt.

With some trepidation I decided to reformat the internal flash drive holding the SatNav software. I found that the following worked for me. But do not try this unless you know what you are doing and your Navman S30 is already bricked:

• Plug the Navman S30 into an XP machine via USB. It will appear as two drives, in my case E: holding the SmartST SatNav software and F: being the S30's SD slot.


• Use NavDesk 2008 to backup the user data in the usual way.


• In Windows XP "My Computer" right click the drive holding the SmartST software (E: on my machine) and select "Format...". Select FAT for the file system and leave the volume label blank. Do not tick the "Quick Format" checkbox. Click on [Start] and cross your finger.


• When the drive has been formatted go to NavDesk 2008 and run Tools > Reinstall software on your Navman.


• Then ran Tools > Recover keys.


• Put the Navman DVD in the drive, click on "My Maps" in NavDesk 2008 and reload the maps you need.


• Check that the Navman S30 now boots up and works properly.


• Finally use NavDesk 2008 to restore the backup of the user data. If it then fails to boot, the backed up data was corrupt and you will need to repeat the above steps but not restore the backup, losing your preferences, favourites etc.

The whole process took about 20 minutes.

All seems to be working fine now. Just need to remember to take a laptop,
installation DVD, USB cable and Internet connection every time I take the S30 out
in the car...

Navman S30 Reboot problem - quick update

I downloaded the latest system software for the S-series and installed it. The program updates Navdesk 2008 and then offers to install the latest software on the S30. This appeared to work until it asked me to disconnect the SatNav from the PC and wait for it to reboot. There were dire warnings about switching it off before it got to the user agreement screen. Unfortunately although the image update appeared to work fine it then went straight back into its reboot cycle - but displaying the new software version number.

I switched the S30 off and plugged it back into the PC. The installation software went ahead and installed a new version of SmartST 2008, but it made no difference. It still reboots over and over again...

Navman S30 Reboots and Reboots and...

The Navman S30 is a budget SatNav with a pretty good spec that currently sells for well under a £100 in the UK and appears to be very popular. I've been using one for a few months and have been impressed with the device. It does have a few idiosyncrasies - for example, you cannot search for junctions on the M25 - but on the whole has been extremely useful and reliable.

Switching the S30 on today put it into a continuous loop of reboots. It gets to the map loading screen (photo of a woman hanging out of a car window), displays the software version number, waits a few seconds and then repeats... for ever.

The Navman Technical Support FAQ is no help - they suggest resetting by holding the power button down for 6 seconds and then turning it back on again. A quick Google reveals a fair number of users of the S-series describing the same symptoms but no resolution. Everyone who reported trying to contact Navman technical support appears to be still waiting for a response.

What to do? Plugging it into a PC and switching on does put it into USB Mass Storage Device mode. So I tried running NavDesk 2008's "Reinstall software on your Navman" option. Directly I accepted the licence agreement it reported:

There is not enough space to install these option(s).
Please free up some disk space or modify your selections.

I had not made any selections and there has been no additional maps, voices or other data installed on the device but opening the S30 as a Windows drive and looking at its properties shows 0 bytes free. A delve into its file structure reveals that it is running Windows CE and that it has filled any free memory with log files. In the "My Documents" directory were 6 Mbytes of log files that appear to list events such as user inputs, travel distance and speed and so on. I deleted them.

In the root directory there was an app_asrt.txt file which is a log of its latest attempt to boot-up. There were also a hundred app_asrtNN.txt files fromt the last hundred boot attempts, most were zero bytes due to the lack of disk space.

The app_asrt.txt file reports that it is trying to read:

\My Flash Disk\Program Files\Navman\SmartST_CE\UserData\device_settings.ini

in binary mode. Later it tries to read default_settings.xml from the same directory. The directory exists but only includes a user_settings.xml.

Looks like a reinstalling the system software will probably fix this. Just need to work out how to get the new software on to the S30 without bricking it.