GPS Bottom Machine Question

[Scoop Sea]

My Hummingbird 937C is starting to act up (not finding the GPS location, etc). In turn, I thought it would be wise to download the waypoints, etc onto a SC card. In turn, I downloaded the information from the machine onto an SD card, however, when I try to open up the card, I get a HWR extention and can't open it. I am a novice at technology at best. If anyone has any ideas how I may handle this issue, I'd greatly appreciate the advise.

[crappielimits]

Did you format the card before downloading files?

[Scoop Sea]

I did not format the SD card, I didn't realize you needed to, i.e. I use them in my game cameras, etc and didn't format them. I will be happy to try to format it if that will help. Any idea how to format an SD card?

[Capt Ron]

HB writes waypoints & routes to a .hwr file and tracks to a .ht file. If you're going to reload or load into another HB machine, there is no reason to open them or convert them. If you plan on changing machines, you can use a freeware program like GPSBable to handle the conversion.

[Scoop Sea]

Thanks Captain Ron. In a nutshell, does that mean that if I saved to my SD cards, see the files on my laptop (but can't open them), they are good to go if I drop the SD cards into a new bottom machine? My concern is that since I can't see the files on my laptop, I'm not 100% it's saved everything. Would you suggest I get some software to look at them on my laptop?

In advance, thanks for your help and thanks for providing some reasonable reassurance with your post, as before I didn't think anything was coming across.

[Capt Ron]

You should be able to downloaded the hwr files on on the SD card into another HB machine and use them. You could prove that by loading onto a friend's. machine or lacking that a demo machine at Bass Pro.

In response to Scoop Sea's comment...I always format any storage device before down loading data to it.

[flatbrokeI]

Humminbird has a PC program on their website called Hummingbird PC, it will allow you to import and export waypoints to your PC. It will also let you set up groups if you want to arrange way points based on your preferences. You can edit or setup way points on your PC then export them back to your unit or new HB unit via SD card. I hit the wrong feature on my HB 998 this summer while on vacation and erased all of my numbers and lucky for me I had most of them stored on the PC program.

[bigphishy]

i had the same issue with my humminbird taking a while to locate my gps position and after about a dozen trips it went out all together. i ended up buying a external gps puck and that fixed the problem. it was around 100$ and was a much better option for me than buying a whole new unit. i have had it for close to 2 years now and going strong. the pc software humminbird has is easy to use and always a good idea to back up all those waypoints and routes u have saved.