I’m revisiting the RoadMate RV9165T-LM Review I posted the other day. Interesting coincidence – shortly after I posted the “Magellan RV GPS Review” below, I got an email from Magellan Customer Support, apologizing for their delayed response. In it, they also listed basically the same steps to resolve the problem that they have provided several times before, and that I have already tried multiple times on both computers…to no avail.

However…hoping for a miracle?…I decided to try one more time.

• Restarted the laptop.
• Shut off Norton 360 virus protection and firewall, exited from Malwarebytes anti-malware software, and exited from all other non-essential running applications.
• Deleted the folder C:{user}AppDataLocalTempContentManager – a Magellan tech at one point suggested doing this prior to attempting an upgrade.
• Went through the whole Content Manager upgrade process again and, after a lengthy download, it ended up not recognizing that the GPS was connected and aborting the process.  Same result as every other time and…no map upgrade!

So I forced myself to think outside of and beyond Magellan’s instructions. Here’s what I did:

• Even though I had shut off or exited from visible anti-virus and firewall applications, I wondered if there could be something running in the background that was interfering with the upgrade. I fired up Windows Task Manager and looked for any running applications. There were none (except Task Manager). I checked both the Processes and the Services tabs and found there were processes and services running in the background that were associated with Acronis backup software (I read in some GPS forum that this could cause problems with Magellan updates), and with the anti-virus and firewall software. I ended the processes and stopped the services.
• Out of curiosity, I looked and saw that the ContentManager folder was back and it contained a download folder with two self-extracting zip files inside (they both had .exe file extensions). The name of one seemed to associate it with the map, and the other with the GPS software. The date and time stamp on both files was just a few minutes ago.
• So, with nothing to lose (I hoped), I double-clicked the file I thought was associated with the map update. After many minutes, a box popped up labeled something like “Magellan Update Wizard.” WHOA!! This was NEW!
• I followed the onscreen instructions to turn on the GPS device, let it boot up, then connect it to the computer with the USB cable. Next thing I knew, a message said it was updating the map (YES!) and that it would take a while. It absolutely did, but after it was done…..
• HALLELUJAH! I finally have a new map installed on my GPS! After well over a year of trying.

Yes, this makes me happy. But, Magellan, I have to ask: why in all the times we’ve communicated by email, chat, or phone, didn’t one of your technicians suggest I look for background processes or send me to find those downloaded files and execute them directly? I specifically asked, more than once, if there wasn’t some way to install the update without relying on your Content Manager software. Not once did anyone even address that question.

We’ll give the RoadMate another go this RVing season and see how it performs. When there’s another map upgrade available, I’ll follow my own steps and hope the upgrade works again.