do you have a streetpilot that will not boot?

If you have a "c" series StreetPilot (c330, c340, c550, c580, etc.) that absolutely positively will not start no matter what you do - you should read this.

I officially scared the crap out of myself by messing around in the diagnostic section of the StreetPilot c580, exiting (properly), then the unit shut off and would not restart.

Uh-oh.

I plugged in the USB. No boot.

I plugged in the charger. No boot.

I cracked off the front plate cover and hit the reset button (which works 99% of the time). No boot.

Oh crap. Did I just bust my StreetPilot?

As a guy that doesn't give up easily, I cracked off the front plate, took off the four screws, pulled the unit apart, manually disconnected the battery, waited a few seconds, then reconnected.

I hit the power button, and...

...it booted.

Whew.

Wow, what a relief.

This taught me not to go messing around in the diagnostic section of the StreetPilot. Evidently I did something I shouldn't have and locked up the unit so bad that a manual battery disconnect/reconnect was the only way to fix it.

And no I didn't lose any of the data in the c580. All my waypoints and POIs were still there.

But that was a really close call - I could have very easily busted the unit.