This FAQ has some good general information on Garmin products and cartography.

Good resources for 60/76c(sx) owners. And another.

Some good Colorado information from TigerGPS.

G4.) What are the differences between the Colorado 300 and Colorado 400(t,i,c)?

The Colorado 300 has 512MB (380MB free) of internal memory whereas the Colorado 400 has 3GB (150MB free) or 4GB (1GB free). See below for more information on the 3GB vs. 4GB 400t's.

The Colorado 400t comes preloaded with a version of US Topo 2008 whereas the 300 only has a world basemap. This FAQ has more detail about the maps and DEM which come preloaded on the two units. The 300 costs about $100 (street) less than the 400t.

The Colorado 400i comes with built-in g2 Vision U.S. Inland Lakes mapping which includes a worldwide basemap with imagery. Initial 400i units have a 2GB internal memory configuration. The internal drive on the 400i has 1.85GB of space, 1.58GB used and 278MB free.

The Colorado 400c comes with built-in BlueChart® g2 Vision coastal charts for the US East Coast, Gulf Coast, West Coast and Great Lakes which includes a worldwide basemap with imagery.

G5.) Why do some 400t's have 3GB of internal memory and some have 4GB?

The very first 400t's had 4GB of internal memory and almost 1GB of free memory. Serial number 12xx has 4GB of memory. Shortly after the initial release users started seeing some 3GB 400t's with about 150MB of free memory. Serial number 17xx had the reduced memory.

3/1/08: I have received reports of units in the 18xx, 28xx, 36xx and 45xx ranges that have 4GB of memory again. Garmin may have decided to stick with 4GB but it is probably too early to tell what the long term configuration will be.

G6.) What should I buy, a Colorado or a GPSMAP 60csx?

A comparison of the models is available on the Colorado vs. 60csx page.

G7.) What should I buy, a 400t or a 300?

Do you need Topo US 2008? You may not because you already have the DVD, you live outside the US or you just do not want to spend the extra money. Topo will cost about $75-$100 extra. If Yes, continue to 2. If No, buy a 300.
What is most important to you: A) having all of Topo US 2008 loaded on your Colorado, B) having the ability to view, plan and analyze with Topo US 2008 maps on your computer or C) neither of these. If A) or C), buy a 400t. If B), buy a 300.

Once you have made a decision, here is the detailed list of differences between the two units.

Feature	Colorado 300	Colorado 400t	Comment
Internal memory	512MB	4GB
Available internal memory (as shipped)	380MB	1GB	Topo US 2008 uses 2.7GB on the 400t
Price (including Topo US 2008)	$575	$600
Topo available on computer using Mapsource?	Yes	No	Possible with 400t by purchasing another DVD copy of Topo 2008
Can load Topo mapset for entire US?	No*	Yes	Topo US 2008 is > 6600 segments, Colorado can only handle 4000-5000 map segments. Possible with the software detailed in this FAQ.

G8.) How do I update the software on my Colorado?

There are two parts to a Colorado software update: 1) Software and 2) GPS Software. The easiest way to update both of these software images is to plug your Colorado into your Mac or PC and run the Webupdater.

See the Versions page for more detail on these procedures and software version history of the Colorado.

G9.) Where can I find out information about the various software revisions for the Colorado?

See the Versions page on this wiki.

G10.) If I'm a Mac (or Linux) user how am I supposed to update using the PC executables?

The Versions page has information on how to update using gcd files and the Mac version of the Webupdater.

G11.) Is there a list of known issues with the Colorado?

Yes. I'm keeping a consolidated list of issues based on what I've experienced, read about in the Groundspeak GPS Units and Software forums and other GPS forums. If you can't find an answer to a question in this FAQ you can search the Issues List for issues and suggestions for new features. Some of the big issues I'll add to the FAQ if they are affecting a lot of people, require hardware replacement, etc.

G12.) What happens if I delete/corrupt/overwrite the a file on my Colorado? Can I backup my Colorado?

It is gone forever and, unfortunately, it is a relatively easy thing to do. It is very easy to backup your Colorado and I would strongly recommend backing up the entire contents as soon as you purchase it. Plug the Colorado into your computer and copy the contents of the entire Garmin drive to some location on your computer. You can then burn this to DVD so that if you lose your map file (or any other file) you can recover it. Note the files on your CO are not protected, it is very easy to delete or overwrite if you are not careful. A Colorado 400t has about 3GB of file system data so a backup operation takes several hours, a 300 should backup significantly faster.

G13.) What is the largest SD card that the Colorado will support?

Garmin claims support for a maximum size of 4GB SD (Class 4 to 10) cards in the Colorado, but 8GB SDHC cards have been verified to function.

G14.) I have found issues with the Colorado's language translation in my language. Can I fix this?

Yes. The language files for the Colorado are stored in [CO drive]:\Garmin\text as XML text files. You can modify these files to correct the translations.