Customer Reviews

Pharos CF/PCMCIA GPS Receiver w/Microsoft Streets & Trips 2004 (PF063)

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I have a Dell Latitude laptop with a Texas Instruments PCMCIA controller - this controller is incompatible with the i360 model from Pharos, and I was not able to find out until after the product had shipped to me and I tried it out.

Make sure you check the manufacturer of your controller before you purchase this product!

Streets and Trips does not provide active turn by turn directions. This package simply provides where you are when the GPS is active. Streets and Trips does provide directions to a given location; however, Pocket Streets and Trips does not provide this functionality.

I recommend that you buy the Pharos bundle that contains the Ostia software. Ostia provides turn by turn directions as well as voice and audio prompts.

BTW, I have 2 Dell Latitudes that suffer from the TI PCMCIA chipset. Has anyone figured out how to make this device work with the TI chipset? Pharos tech support is aware of this problem and have no solutions to date. Bob Baker, Pharos, and I await your answer to this question.

This should really be added to the description of the product, to ensure people don't buy it unknowingly withouth knowing about the well-known incompatability issues. I have spoken to Pharos Customer Support on the phone, and they confirm that this PCMCIA GPS Receiver is incompatible with Texas Instruments and O2 Micro PCMCIA Cardbus Readers.

You can find out what you have by right clicking on "My Computer", click Properties, go to the Hardware Tab, click Device Manager and Expand "PCMCIA adapters". There it will show who manufactures your PCMCIA Cardbus Controller. If it's TI or O2, this GPS Receiver most likely won't work with your laptop.

Good luck!

Let me start by saying my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8200. I wish I would have read the previous reviews before purchasing this product, as I would have seen that it wouldn't have worked.

I was very disappointed with many aspects of the product.
(1) No mention of any incompatabilities whatsoever.
(2) No software or drivers were included (except for Microsoft Streets & Trips, which is a completely separate product)
(3) Minimal documentation, and NONE concerning the setup of the PCMCIA option.
(4) Pharos website, www.pharosgps.com, has a terrible support area and no relevant downloads or information for my problem.

Needless to say, this is going back in the morning, and definitely not recommended for Dell laptop users.