Which software is the "lightest" on system requirements for WinCE 5.0? I currently have iGO Primo 1.1 running on a Nextar 43LT @ 480x272 but had to remove the DEM files and 3D buildings and change the tilt angle up high so the amount of roads visible in the distance is limited. It's still not very smooth operating, much of the time the road ahead isn't shown until just before I get there.

If something else really works well with 64 meg RAM and a 324Mhz CPU, I'll happily give it a try.

Edit: Will the maps I have for iGO work with any other software?

I had the older IGO 8.3 version on my old Navman ICN520 and it was working fine.
Of course if you have an older device and activate all features you will slow down, but with not too many POI's selected and without 3D it was always fine.

I've had Primo running ok on an ICN520, No extra content as it's only 32MB, But i have Primo running with all content on a 299MHz device and don't get the problem you describe, Are you running from a storage card or internal memory?

This GPS only has RAM for WinCE, the shell (IIRC it's dShell), a few utility things for setup, volume etc and a simple music player and photo viewer. It came with iGO Amigo on a 2gig SanDisk card. That runs pretty decent but it's an older release and despite being made May 2010 it came with 2009 Q2 Nextar maps.

Running Primo from an 8gig SanDisk Class 4 currently. I started with a 4gig Class 2 Fujifilm. In a read and write test of nearly 4 gigs of MP3s the Fuji easily outran my 4gig Class 2 Lexar. It also benchmarked about 3x faster.

But in actual use in the GPS, the Fuji card was next thing to useless. The map motion was jerky and TTS voices stuttered and paused. I copied everything over to the "slow" Lexar card and the stuttering and pausing went away.

It's a bit better with the 8gig SanDisk, which is likely going as fast as the Nextar's controller can go.

I tried using exactly the same version of iGO 8.3 and the skin I'm using on my Rightway RW200*. On the RW200 I took all the graphics out of the zips for higher resolutions and rezipped with minimal compression. Drastically sped up load time. For use on the Nextar I kept everything in the zips. Every version of the 8.3 series I've tried on it does some error during startup, mostly causing it to quit. The version I have on the RW200 pops a FFUI error which can be dismissed, then it all works perfectly. Why the same software and same skin *doesn't do that* on the RW200, I have no idea. Might be a bug in the skin's support for 480x272. I've tried newer versions of that Gurjon skin with that version of iGO and had no luck getting it to work right. If I could just quash that FFUI error message, I'd be happy with iGO 8.3.2.96054 and Gurjon's GJ6.14_beta_03.zip skin. I don't care it's not the absolute latest release of either, it works, doesn't crash, no cryptic error messages or crashing.

Something I discovered is the Nextar Q4 series apparently is built on the same hardware as the mio C310x. I found a site with information that mio model tends to randomly corrupt files and folders if anything is changed on the card outside the unit then inserted without resetting the mio. Pop the card in with it off then reset and it's OK. So on this Nextar, since finding that, I slide the switch on the back to Reset, pop the card in then slide it to the ONOFF position. Yay! Not had anything get corrupted or vanish since. (One time it wiped everything on a 2gig card.) I doubt that was the issue with the errors with iGO 8.3 because I was always able to select everything on the card and copy it, to swap out for another version to try. I had to reformat cards several time while trying different versions of Primo and Amigo.

Of course I *haven't* been mucking about with the card that came with the Nextar. (Same treatment I gave my first set of OEM Windows 95 floppies. Figured out how to make copies to install from, never ever used the originals, which I still have after 15 years.) Copy protection on it is zilch. I copied its contents to a different card and it works perfectly.

The Nextar mounts as a USB Mass Storage device (and for some crazy reason, that makes it reset the time, date and timezone to its defaults). Is it possible to do a backup of WinCE and everything else in its internal memory simply by copying it off?

*That 320x240 unit easily handles the DEM and 3D buildings with a low view angle so I can see the 3D terrain and horizon. I'd love to be able to get into it but most of its WinCE install and the CoPilot software and maps are hidden and also protected in some way so what is visible can't be copied off. It won't even mount in Windows without ActiveSync installed, but it doesn't work properly with that, won't synch anything. In contrast to the Nextar, the RW200 was a breeze to get working with a different nav program. It conveniently allows the user to specify the path to the Navigation software, in the internal 2gig or on an SD card.
The main thing I want out of the RW200's innards is the video player, or if it's lacking the bits it needs for higher resolutions I want to know what player it is so I can find it for use on the Nextar.