Okay, I did some testing with my eTrex Legend HCx and Mobile PC on my laptop.
With the eTrex connected to a USB cable, turned on and satellites acquired I ran Mobile PC. As soon as it recognizes the eTrex it pops a dialog that says it is unable to authenticate the Garmin GPS device.
When I click on the satellite icon in the upper right corner of the screen it displays the complete eTrex model information, including the unit ID. When I click the GPS Info button the satellite screen says "Invalid GPS" at the top. There is no location information in the appropriate Long and Lat slots. But the satellite bars down the right hand side display the signal levels that the eTrex is showing.
When I go back to the main page and click to show the map, the map displays and at the top it says it's looking for satellites. At the bottom it displays a heading in the box at the left of the Menu botton and a speed in the box at the right of the Menu button. These match the heading and speed in the eTrex.
You can see in a number of ways that Mobile PC is able to communicate with the eTrex ... in BOTH directions. As above, you can see the bars showing the satellite signal strengths and you can see the heading and speed on the main map screen. If you go for a drive the heading and speed are constantly updated to match the eTrex but the map movement is not updated very much. The orientation of the vehicle icon is always pointed in the correct direction. It will change to match the heading as soon as you turn a corner. But the map might not update to show the correct location for a few blocks.
So that shows that Mobile PC is receiving the information.
When you first connect with the eTrex in Mobile PC it loses its last location information so when you click to display the map it shows you at Garmin headquarters in Olathe, Kansas. You have to go to the GPS Info page and select a new location.
If you watch the eTrex when you connect with Mobile PC you can see that Mobile PC sends a reset of its current location (Olathe, Kansas) to the eTrex. You can tell because even though the eTrex had a really good lock with 4m accuracy, it immediately starts to acquire satellites again. And it has a difficult time. The satellite constellation clears and the satellites and their positions are slow to reappear.
As soon as you set the new location properly on the GPS Info page in Mobile PC you can see it hit the eTrex with another reset and the new current location because the signal strength bars and satellite constellation clear again and the eTrex again starts to acquire satellites. Only this time it is much faster for the satellite positions to reappear and the signals bars to start appearing.
This behaviour is totally bizarre. There is obviously good communication in between the eTrex and Mobile PC. There seems no reason that Mobile PC should not be able to use the signal from the eTrex Legend HCx but it is having difficulty for some reason. I'll have to talk to Garmin to see what they've done to mess this up.
ProITM, does this match what you are seeing?
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