Question about updating 997 software

I bought my 997 in April of 2008 and have never run a software update on it. I was thinking the other day I better figure out how to do this because I really dont know. Anyway, i read on one message board where there had been a problem with updates displacing waypoints. Now that would not be a good thing for me. Does anyone know if this is indeed true or if its a known problem? Also how do you load updates from the humminbird PC site to a sandisk xtreme 3 card? Do card readers also upload information onto a card? In other words are they 2 way in terms of download and upload? I cannot seem to get an answer to how to simply get the updates onto an SD card so I can load it into the unit off the card. Any thoughts?

I have a SD card slot on my computer. If you don't have one, you can buy a SD card writer that plugs in to your USB port. This is the easiest way to get the software updates.
Simply go to humminbird.com and in the upper right hand corner click on "My Account" and sign in. If you haven't registered your unit yet, you will do that then. Then you will be able to download the newest software to whatever drive your SD card drive is.
After the software has downloaded to your SD card, just simply put the SD card into the unit and turn the power on. It will do the rest.
The latest software is 4.18. You can check to see if you have the current software by powering on your unit and press XXXXXX (I can't remember which button) while it is booting up. It will tell you which button at the bottom of the screen. The screen that will pop up will let you find out which software you currently have.
I had zero issues with waypoints or anything else updating my unit.
There is a major software update coming within the next two weeks. I would still go ahead and update to the 4.18 software and continue to log in into your humminbird account everyday to check to see if the new software has been released.
I hoped I have helped.
Rusty

But it's still a good idea to download your waypoints from the HB once and a while. If you ever have to send it in for repair.....

ok i registered and it told me that I am due for the 4.510 software update. Then after that I am due for a HumminbirdPC update to version 3.026. Now I dont have any Humminbird PC program on my computer to begin with. So in order to load the 4.510 update for the unit dont I first have to load some sort of HumminbirdPC program? I dont know what to do. I would down load the PC update but it doesnt say anything about vista compatible (i have vista) It does say "windows" compatible so does that cover all operating systems? I do have a card reader with an xtreme 3 memory card. Do I even need the PC program if I have a card reader/writer?

If you have the SD card reader/writer, you don't need the PC program to update your unit. Just when you click on to download the software update, click on browse to choose where you want the software patch saved. In my case, my SD writer/reader drive is drive F, yours may be a different letter. Save to the correct drive/folder and the rest is a snap. After it has downloaded to the SD card, just put the card in one of the SD slots on the unit and power it on. It will ask you if you want to install the 4.510 software. You choose yes and it does all the rest.

yep...i got it now. Thanks iceman. your posts made it crystal clear what I should do. I just plugged in the card reader and clicked on the update and saved it to the F drive and that was it. Thanks so much for your time.