Wonky GPS

[Godwin]

I've been using Garmin GPS V units for a few years now and had something odd happen today. I have 2 units that I regularly use, one in the FJ60 and the second as a field unit. I turned on the Cruiser unit this morning, it went through the typical booting up, acquired satellites then blanked out. I restarted the GPS several times on both AA battery power and with the hard wired connector. Same thing each time. When the unit would blank out there would be a single line on the screen and the only way to shut it off would be to cut power. So I was thinking that this particular unit was wearing out.

Several hours later while out on a river I pulled out the second GPS V, powered it up and as soon as satellites were acquired it went to the blank screen with a single line. This one was exhibiting exactly the same problem as the other GPS - power up, acquire satellites, go to blank screen with single line, and to shut off power had to be disconnected.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Doug_S]

Have you contacted Garmin? I know that they're phone lines get busy so that there's a long wait. Check out the information library on-line. It's fairly comprehensive. Good luck. It sounds like it's not your unit going bad. BTW, my 60CsX isn't having a problem at this point.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Until you mentioned the second unit I was thinking about the problem I had with my Magellean. It had the same symptoms, the fix was removing the SD card and re-installing it. Just dirty contacts on the card.

But two units with the same exact fault?


I'd say start looking over your shoulder for the black helio's.

 

[ZX1100F1]

My GPS-V will do the same thing on occasion, I believe that it has to do with excessive moisture inside the unit.
My unit is doing what you describe now after I washed my bike with it mounted, the unit is waterproof but I suspect that may be compromised due to its age.

The last time this happened I removed the batteries and let it sit for several days then it worked fine for over a year.

 

[Godwin]

I'm thinking this may be a software issue. I'm on the road and will not be able to deal with this until Monday. I'll let you know what I learn.

 

[ZX1100F1]

I was able to get my GPS-V back up and running today.
I did a hard reset (push and hold the MENU button and POWER on then select "CLEAR USER DATA".
After that I went into the menu and turned WAAS off, selected my time zone and the type of batteries I use "NiMh" and it has worked all day just fine now.

You may be able to just turn WAAS off if our GPS will stay on long enough, I think that this is where the glitch lies not in moisture as I had originally surmised.

 

[Godwin]

I was able to get my GPS-V back up and running today.
I did a hard reset (push and hold the MENU button and POWER on then select "CLEAR USER DATA".
After that I went into the menu and turned WAAS off, selected my time zone and the type of batteries I use "NiMh" and it has worked all day just fine now.

You may be able to just turn WAAS off if our GPS will stay on long enough, I think that this is where the glitch lies not in moisture as I had originally surmised.

Just tried the hard reset on one of the units and it seems to have worked. The WAAS was already off I think, so don't know if that had any thing to do with the initial problem. Lost all the waypoints but that's no big deal.

 

[fsusteve]

I'm having the same issue with my map 76, it's definitely software, I was using WAAS but turned it off however when I tried to update the software Garmin wouldn't recognize it but they will recondition it for $90....whoopie. I'm hesitant to do a reset because I have so many numbers in this thing, numbers that would take forever to aquire again.

 

[Godwin]

Ireset both units and got them up and running. Many of the waypoints that I user are temporary so they're going to be deleted at some point anyway. What about downloading your waypoints into some program, resetting the GPS, then uploading back onto the GPS?

 

[fsusteve]

I'm going to try that, but right now mine won't even turn on again, I've read some blogs and it's a known software issue, I can't even update it because it won't recognize the unit when I hook it up, I'll try calling garmin agian but there's a big ass wait time, which is bs.