Garmin GPS problems...anyone else having problems

[fossyant]

Have you done the press and hold the three buttons, then the power one reset trick ?

 

[smokeysmoo]

I had a lot of problems getting the refund, but after a bunch of photos they agreed...still waiting for the cheque though.

My claim was accepted straight away, no problems there. I just keep getting fobbed off that the cheque is on it's way but it never comes.

 

[ColinJ]

Iv reset it now so I don't think it would make much difference if I took it back to the last place it worked....not actualy sure where that was now.

You have to travel quite a long way to confuse a GPS - a hundred miles or so. It remembers where it was when it was switched off, so it has a 'head start' in finding the satellite signals next time it is switched on.

 

[Mushroomgodmat]

Still not working....I would estimate that its been turned on off, reset, and had atleast 10 hours to connect.

Iv placed it on my car roof, my bike frame, and even the roof of my house.

As well as this I took it out on my bike where 3 hours in (after a reset outside a cafe where it failed to connect again for about an hour) it did actualy manage to connect, but had my speed at 0mph before it lost connection again 30mins later.

I think, unless anyone else has any ideas I'm going to send it back, or take it back to the shop.

 

[ianrauk]

contact Garmin.
Their customer service is very good.

 

[172traindriver]

If you turn it back on at the same place you turned it off it should be quick. If you've travelled in between it takes longer to lock onto sats, apparently.

Only problem I'm having is getting my feckin' £30 cash back from Garmin

Thanks for that bit of advice, you have certainally given me something to think about.

Took my 705 to Mallorca a couple of weeks ago, turned it on and it seemed unable to get a signal, with nothing obstructing its view of the sky. Just kept hunting so after about 10 minutes I turned it off and on again. Took a further 5 minutes at least to lock on. Then it was fine for the entire holiday.

 

[lpretro1]

Yep had same thing on my 800 - went to Spain and had put new map card in - it took ages. Same when I came home and put the UK card. Bit of a software glitch really.

 

[ColinJ]

Yep had same thing on my 800 - went to Spain and had put new map card in - it took ages. Same when I came home and put the UK card. Bit of a software glitch really.

No, it is due to how GPS works.

In order to avoid having to build a large, expensive atomic clock in to every GPS/SatNav unit, some very clever things have been done in the data streams from the satellites. It takes a while for the GPS unit to lock on to those data streams properly but if the assumption is made that the unit is located close to where it was switched off, then the whole process can be speeded up. Of course, if the thing has been moved to another country then those assumptions are wrong and may actually slow the device down because it may take a while to work out that something is wrong and then has to start from scratch!

If you are really interested ... read this!

 

[yello]

My 1st Edge 305 ended up being replaced precisely because of this problem. It was taking longer and longer to find satellites and eventually stopped entirely. It was out of warranty but I bought another under the 'out of warranty' scheme. I was happy with that and found the customer service to be very good.

 

[andrew_s]

If a GPS hasn't been used for a fair while, or it has been moved a long way since it was last used, it's much the same as using one for the first time. It will have to listen to the satellites for long enough to receive a full almanac of the satellite orbital parameters, which typically takes 10-15 minutes.
Cloud does reduce signal strength, but it's generally only rain-bearing clouds that have a real effect. To prevent a working GPS getting a lock at all, the cloud would have to be of turning your lights on in the middle of the day thickness