Why always me?

George · Post by **George** » 24 Sep 2013 19:28

In 2010, I bought a Garmin 605. Right from the off, it did odd things that I couldn't understand. However, I was new to GPS and feared that at least some of the aberrations might be due to naive operator errors. What's more, the odd behaviour was different each time and between incidents the device would work perfectly for anything up to several weeks. So I thought that, if I sent it back, they'd say there was nothing wrong with it. Then, when it was 2 years old, it stopped working altogether. I sent it away and was told that the chipset had failed; it was irreparable. In hindsight, I suspected that it had been faulty all along and that not returning it while it was under warranty had been an expensive mistake.

That opinion has since been reinforced by the fact that I replaced it with a Garmin 500, which has never done anything remotely odd or given me any trouble at all.

Until just over a week ago. Although the unit has seemed to work normally while I'm riding, when I have uploaded data to Strava, it has turned out that the files are corrupted. Thinking about possible explanations, it occurred to me that I hadn't checked for firmware updates recently. So I ran the Garmin Web Updater and installed a firmware update. Now the blessed thing won't power up at all.

I can think of only three possible explanations for all the above:
1. I have been unusually unlucky with my Garmins.
2. Without realising it, I habitually do something destructive to my Garmins.
3. Garmins are shoddily made tat, which a buyer shouldn't expect to last for more than a year or two.

Ed Moss · Post by **Ed Moss** » 24 Sep 2013 19:40

4. You watch football

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 24 Sep 2013 19:59

George,

Get yourself over to HERE

Problems like that are often a result of a firmware update, and there will be an answer for it............somewhere

George · Post by **George** » 24 Sep 2013 22:24

Thanks, Alan. I will certainly do as you suggest.

However:
a. What, besides a technical fault, can have made the thing suddenly start corrupting its 'history' files, after a year of faultless performance? (Given that that happened before the firmware update?)
b. If, as you suggest (probably correctly), the failure to power up is linked to the firmware update, how crap is that? Why is the firmware update process so unreliable? Why should I have to spend my time reading stuff in a forum to try and put right a problem that, as far as I can make out, I haven't caused? How does it come about that things work this way with Garmins?

Would we accept the same principle with, say, cars?
Customer: "Apparently my car needs servicing."
Manufacturer: "Yes, sir. It needs servicing and we will service it for you. However, you must understand that if we service it, it may not work afterwards. Please just sign this to say that you agree that, if servicing leads to your car not working any more, it isn't our fault."
Customer: "Do I have any choice?"
Manufacturer: "Yes, sir. You can fail to give your car the service it needs."
Customer: "That sounds like no choice at all. I'll have it serviced."
[...]
Manufacturer: "We've serviced your car. It doesn't work at all now."
Customer: "Oh, shit. What am I supposed to do now?"
Manufacturer: "Well, we're happy to put you in touch with a load of other people whose cars we've buggered up. You can ask them what they did about it."

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 24 Sep 2013 22:31

What you say is very true George, for what ever reason there are always problems associated with a firmware update. Which for that very reason I choose not to update mine.

Just by chance but a friend of mine has just mailed me saying his Garmin Edge that was worked without any issues at all, will not turn off now!! Guess what, he had just done a firmware update......

George · Post by **George** » 27 Sep 2013 15:13

AlanW wrote:Just by chance but a friend of mine has just mailed me saying his Garmin Edge that was worked without any issues at all, will not turn off now!! Guess what, he had just done a firmware update......

I put mine aside for a couple of days, partly because I was p!ssed off with it and partly because I had a lot of work on. Anyway, I've now done some reading and fiddling, with the following results:
- I've hatched a pet theory, which I have no way of testing. I think the problems with the firmware update may be due to the auto power down kicking in before the unit has completed its (long and complicated) reboot after loading the new firmware. I'd therefore advise anyone who is going to do a firmware update to disable auto power down first. Even if I'm completely wrong, you lose nothing by doing so; you just re-enable it afterwards.
- I did a total reset ('Reset'+'Power' together), which I had originally been reluctant to try, because it wipes all your history and settings. This seems to have cured the refusing to switch on business.
- I shall find out in the next few days whether it is still corrupting files.

dweben · Post by **dweben** » 27 Sep 2013 17:07

I have a 705 and did a firmware update which ruined the unit. I took photos of the unit when it was mid-death-throws and tried a few things before contacting Garmin.

Sent it off, they had it for a couple days and I got a new one back no hassle at all. Good for me 'cos the screen was nicely bashed up on the old one!! No charge at all except my P&P cost.

Current one is working fine with OSM maps on it (far better than Garmin btw!).