Garmin 800 turning off or freezing.

[Andrew Br]

Anyone have these problems ?
At first I thought that the freezing was user error (not pressing "Start" after a stop) but now I'm pretty sure that it happens randomly as well.
I usually run the device on the OS map screen with HR and cadence displayed and the thing just locks; the display doesn't change and pushing the buttons has no effect. Only pressing the power button for ~30 seconds works (by turning it off).

It turned itself off last week for no apparent reason. I noticed pretty much straight away and it worked fine when I turned it back on.

On every occasion the battery was pretty much fully charged.
The unit is ~3 months old.

Any ideas before I take it back ?

[Ningishzidda]

At sometime in a Garmin owner's life, GPS will mean "Godamn Piecea Shit!" 

eTrex Legend did it. Edge 605 did it.

[Kim]

This sort of thing on an eTrex tends to be due to dodgy battery contacts (or, I believe, fatigue in the internal spring contacts between the battery compartment and circuit broad).  My Vista HCx, which had worked reliably for years, eventually started doing it almost every time I rode over a rough surface.

I wouldn't have thought that would apply to the Edge specifically, though it could still be down to some manufacturing defect causing a poor power connection somewhere.  Assuming you've got the latest firmware installed, I reckon taking it back is the best option for the long term.

[fuaran]

First make sure you have the latest firmware.
You could try doing a hard reset. Instructions from here: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={38fcc6a0-cd2c-11e0-cf56-000000000000}

To perform the master reset:
    Power device off
    Press and hold Lap/Reset and Start/Stop
    Power device on while still holding both buttons
    Continue holding buttons when the Garmin "splash" screen appears
    Release buttons when Garmin "splash" screen disappears

That will wipe all of your data and settings, so back them up first.

[frankly frankie]

Isn't this a known 'feature' of the 800? - that if you use it too long without resetting the trip odometer, it freezes?
Reset every day, or every 300km or so, to be safe.

[Andrew Br]

Evans said that my unit only needed a firmware update (which I thought that I'd done  ).
It worked perfectly all day yesterday so fingers crossed for the future.

[marcusjb]

Isn't this a known 'feature' of the 800? - that if you use it too long without resetting the trip odometer, it freezes?
Reset every day, or every 300km or so, to be safe.

Yes - at some point between 350 and 400km into a ride - it will freeze completely.

I record my rides in 300km chunks and them stitch them back together at home.

[Andrew Br]

It turned off again today, about 8 miles into a 21 mile return ride.

This track (north of "The Fort") shows where it switched off and where I noticed:- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/304612623

It's the straight line bit. I didn't suddenly become Mary Poppins and soar above the roofs. Gor blimey no mate.

My initial thoughts were "What expensive, useless bits of crap Garmin 800s are".
Upon reflection, I'm sticking by that.
If I wanted to do Garmin's product development, I'd have asked for free stuff to test.

In other bad news the cadence-o-meter either reads double (at least) or doesn't register, depending on how close I put the magnet to the sensor.

I've tried another firmware update but I'm up-to-date.

Repair, replace or refund, what do you think ?

[Viking]

Depending on when you bought it, my first thought would be to return it to wherever you bought it from.  I have had my 800 sinnce November last year and have had no issues.  I have not done a ride over 300km yet though.

[amaferanga]

I wonder if the dropping of your speed/cadence sensor is somehow related.  It shouldn't cause it to switch off, but stranger things have happened with Garmin devices.  Do you have autopause enabled?  I'd try disabling both autopause (with the GSC-10 enabled) and disabling the GSC-10 and see if you still have the same issue.

[Andrew Br]

It worked perfectly over the weekend and the cadence sensor did too.
I suspect the cadence problem is down to the magnet; I'm using a Polar magnet because it is more secure on the crank.
I'll change it back and see how that works.

Evans have suggested that I do a hard reset of the unit and then see how it works.
I'm not hopeful.

[caerau]

Isn't this a known 'feature' of the 800? - that if you use it too long without resetting the trip odometer, it freezes?
Reset every day, or every 300km or so, to be safe.

Yes - at some point between 350 and 400km into a ride - it will freeze completely.

I record my rides in 300km chunks and them stitch them back together at home.

Sorry for the thread necromancy but when you say 'freeze completely' what do you mean?

I ask because my  Edge 800 died on me about 193 miles into a 300 km perm at the weekend.  I thought the battery had just died as I could charge it and look and manipulate all the files on it on the computer easily.  It was only upon trying to use it this morning that I discovered it wouldn't turn on.  It would turn on, but then shut itself down again immediately.  I had to do a master reset to get it going again (having backed all the settings of course).
Is this typical behaviour of having tried to recored too much?  I think my ride was about 320 km or so and so I thought I was safe from this behaviour...

[Ningishzidda]

Don't you switch your Garmins off when you go into the cafe? This elliminates data recording your walking and waiting in the queue for cake.

You'll get multiple recordings, but you can stitch them together.

It also allows the Garmin's PCB and battery to cool down.

The best policy with a unit with an internal LiIon battery is to switch it off during caff stops. But please note, getting on toward the last throws of battery life, the unit might refuse to switch back on. Replaceable AAs every time. ( eTrex )

[caerau]

No I plug it into my tecknet charger during cafe stops to keep it going on a long ride like that.  It was always going to be more than a 15 hour ride so the battery would not have lasted on its own.

Anyway - the battery wasn't the issue I think - the whole unit screwed up in some way. 

[Andrew Br]

It sounds similar to mine.
Either it switches off or the screen becomes unresponsive; the map doesn't move and the HR/cadence figures stay the same.
Plus the GPS trace becomes a straight line between where it froze and where I noticed and managed to get it co-operating again (usually by holding the "Power" switch for 30 seconds or so).
Battery level has no bearing on it IME.

Here's what the trace looks like (can I just point out that I was cycling into a head wind on my heavy bike  ):-

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/304612623

[Feanor]

This behaviour is not normal at 300k.

There *is* a known issue when the tracklog gets to about 400k where it will die with a white screen of death.   The crash will leave the current tracklog in an un-closed-out state ( like the one Caerau sent me ), and the unit will then repeatedly crash again on reboot as it tries to open the corrupted file.   You need to re-set the activity to force it to start a new tracklog before it will boot successfully.

I'd advise some thorough housekeeping on the unit before a big ride:
 Delete all old activities from the activities folder.
 Delete all old routes from the courses folder.
 Delete all old waypoints by deleting the locations.fit file.
 Send the waypoints, tracks, routes for this ride only using mapsource ( or basebamp ).

I don't turn it off during cafe stops.
I take the view that when things are working, leave them well alone.

[caerau]

OK, those sound like good sound pieces of advice -will do 

[BrianSnail]

Mine used to turn itself off for no reason and I've never ridden over 300km. One day it turned itself off and it was 3 days before it came back to life. I explained all this, on line to Garmin. They told me to return it and they replaced it. Had the new one about 6 months now and have not had any problems whatsoever. So it is worth emailing the tech guys at Garmin.

[caerau]

Well I might if the problem returns. After the factory reset it's currently fine.

[Andrew Br]

Bloody thing froze again last night and this only after ~30 miles:- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/320436038
I wasn't using it for navigation, only as an expensive bike computer.
This is after tha hard reset.

I need* it on Sunday for an audax and then, from next weekend, we're away for 2 weeks in France and I was intending to use it for help with navigation.
I doubt that Evans/Garmin could fix it or replace it before the holiday.


* For a woolly definition of "need".

[Feanor]

The firmware that is downloaded by the various Garmin webupdaters etc *is* the full firmware.

Your device will not have 'reverted' to a previous firmware; that's not retained.
What will most likely have happened that the firmware has become corrupt so that it's not passing muster as 'current and correct' by the firmware update checker, so it's offering you the current update again.

You can, if you wish, retain an off-line copy of the firmware package to re-install in the future without using any Garmin software or website.
The firmware update software does not in fact update the firmware: it just downloads it and dumps it on the device as X:\garmin\gupdate.gcd
It's on re-booting that the device discovers this file, validates it, un-packs it and installs it.
After it installs, it deletes the .gcd file.
You can browse to the garmin drive and grab a copy of the file after the updater has done the download, but before you unmount the device to re-boot.

You can re-apply the update simply by dumping the file back in the garmin folder of the device at any time.
( And you can revert to previous firmwares too, if you saved their .gcd files. )

The firmware updates do not touch the user files, as you have discovered.   The 'full reset' does.

[Andrew Br]

My unit has gone back to Garmin.
It mis-behaved most days when I was on holiday.

[caerau]

Can you let us know the turnaround time.  Mine will soon be needing to go back to garmin as I'm getting the well known issue of it not connecting to various computers due to issues with the USB socket.  I'm sure it's the device and not the cables as the problem has grown progressively worse finally now infecting the banker computer, the one at work...  Just hope it's still useable for when I do my 600k audax in 2 weeks time.  I think I'm going to give the plugging in and out of computers a rest for a while and only record major rides on it once it's fixed.  My phone is perfectly adequate for recording my commutes.

[caerau]

Just to update my last post with an interesting discovery.

So as a last resort, not expecting it to work, I bought a couple of new cables  for only about £1.50 each off Amazon. 

Arrived yesterday and hey presto, everything is back to full functionality.  It was the cables!   
A bit surprising to be honest as only one of them has ever been out on the road with me but it definitely looks like it was corrosion from water on the Garmin 800 itself.  Ho hum - I withdraw my complaint about the Garmin itself being dodgy.

[Andrew Br]

I've got a replacement unit although either Garmin or Evans have lost the Ordnance Survey mapping card.
Now I've got to reconfigure the f*cking thing, get some maps on another SD card and then plan routes for tomorrow's and, more importantly, Sunday's ride (Round the West Riding audax).

I doubt* that I'll buy from either Garmin or Evans again.

*Actually no doubt; never again.