Discussion: garmin troubleshooting

I have now had the second instance of an annoying 305 Forerunner problem. The watch turned itself off in the middle of a run. It saved the data to that point as if I had stopped it, but it wasn't just stopped, it was turned off. I probably had 15 uneventful uses in between these two incidents. Has anyone had similar experience?

I have had similar problems with a Garmin Edge 305. Garmins are assembled with the battery in the back half of the case, while the circuit board is in the front half. Sping loaded contacts carry power from back to front. If the case opens up a little bit, you can loose power and it shuts down. I finally replaced the spring loaded connections with wires. Its not a repair that should be attempted by athe faint of heart.

Here's some photos of an Edge 305 Disassembly.
The top photo is actually my mine! Thieves!
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/forums...

And here`s a Forerunner 305 Disassembly
http://sites.google.com/site/ctorunner/dismantlefo...

it's a common problem with the garmin watches. how old is it ? had it twice before (two forerunner 305) with 12 to 25 month old ones. you can reproduce the error with literally slapping on the watch, in my cases it just went off. as stated in the post before, it's a problem with the contacts between upper and lower case part. as there is some amount of humidity coming into the case with the time, these contacts corrode. at the end my watches stopped working at all, as the contacts were broken.

had sent it in to garmin every time, and got it replaced for free.

have now taped the little holes on the backside (where the noise comes out) with small pieces of ducttape, hope that prevents humidity from coming in.

Does this also happen in reverse? I had an instance when I fully charged my Garmmin 305 only to find that when I went to use it, it was already turned on and had, of course, a low battery.

@LKohn: I don't think so. Without trying it, or having knowledge of Garmin's startup routines I can't say for sure.

However:

Mine always turned off went the battery disconnected. I was able to turn it back on with the power button which means the battery re-connected. That leads me to believe that the Garmins will NOT turn on when a battery is randomly connected. You have to push the power button.

@Linda. This has happened to me a couple of times. My best guess for the cause is this. When the watch makes an incomplete connection to the contacts on the cradle, it sometimes turns on instead of giving the "battery charging in progress". (So, it can in this way turn on without pushing the power button.) I think, similarly, when removing it from the cradle, it's possible (if not removed quickly enough) to turn it on without realizing it. Then, when you come to put the watch on the next day, it is already on and has a low battery.

The eTrex Legend (and other hand helds) like to shut off when shaken / hit too. I've had the misfortune of accidentally hitting the 'stop' button on my 305, that's no fun either.

Linda: I've had that happen with me (charging my FR 205 one day, then taking it out the next day and finding that the battery is essentially dead) on rare occasions (maybe 5 times in the 3+ years that I've been using it). I've never figured out the cause.

One theory is that maybe I forget to do a "reset" to clear the data in the FR before turning it off, and that somehow, when the FR thinks that a workout is still in progress, it is doing something internally that drains power, even when it is turned off. This is really a stretch, but it's the only thing that I could come up with.

What I try to do now, not to prevent this but to get a pre-warning of it, is before a race or some particularly important run that I want to make sure I have power for, I turn on the FR in advance of when I actually need it, then hit the Mode button about 3 or 4 times which will eventually get a screen that shows the remaining battery life on the lower left corner of the screen, to confirm (hopefully) that it is fully charged.

I've noticed a couple of times that my FR 305 will turn itself on when it stops being charged. I'll leave it sitting on the USB-powered cradle overnight, but when my computer goes to sleep the 305 decides it needs to wake up and search for satellites all night. If I just take the 305 off the cradle (with the computer still on) then it doesn't do it.

By morning it's so flat the battery's half cactus, and it won't do anything (including charge) for a few days. Very annoying.