Epic Garmin Support adventure

[Computerbob]

Short version: I finally have my Zumo 550 working again.

 

Long version...

For over a year now, I've had various intermittent issues with my 550. I'd gotten it used, but it worked fine for a long time. Every once in a while, however, it'd tell me that it couldn't connect to any satellites and asked if I was indoors. Then 5 minutes later would connect again... then drop again, over and over again.

 

I tried all sorts of things. I'd convinced myself that the battery had something to do with it because every time I pulled the battery out and put it back in, it started working fine for a while.

 

Then I realized it did this more often when I was playing MP3's or satellite radio. If I left the thing alone and just let it do standard GPS stuff, it worked better. Not 100% of the time, but was more apt to work more often.

 

Eventually, even doing that didn't help. I opened up a ticket with Garmin and paid the $150 for a replacement Zumo. The replacement exhibited the exact same issues!

 

I created

showing what it was doing.

 

As the video starts, you can see that i have 4/5 bars and everything's fine. Then I go into the music and hit play on a simple stereo music file (this file is on the internal drive and I do not have a memory card in the secondary slot. I also only have 8 MP3 files copied to the device right now for testing). When I go back to the menu screen at 0:15 you can see the device has already dropped to having no connection. It then picks back up to 3/5 bars for a few seconds and then at 0:43 I get the "Poor Satellite Reception" error on the screen. The map screen shows "Lost GPS Reception" at the top and for the next few seconds I pan around to show that I'm outside on a clear day with clear view of the sky. At 1:33 I stop the music and immediately get 3/5 bars and we're back to tracking satellites again. At 1:52 I press play on the music again and we're still good on tracking for a while until 3:53 when the "Poor Satellite Reception" error again comes up.

 

I emailed them the video and called them back and they agreed to swap it out again. I was skeptical that the Zumo was the problem, though. So, rather than immediately ship it back I waited until I could test the GPS in someone else's mount. I was able to do that in Bernie's car mount and it worked fine.

 

I called them back and canceled the RMA on the GPS. The lady shipped me a brand new mount and power cord. It took forever to get here, but I put it on the bike today and rolled it out to the driveway. All of the tests seem to indicate that the problem is gone now. I'll be doing a long ride this weekend to verify.

 

I wish I'd have bought a new mount for $80 rather than paying $150 for a replacement GPS! Anyway, at least I have new(ish) devices all around and everything's working. If you ever have a problem like this, try your GPS in someone else's mount before spending weeks and weeks with Garmin. I never thought it could be the mount until I got the replacement GPS and it did the same exact thing as the first one.

[Alfred02]

The problem is that there just isn't enough known about the Garmin hardware and pin assignment.

This sounds like that the GPS module itself has a separate power pickup on one of the pins, causing intermittent loss of power while the rest of the unit was working fine.

Garmin's technical support doesn't seem to know much about their own units and the pin assignment themselves, from the sound of it.

[Computerbob]

Yeah, if I hadn't done my own troubleshooting, they'd have just kept replacing the Zumo over and over again until they got tired of doing so. The script they read from on the computer screen in front of them doesn't have them look at the mount at all. If I hadn't brought the mount into the conversation with the, I think I'd still be fighting with them on the 3rd replacement Zumo and getting more angry every day.

 

I'm glad I'm a computer guy and have lots of experience troubleshooting things. The average consumer wouldn't have a clue how to do this stuff and would rely on what the other end of the phone told them to do.

[Bernie]

Good news.

[randy]

interesting the same thing was happening to me on my 665. However the google searches I did all pointed to the mount. Now this was 3 maybe 4 years ago, so maybe the search results had rolled off. Anyway, like you I used someone elses mount, and the 665 worked great. mine in fact was very interesting, it worked perfectly in the motorcycle mount, it was the car mount that it did not work in. It seems back then, at one time the 665 series mounts and 660 series mounts were being switched during packaging at the factory. I wonder if the 5XX series mounts had the same issue. However even with the substantial internet support it took a good 30 minute phone call with Garmin to get a replacement mount sent out. Since then 100% effectiveness, for the last 3 years. And I ride daily, rain, sun, cold, and the 665 has been flawless. I hope yours is as well for you going forward.

[hopz]

The pins in the mount can and do get dirty, even if the unit is off the bike and the

rubber cover is in place.

 

The recommendation is to use a lint-free cloth and gently wipe the pins off. Gently.

 

Then using the smallest possible amount of di-electri lube apply sparingly to the pins.

[randy]

very good suggestion, I used Electric contact cleaner and a SOFT toothbrush. It really worked well. then used the lint-free cloth you suggested. did not think to use d-electri lube. I might try that. I clean mine twice a year. usually around March (start of season) and again around labor day. So far it has operated perfectly for the last 3 years. Until I started this maintenance program I did have occasional issues. good suggestion and reminder to me, I think I need to do mine tonight :-)