76cs Quirk ?

[Team Sidewinder]

I thought I had this problem licked at one time.

 

Hope I can describe this so someone can help as Garmin tech. support isn't any help.

 

When I have my 76CS on the elevation/barometer display screen and the two data fields at the top of this screen are set on min/max elevation values or when the data fields are set on asent/decent elevation values I get no readings. Asent/decent always shows 0 for for both fields when set on this data field. When data field is set on min/max the max elevation data shows 0 ft and the min elevation data shows ------- a dotted line. I thought I had this fixed a few days ago and was trying different things out of desperation when I entered menu on this same graph page and then hit restore defaults. Everything started to work like it is supposed to. The max elevation started showing the elevation fluctuation at the highest and the min would show the min values BUT. Now for some unknow reason I am unable to duplicate my previous fix and it is back to the same old readings of max elevation 0 ft and min elevation ------. Also the graph showing elevation change and barometer fluctuations mode works just fine. The graph has always worked as it should on this page. I know the data fields work because I had it fixed somehow at one time. Any HELP would be appreciated.

Thanks

Team sidewinder

Edited July 17, 2005 by TEAM SIDEWINDER

[stevesisti]

I thought I had this problem licked at one time.

 

Hope I can describe this so someone can help as Garmin tech. support isn't any help.

 

When I have my 76CS on the elevation/barometer display screen and the two data fields at the top of this screen are set on min/max values or when set on asent/decent values I get no readings. Asent/decent always shows 0 for when set on this data field. When data field is set on min/max the max data shows 0 ft and the min show ------- a dotted line. I thought I had this fixed a few days ago when I entered menu on this same page and then hit restore defaults. Everything started to work like it is supposed to. The max elevation started showing the elevation fluctuation at the highest and the min would show the min values BUT. Now for some unknow reason to I am unable to duplicate my previous fix and it is back to the same old readings of max elevation 0 ft and min elevation ------. Also the graph showing elevation change and when barometer mode works just fine. The graph has always worked as it should on this page. I know the data fields work because I had it fixed somehow at one time. Any HELP would be appreciated.

Thanks

Team sidewinder

Well not quite the same thing but on my 60cs, I could see the plot for barometric pressure, and the plot for altitude over time...but when I switched to altitude over distance the plot would pot up for a second and then would disappear.....if I switched out of ploting over distance and the reopened it when I wasn't moving the plot screen would stay up....however once I started moving it would instantly disappear.

 

I tab through pages very rapidly and I would asuume I overloaded the processor and corrupted something.....I did a master reset and all is well....was about to send it back to Garmin. Actually it seems ecerything works better after the reset....go figure.

[Team Sidewinder]

Emailed Garmin with this problem. Was told to do the reset ( page + enter + power and then release buttons upon power up ). This seemed to cure the problem. They said the gps had corrupted data that was causing the problem. We will see, but it is working like designed now. Not too long on a response either ( a couple of days ) and it wasn't anything where I couldn't use my gps.

[Team Sidewinder]

Well Garmin's fix didn't last long. After turning the gps on and off several times over a period of a day everything worked fine until I did a minor reset of trip, cleared track log and elevation data the gps went back to its old problem of no change in the min/max data fields. Sorry for posting to myself and won't again until I have a real fix or have just given up trying. It is no big deal but it does bug me that it doesn't work like I know it should.

[Team Sidewinder]

After talking to Garmin tech support and trying several resets Garmin gave me a RMA number to send the unit in to the factory. The 76CS came back in 8 days with this attached explaination.

 

Repair summary

 

" Confirmed Problem : Could not download customers waypoint from unit due to corrupted software. Unit was reset to factory settings and software was reloaded, which corrected the malfunction. Unit ran at the bench and all elevation fields were properly displayed.

 

Please delete all waypoints, routes, tracks from your PC to prevent it from returning to the unit.

 

Updated software to latest version and aligned unit to optimum performance. Unit passed ATE tests and is operating within normal limits. OK to return to service. "

 

We will see again how long this fix lasts.

[Team Sidewinder]

Well it didn't last long and it was back to its old problem in about 3 hours. I am suprised I am the only able to duplicate this problem. I called Garmin again and they said they would tell Software Dept. about the problem again and maybe a fix would be forthcoming. I am doubtful that will happen if I am the only having this quirk problem and I am not sure what triggers it. It worked fine back from the factory until I start setting my personal preferences as to time zone, colors, track preferences, welcome page text, calbration of compass, and altimeter. I would keep checking back to see if it was still working which it was and then one time after changing the batts, setting the barometer from reading from all the time back to reading only when the power is on ( You get a warning not to remove batteries when in the barometer is in the reading all the time mode ) but I never have done that. Maybe it was the fact I changed the batteries to fresh ones but I give up. I will just use different data fields other the min/max and other variable elevation ones. Thanks for bearing with my rants to myself.

[stevesisti]

Well it didn't last long and it was back to its old problem in about 3 hours. I am suprised I am the only able to duplicate this problem. I called Garmin again and they said they would tell Software Dept. about the problem again and maybe a fix would be forthcoming. I am doubtful that will happen if I am the only having this quirk problem and I am not sure what triggers it. It worked fine back from the factory until I start setting my personal preferences as to time zone, colors, track preferences, welcome page text, calbration of compass, and altimeter. I would keep checking back to see if it was still working which it was and then one time after changing the batts, setting the barometer from reading from all the time back to reading only when the power is on ( You get a warning not to remove batteries when in the barometer is in the reading all the time mode ) but I never have done that. Maybe it was the fact I changed the batteries to fresh ones but I give up. I will just use different data fields other the min/max and other variable elevation ones. Thanks for bearing with my rants to myself.

Personally I wouldn't accept that from Garmin...if they can't get the unit working the way it's supposed to, I would demand a new replacement unit. I'm sure if this was a software glitch, other people would be complaining about the same problem.

 

You were already inconvenienced one time by having to send the unit back. I would call back and ask them to either fix it for sure or replace it.

[Team Sidewinder]

Finally I was able to come up with what set of circumstances caused this condition I had described earlier. It may be no consiquence to some but I seem be only one of a few who have experienced this. No recording of Min or Max elevation. I have been in contact with Garmin tech support for months since I noticed this and have waited for a updated software version since June. At last the 4.05 beta version came out and I downloaded this update and all seemed to work just fine which always happened when I would do a factory reset. I had done more than five factory reset as per tech support and the outcome would always lead back to the same problem after I would start to enter my personal parameters that were different than the factory settings.

 

It happens when I set the barometer preferences to " fixed elevation ", " always on ", " auto calibration -- on " and then do a reset of the trip computer data. This all had to happen in combination of having the gps unit in the house without sat. coverage or with the unit on but the gps function turned off. Once this combination caused the problem it would not ever record min,max elevation again no matter what ever I did except do a factory reset again.

 

I found it all works just fine if I do the trip data reset while outside with sat coverage. This condition happens because I like to have the gps recording barometric pressure to see what weather conditions may be on the way due to changes in barometric pressure. When I would come home from a geocaching trip and do a reset of trip computer data while inside the house the problem would arise. I am sure Garmin hasn't had enough people have this problem to correct it in a software update but now they are aware of it and can duplicate it which they were unable to do before. Garmin has offered me a free map software program for all my effort which I thought was pretty nice of them. Anyway that is the end of the story.

 

team sidewinder