VentureCx won't acquire satellites

[+media601]

OK, I know the easy answer-- "Ya broke your GPSr, now it doesn't work. What exactly do you find confusing about that?"

 

The confusing part is that it worked fine for a week after I cracked the screen, but then became unable to see satellites at all. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the experience of an etrex "X" series becoming unable to acquire, with or without a cracked screen. Here's the whole sad story:

 

On my way to my sister's for Christmas dinner, my VentureCx slid off the dash. When I picked it up it had a nice four-point "star" in the screen. Ouch. The unit still worked fine and the invisible shield screen protector was undamaged and covered the entire cracked area, which seemed to maintain the waterproofedness (new word--add it to the dictionary).

 

The next day I took the unit to Nevada where it worked flawlessly for the next three days of extensive use. I didn't even notice the cracked screen when looking straight on. When I returned home to Minnesota the unit could not acquire satellites at all. It essentially behaved as if it was indoors. I did a hard reset (Yes, I already did a hard reset) and left the unit out for 30 minutes with a wide open view of the sky. No difference. When I checked on the unit the "poor reception--want to use with GPS off?" message was displayed once again.

 

Can a cracked screen have a delayed effect on satellite acquisition? Has anyone heard of anything similar?

Edited January 9, 2007 by media601

[+Sputnik 57]

If it hit hard enough to crack the screen, it may have loosened some of the internal workings, which dislodged with use. Sounds like a trip to Garmin is in store for the little guy. The good news is that they have great warranty service, even for abused units.

[+media601]

OK, here's what happened. I'm posting this in case it happens to someone else--

 

Apparently this happens occasionally when you power up a unit more then 600 miles from the last time it acquired satellites. The unit worked fine when I went to Nevada, but apparently the trip home confused the heck out of it. Even the hard reset didn't clear out the cobwebs. The solution was to power the unit on outdoors and wait for the satellite page, then Menu > New Location > Auto.

 

Voila. Acquisition. Now I'll never know if they would have fixed my screen as long as they were fixing something else.

[+Fred/Mary]

Yep... that's how they ship them from the factory.

[+Billk72]

Actually Yes the would fix your screen, I have a older garmin GPS ll+ I once cracked the screen they replaced it and updated the software, The same unit is now about 10 yrs. old and they are currently replacing the internal battery and updating the firmware free of charge. So I would give their support number a call be we worth fixing your screen.