Garmin 60CSx won't acquire satellites

[+Earl B. Fisk]

Bought my Garmin 60CSx a couple of months ago. Absolutely no problem until today. I had planned on a full morning of caching.

 

I went to the first cache (one that I had tried to find before) and had no problem finding it this time as the coordinates were dead on. I try to save battery power by turning the gpsr off once I find the cache, and did so this time as well.

 

Several minutes later when I got back in the car, I plugged the adapter (cigerette lighter) into the back of the unit and then turned it on. Initially, it said something about low satellite signal or something to that effect. Since then it will show locations of the satellites, but none have any signal reception.

 

I've looked in the manual, but it doesn't seem to address it. Any ideas?

[+Klatch]

Bought my Garmin 60CSx a couple of months ago. Absolutely no problem until today. I had planned on a full morning of caching.

 

I went to the first cache (one that I had tried to find before) and had no problem finding it this time as the coordinates were dead on. I try to save battery power by turning the gpsr off once I find the cache, and did so this time as well.

 

Several minutes later when I got back in the car, I plugged the adapter (cigerette lighter) into the back of the unit and then turned it on. Initially, it said something about low satellite signal or something to that effect. Since then it will show locations of the satellites, but none have any signal reception.

 

I've looked in the manual, but it doesn't seem to address it. Any ideas?

At this point, assuming no mechanical failure (antenna) I will relate what happened to my friend's 60CSX. He turned it on at home, drove an hour to our camp and still had no satellites. He just left it on, in his truck, with a remote antenna installed. After several hours he looked at the unit and voila, lots of satellites. That doesn't really tell you what your problem is, but gives you some hope that your 60CSX may wake up.

[BootPrint]

Link

Try reloading the chipset.

 

I had this problem, it even showed signal strength for the satellites but would never get a lock.

[+Miragee]

I had that happen to my Vista C one day. It was very strange. I turned the unit on and off several times and even changed the batteries . . . I gave up and started driving home with the GPSr still on. Finally, after going a few miles, it aquired the satellites, so I could turn around and go caching after all. I have no idea why that happened.

[+linuxxpert]

Happened to my Nuvi 360, weird thing was that I could get reception with a external antenna. Turned out to be a corrupted satellite almanac (if thats the right term) Luckily I backed up my nuvi when I first got it, I formatted the internal memory and reloaded the backup. Worked great after that. Try letting it acquire satellites for a couple of hours it should update the almanac if that doesn't work try reloading any firmware or software. Maps should not be affected...

[+Earl B. Fisk]

Well, it's now Monday morning -- the unit stopped working Saturday morning. After a few suggestions from this and the referred thread, I pulled the batteries and the card, tried again, but nothing. Sunday, I plugged it into the car and let it sit and try to acquire satellites for an hour or so, and then rechecked, nothing. This morning on my way in to work, turned it on and it works fine. Go figure. CSAS (Corrupted Satellite Almanac Syndrome). That's what I'm calling it.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Anybody else go through geocaching withdrawls when their GPSr goes down? I found that on Sunday when I was out driving around, thinking, well there is that cache nearby that I haven't found yet, and then realizing I can't get it because I don't have a functional GPSr. Got a bit depressing.

[+A.T.Hiker]

I have seen my 60Cx have isses acquiring, although its never lasted an entire weekend. It's usually solved with 1-2 "reboots" (power down, wait a few seconds, power back up). It's never happened with a completely clear view of the sky, so it must be something to do with signal bounce and the new high sensitivity processors. Like a previous user said, there are satellite signals, but no locks.