Bad GPSr?

[+pixelcat]

I bought a Magellan eXplorist 500LE in May. I haven't used it a lot, but it seems pretty decent except for being a bit slow. One problem I have is it CONSTANTLY loses signal. My daughter and I were in a park today, and should've seen at least 7 satellites + WAAS, because we were in a huge flat field with several soccer and football fields on it, on a cloudless day. I have to turn it off and on every few minutes to re-acquire a fix. Anyone have any ideas other than to contact Magellan, which I plan to do this week?

[+TrailGators]

I bought a Magellan eXplorist 500LE in May. I haven't used it a lot, but it seems pretty decent except for being a bit slow. One problem I have is it CONSTANTLY loses signal. My daughter and I were in a park today, and should've seen at least 7 satellites + WAAS, because we were in a huge flat field with several soccer and football fields on it, on a cloudless day. I have to turn it off and on every few minutes to re-acquire a fix. Anyone have any ideas other than to contact Magellan, which I plan to do this week?

The only other thing I would suggest is to check the batteries/battery connection.

[sanramonhunter]

Have you updated the firmware? If it's not up to the latest firmware I would definetely give that a shot.

[+TrailGators]

Have you updated the firmware? If it's not up to the latest firmware I would definetely give that a shot.

It's very possible that something got corrupted so that would help. There is also a way to do a hard reset but you would have to contact Garmin Magellan to find out how. Edited December 23, 2007 by TrailGators

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Have you updated the firmware? If it's not up to the latest firmware I would definetely give that a shot.

It's very possible that something got corrupted so that would help. There is also a way to do a hard reset but you would have to contact Garmin to find out how.

 

Garmin? For an Explorist?

 

John

[+TrailGators]

Have you updated the firmware? If it's not up to the latest firmware I would definetely give that a shot.

It's very possible that something got corrupted so that would help. There is also a way to do a hard reset but you would have to contact Garmin to find out how.

 

Garmin? For an Explorist?

 

John

Oops! I hadn't had enough coffee when I wrote that.... Anyhow you get the point... Edited December 23, 2007 by TrailGators

[+cacheninja]

I know my Meridian Gold would act strangely occasionally and would behave as you described. Initializing the unit seemed to fix this problem. It seemed to crop up especially if I used it infrequently for a couple weeks or so.

[+elmuyloco5]

Check your batteries and always make sure to have a good charge. I would suggest some rechargable batteries as our Magellan Platinum acts weird if the batteries are low. But with a new charge it is dead on every time and it holds the signal better than many other people's other units (Garmins) that we know. Make sure that you initialize it. And if it's sat without a charge or you take the batteries out for an extended period of time, you have to re-initialize again.

[+tabulator32]

I went out one day this past week and stood in my front yard and couldn't get a fix to save my life. I went in to turn on the television and see if we might be under attack.

 

An hour later, I tried again and picked up a 3D fix in a couple minutes.

 

Went caching.

 

Its rare when it doesn't, but, those satellites don't ALWAYS cover EVERYTHING...ALL the time.

[+pixelcat]

I went out one day this past week and stood in my front yard and couldn't get a fix to save my life. I went in to turn on the television and see if we might be under attack.

 

An hour later, I tried again and picked up a 3D fix in a couple minutes.

 

Went caching.

 

Its rare when it doesn't, but, those satellites don't ALWAYS cover EVERYTHING...ALL the time.

 

When it works, it is rock solid. And here around Dallas, I frequently get 9 satellites. It's just that all of a sudden, the cursor goes to an hourglass, and I see I've lost the signal. I sent Magellan a support request.

 

I'll try doing the initialization thing too.

Edited January 1, 2008 by pixelcat