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Colorado 300 Fails to Locate Occasionally


Didjerrydo

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I'm beginning to notice that my Colorado 300 is occasionally failing to acquire automatically when I boot it up. It did this yesterday after I had moved it about 15 miles while it was off. It would open the satellite status page, but never acquire. Finally I pressed "Options" and chose "AutoLocate Position" and it immediatly located.

Again, this morning, here at home, no location change, it did the same thing but failed to respond to the "AutoLocate Position" command even after several attempts. I turned it off, then back on and it finally acquired. Sounds like an issue getting worse I'm afraid.

I am a dealer and I say one other 300 at the store boot up fine once but on the second attempt completely fail. After talking at lenght to Garmin's tech weenies, we decided it was time for it to go home to Garmin. This bothers me.

I'm wondering if this more of a software issue or a hardware failure? Perhaps G-O-Cashers should add this one to his screw-up list. Has anyone else out there encountered anything like this?

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I'm beginning to notice that my Colorado 300 is occasionally failing to acquire automatically when I boot it up. It did this yesterday after I had moved it about 15 miles while it was off. It would open the satellite status page, but never acquire. Finally I pressed "Options" and chose "AutoLocate Position" and it immediatly located.

Again, this morning, here at home, no location change, it did the same thing but failed to respond to the "AutoLocate Position" command even after several attempts. I turned it off, then back on and it finally acquired. Sounds like an issue getting worse I'm afraid.

I am a dealer and I say one other 300 at the store boot up fine once but on the second attempt completely fail. After talking at lenght to Garmin's tech weenies, we decided it was time for it to go home to Garmin. This bothers me.

I'm wondering if this more of a software issue or a hardware failure? Perhaps G-O-Cashers should add this one to his screw-up list. Has anyone else out there encountered anything like this?

 

There was a post like this on another thread yesterday. I haven't seen it personally, but if if you guys can characterize it here I'll add it to my list.

 

I did see another bizarre issue with mine yesterday when navigating to a track but I don't think it is the same issue because satellite lock was fine and my coordinates looked good, but my map page completely lost its mind -- no maps, just white and the position cursor, distance to next was 800 miles. Stopping nav fixed the issue. This has been added to my list.

 

GO$Rs

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

 

I am very sure, Garmin has a problem here. I had the same experience with my 300 today.

Stopped both my 300 and 76cs this morning and started them up this afternoon.

My 76cs had a fix within a minute, the 300 however did not find a satellite for over 15 minutes.

The satellite constellation on the 76cs was totally different from that of the 300. The map however showed the right position.

After at least 15 minutes it told me that there seemed to be problems with acquiring satellites.

"Do you want to continue"? YES!

Within seconds it found 8 satellites at 100%. These were NOT shown in the sky view!!

Fix came on and everything worked fine again, showing coherent information.

If this should be drift in the internal clock, it is very much more than 15 minutes (several hours will do better).

I hope it is software, otherwise this is really bad.

 

Cheers,

Stormy

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

 

I am very sure, Garmin has a problem here. I had the same experience with my 300 today.

Stopped both my 300 and 76cs this morning and started them up this afternoon.

My 76cs had a fix within a minute, the 300 however did not find a satellite for over 15 minutes.

The satellite constellation on the 76cs was totally different from that of the 300. The map however showed the right position.

After at least 15 minutes it told me that there seemed to be problems with acquiring satellites.

"Do you want to continue"? YES!

Within seconds it found 8 satellites at 100%. These were NOT shown in the sky view!!

Fix came on and everything worked fine again, showing coherent information.

If this should be drift in the internal clock, it is very much more than 15 minutes (several hours will do better).

I hope it is software, otherwise this is really bad.

 

Cheers,

Stormy

 

My Explorist did the same thing yesterday. It found no satellites until it asked if I was indoors and if I wanted to continue. I chose continue and it almost instantly began acquiring satellites.

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

 

I am very sure, Garmin has a problem here. I had the same experience with my 300 today.

Stopped both my 300 and 76cs this morning and started them up this afternoon.

My 76cs had a fix within a minute, the 300 however did not find a satellite for over 15 minutes.

The satellite constellation on the 76cs was totally different from that of the 300. The map however showed the right position.

After at least 15 minutes it told me that there seemed to be problems with acquiring satellites.

"Do you want to continue"? YES!

Within seconds it found 8 satellites at 100%. These were NOT shown in the sky view!!

Fix came on and everything worked fine again, showing coherent information.

If this should be drift in the internal clock, it is very much more than 15 minutes (several hours will do better).

I hope it is software, otherwise this is really bad.

 

Cheers,

Stormy

 

Garmin is apparently taking this issue very seriously, and according to the correspondence I recieved from this morning, an update will be appearing within the week. Exactly whether or not it can/will address this clock thing is uncertain but I would think/hope something like this would be top priority ! Otherwise Garmin is going to see a mass migration of Colorado's of all types coming back to Olathe!

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I had this same issue and it does seem related to turning of the colorado, traveling some distance and then turning it back on. At least that is the only way I was able to recreate the effect.

 

On a side note: using the colorado in geocache mode I have found that the directional arrow points directly away from the direction I want to go, same if i go to the compass. Anyone know if that is something I am screwing up or a device/software issue?

 

thanks

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

 

Yet again, this isn't an issue. This is even covered in the (GPSmap 60 units) users manual.

 

When any GPS hasn't established a satellite lock, not only does it not know where it is, it doesn't know when it is. When the unit is moved a considerable distance and has been turned off for some length of time (not sure how long this needs to be), the GPS isn't aware of the positions of the satellite relative to its position. This is especially true when batteries were removed or discharged.

 

You guys know this. If not, where have you been? Especially if you own a GPSmap 60 unit. This is a common situation with that device. You expected something different with this unit?

 

I am not a GPS pro, but I have taken considerable time to read about and use all my GPS units. I have more than a basic understanding of its operation. It seems that there are two camps here: Those with this information (who don't have major issues with the Colorado) and those without this information (who have major issues with the Colorado.) Also, I rarely read that these folks with issues have actually called Garmin and discussed these issues with them. When I do read that someone has called, the typical complaint is that the person they speak with is relatively clueless concerning this new unit.

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Yet again, this isn't an issue. This is even covered in the (GPSmap 60 units) users manual.

 

When any GPS hasn't established a satellite lock, not only does it not know where it is, it doesn't know when it is. When the unit is moved a considerable distance and has been turned off for some length of time (not sure how long this needs to be), the GPS isn't aware of the positions of the satellite relative to its position. This is especially true when batteries were removed or discharged.

 

You guys know this. If not, where have you been? Especially if you own a GPSmap 60 unit. This is a common situation with that device. You expected something different with this unit?

 

I am not a GPS pro, but I have taken considerable time to read about and use all my GPS units. I have more than a basic understanding of its operation. It seems that there are two camps here: Those with this information (who don't have major issues with the Colorado) and those without this information (who have major issues with the Colorado.) Also, I rarely read that these folks with issues have actually called Garmin and discussed these issues with them. When I do read that someone has called, the typical complaint is that the person they speak with is relatively clueless concerning this new unit.

LifeOnEdge, I've agreed with most of your posts about people overreacting to small bugs or unmet expectations (the curse of the early adopter), but if you read the posts, there really does seem to be a problem here with the Colorados not keeping time. Just as the Colorado bashers are overdoing it, you're not helping by being an unmitigated apologist for Garmin.

 

Everyone just calm down the flames.

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...there really does seem to be a problem here with the Colorados not keeping time.

That issue along with the intermittent shutoff issue and the battery life issue all seem to be hardware related. If you have any of these problems, you should return your unit and get a new one. You'll be much happier.

 

--Marky

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Had this same issue with my 400 not locating satellites. After a couple of minutes it asked me if i wanted to autolocate or turn sats off. I did the autolocate and they came up right away. For the record, this was several miles from where I last had it on. -WW

 

I think Garmin has a problem here. I never had this with any earlier units I've owned. I just hope it's fixable via a software update and not something hardware related.

 

Yet again, this isn't an issue. This is even covered in the (GPSmap 60 units) users manual.

 

When any GPS hasn't established a satellite lock, not only does it not know where it is, it doesn't know when it is. When the unit is moved a considerable distance and has been turned off for some length of time (not sure how long this needs to be), the GPS isn't aware of the positions of the satellite relative to its position. This is especially true when batteries were removed or discharged.

 

You guys know this. If not, where have you been? Especially if you own a GPSmap 60 unit. This is a common situation with that device. You expected something different with this unit?

 

I am not a GPS pro, but I have taken considerable time to read about and use all my GPS units. I have more than a basic understanding of its operation. It seems that there are two camps here: Those with this information (who don't have major issues with the Colorado) and those without this information (who have major issues with the Colorado.) Also, I rarely read that these folks with issues have actually called Garmin and discussed these issues with them. When I do read that someone has called, the typical complaint is that the person they speak with is relatively clueless concerning this new unit.

 

The internal clock chip within any GPS unit (Colorado or otherwise) is there to keep relatively accurate timekeeping when the unit is turned off. Otherwise, the unit will experience varying periods of delay in re-acquiring satellites due to the fact that it is scanning for the frequencies of satellites that are not available (below horizon).

Sure, you can tell the GPS to "Autolocate Position" which erases all almanac data and causes the unit to totally have to re-establish this data, which works, but slows everything down greatly.

The clock is supposed to work, period, whether the unit is on or off. Otherwise, how is functions such as the alarm clock supposed to function properly? I have talked at lenght to Garmin's head of handheld technical support concerning this and believe you me, he is taking it very, very seriously!

Edited by Didjerrydo
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I'm beginning to notice that my Colorado 300 is occasionally failing to acquire automatically when I boot it up. It did this yesterday after I had moved it about 15 miles while it was off. It would open the satellite status page, but never acquire. Finally I pressed "Options" and chose "AutoLocate Position" and it immediatly located.

 

I had the same experience few days ago. The unit just would not lock on satelites, I turned it off, turned it on, even removed batteries and turned it on again. None of it would make the unit start acquiring. Then I went to 'Satelites' and noticed that there was no signal. That made me think that my unit was defective but finally remembered seeing this thread and sure enough, 'AutoLocate Position' fixed the problem. Only happened once so far.

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Although this thread is about the 300, I am having similar problems with a 400t.

 

I just received a 400t from REI yesterday and updated to the latest GPS software and firmware that Garmin released. Serial #18Z002764.

 

I must have a bad unit:

 

It doesn't keep time when turned off (i.e. I turned it off at 9:52pm last night, and this morning when I turned it on, it still thinks it is 9:52).

 

It easily loses Satellites, and there is a mismatch between the "GPS accuracy" bars (shows full bars) even when the unit is searching for satellites.

 

It's crashed several times: marking a waypoint, using the 3D view, pushing the right-softbutton in certain menus (very random; not easily reproducible).

 

Ah well.... back to REI.

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And you are using firmware version 2.40 ??

If the clock isn't keeping time when turned off, then I think that is a hardware issue, not a firmware issue. I've been wrong before though. I think taking it back to REI and getting a replacement was the correct course of action. I love REI's return policy.

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If the clock isn't keeping time when turned off, then I think that is a hardware issue, not a firmware issue. I've been wrong before though. I think taking it back to REI and getting a replacement was the correct course of action. I love REI's return policy.

 

Not only time but also date is an issue.

Try turn on your Colorado and check the date before it gets a fix (or use with GPS off).

Be surprised reading: "Friday February 29, 2008"

... and I am not talking about using the unit on Friday 29th, but Saturday 080301 or Sunday 080302.

 

This is strange!

 

Stormy

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Well, if the clock doesn't run, you don't expect the date to advance either, do you?

 

It seems the Colorado now and then thinks the current time is corrupted, which causes it to go back to the last known time stored in the unit. Sometimes, that's more than one day back.

 

That's strange, I just read your post and just checked my 300. It's 7:15 AM Eastern time here in western North Carolina on March 2, 2008. My unit said 7:15 AM, but Feburary 29, 2008! That's wierd that the time would be right but the date would be off by 2 days!

I then re-booted it and let it acquire satellites upon which it got it's act together and gave the right time & date. Wonder if the leap year somehow threw it a curve?

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