Help! My eTrex won't acquire satellites!

[+mattoz16]

I have a Garmin Legend HCx eTrek, about one year old. I turned it on last night and it will not get past the "acquiring satellites". I changed the batteries, and turned it off and on many times. Something is wrong and I'm hoping someone here can give some advice.

Thanks!

Matt

[+ecanderson]

I have a Garmin Legend HCx eTrek, about one year old. I turned it on last night and it will not get past the "acquiring satellites". I changed the batteries, and turned it off and on many times. Something is wrong and I'm hoping someone here can give some advice.

Thanks!

Matt

On the satellite page, do you see bars indicating that your unit is even seeing any satellites, but just haven't turned "green" yet? If you're seeing bars, but not green bars, it could be that you haven't used it in ages and it will require quite some time to reacquire the almanac data - just like when you first bought it. Give it 15 minutes or so in a clear sky.

 

How long has it been since you fired your unit up?

[+mattoz16]

I have a Garmin Legend HCx eTrek, about one year old. I turned it on last night and it will not get past the "acquiring satellites". I changed the batteries, and turned it off and on many times. Something is wrong and I'm hoping someone here can give some advice.

Thanks!

Matt

On the satellite page, do you see bars indicating that your unit is even seeing any satellites, but just haven't turned "green" yet? If you're seeing bars, but not green bars, it could be that you haven't used it in ages and it will require quite some time to reacquire the almanac data - just like when you first bought it. Give it 15 minutes or so in a clear sky.

 

How long has it been since you fired your unit up?

 

The unit was used last weekend--and worked fine. No green bars at all. Just a screen that looks like a bullseye with the N/S/E/W, and underneath nothing but 5 horizontal lines.

[+ecanderson]

The unit was used last weekend--and worked fine. No green bars at all. Just a screen that looks like a bullseye with the N/S/E/W, and underneath nothing but 5 horizontal lines.

Ugh - that's not good. No bars of any color, and no satellites on the "bullseye"?

 

You should try a "hard reset" on the unit to see if it recovers its senses:

• With the unit turned off, press and hold the Page button and press down (Enter) on the joy stick. Hold those down.
  
• Press and release the Power button like you would to power up.
  
• Your unit will ask if you want to reset all user data. Select "Yes". That's the reset done.
  
• Now you'll have to get out into clear sky and wait (could be 20 minutes or more) for the unit to acquire new data.
  

[+mattoz16]

The unit was used last weekend--and worked fine. No green bars at all. Just a screen that looks like a bullseye with the N/S/E/W, and underneath nothing but 5 horizontal lines.

Ugh - that's not good. No bars of any color, and no satellites on the "bullseye"?

 

You should try a "hard reset" on the unit to see if it recovers its senses:

• With the unit turned off, press and hold the Page button and press down (Enter) on the joy stick. Hold those down.
  
• Press and release the Power button like you would to power up.
  
• Your unit will ask if you want to reset all user data. Select "Yes". That's the reset done.
  
• Now you'll have to get out into clear sky and wait (could be 20 minutes or more) for the unit to acquire new data.
  

I followed the steps you suggested, and I appreciate your help--thank you.

Unfortunately, still not working. When the reset screen appears, the unit does not ask if I want to reset all data . . . it just sits there with this weird screen that has lots of data on it (Software version 3.0, Bravo Version 2, etc.) Doesn't ask to reset! But there is a line that says "Since Reset" . . .

[+ecanderson]

You got to the diagnostic screen by mistake. Interesting stuff there, though.

 

Be sure you are holding "Page" and "Enter", and then hold the "Power" button until you see the "Do you really want to erase all user data?" message. I may be mistaken above in suggesting you release the Power button after pressing it. It's been a while since I had to do it.

[+Chuy!]

Chipset might be malfunctioning. Check out this thead: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=201210