Older Garmin Visita lost it's accuracy

[+rrules]

I was visiting my brother this weekend and we decided to try a cache or two with his older grey vista. It was a perfect coll and clear fall day. I entered a couple of caches into the unit and off we went. I was using the compass to direct us and it could not lock and direct us to ground zero. It would point us to around 25 meters then as we approached it would spin 180 degrees an point us in a new direction. Essentially it was unusable. Do these units get tired? Can it be fixed? Thanks

Edited October 10, 2011 by rrules

[+mpilchfamily]

You've only had problems on this one cache? Sounds like your where in a low reception area. Was there any tree cover in the area?

[+luvvinbird]

Your profile suggests you have enough experience to know whether you're doing the "drunken bee dance" or not but, as mpilchfamily suggested, I wouldn't condemn the unit without further testing. All four of my handhelds exhibited the same problem at one time or other.

[gitarmac]

Have you updated the software on the unit? Have you tried it since then? I have not noticed my units behaviour changing over time. My first vista jumped a lot at first but I updated the software and it was fine. My astro 320 jumps more than my oregon for some reason. The astro is supposed to be based on the 62, I thought it would outshine my oregon.

 

How often do you calibrate the compass? If it was just one cache I wouldn't worry about it, like one poster said, they do this sometimes.

 

Keep us updated.

[+rrules]

Have you updated the software on the unit? Have you tried it since then? I have not noticed my units behaviour changing over time. My first vista jumped a lot at first but I updated the software and it was fine. My astro 320 jumps more than my oregon for some reason. The astro is supposed to be based on the 62, I thought it would outshine my oregon.

 

How often do you calibrate the compass? If it was just one cache I wouldn't worry about it, like one poster said, they do this sometimes.

 

Keep us updated.

 

I am sure the software/ firmware is 5 years old. I will have him calibrate his compass too. Good suggestions. The unit has probably not been used in 2 years. He had lithium batteries in it and it was set to lithium batteries in the system set up.