Annoying Shutdown With Garmin Etrex Vista

[Hounddawg]

 

I have a Garmin eTrex Vista. I have a serious issue with it. It will shut off by itself for no apparent reason.

 

A message will appear just before it shuts down: " Loss of external power, shutting down in 30 seconds, press any key to continue".

 

I run the unit off batteries, either Nimhs or Aklalines. I set the battery type in the setup. I have never used an external power source with the unit. I run the unit on normal mode.. not battery saving mode. I've reset the unit to factory defaults. Nothing seems to help.

 

Any suggestions? Do I need to send this unit back to Garmin? I bought it last October.

 

Thanks!

[+Thack Pack]

I've had the same problem with my Garmin Legend and Vista. I would suggest a couple of peices of duck tape across both batteries above and below the pin that holds the cover in place. This eliminated 95% of the sudden loss of power for me.

[+RickIII]

Had the same problem start with a eTrex Legend last weekend, a few days after I installed 3.6 from the Garmin website.

 

Not that the update had anything to do with it, but it started after the update.

[Hounddawg]

I called Garmin about my eTrex Vista today with the annoying auto shutdown "Loss of external power.. shutting down in 30 seconds, press any key to continue" problem. Tech guy says the software needs to be updated. You can do it with a PC based computer easily as long as you have the serial cable that came with the unit. I bought my unit back in October and it came with version 3.2 of the software.. they are up to version 3.6 now. The update should fix the problem.

 

I updated it so we shall see. Scary about that still happening with version 3.6. The install went well. I used a freinds Windows laptop to do the install sinbce I'm a dyed in the wool Macintosh user.

[talon2525]

I have a Vista with Version 3.60 and I still have the annoying power offs. My vista came preloaded with 3.60 so I've never updated it.

I look at it and all is fine I take my eyes off it and look again and blank screen. But I don't get any kind of a warning message that I have seen. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks, Scott

[+DeepPurple]

I had the problem this morning. Just a coincidence I hope . I still run 3.50. I think it has something to see with the batteries losing their place in the battery compartiment. Just getting them out and in again helped. Thack Pask's solution may be the best one http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ndpost&p=976748

Edited July 12, 2004 by DeepPurple

[Hounddawg]

OK I downloaded the 3.6 version software to my unit and have been running it for a few days now. No problems! YAY!!!! Hopefully this will have fixed the bug. I guess that was the solution at least for me. I hope the problem has gone away. I'll speak up if it comes back. I always got a warning dialog before it shutdown... unless may batteries just plain ole gave out.

 

If you are still having shtdown problems...Go under your settings and make sure you aren't in battery saving mode. Make sure your battery type matches up in the settings with your actual battery type. Use fressh batteries. Just some sugestions. Ya never know they might help someone out there.

[+DeepPurple]

If you are still having shtdown problems...Go under your settings and make sure you aren't in battery saving mode.

Still a question : why should we have to avoid the battery saving mode ?

[Hounddawg]

Still a question : why should we have to avoid the battery saving mode ?

 

I don't know.. maybe you shouldn't. Its just a thought. Trying to be helpful. Maybe give it a whirl.

[Civet Cat]

I had that problem too, a couple of days ago out on a cache. It just shut down without warning. Started the unit back up, and then it did the same thing again.

 

This unit was a replacement unit which Garmin sent me last week because the backtrack and route wouldn't work on the one I bought. Today, I realized that the click stick is crapping out on this replacement unit. Will be calling Garmin again tomorrow, and no doubt will be sending this replacement unit in for repair.

 

I need to buy stock in UPS, for all the money I'm spending to send the thing back & forth to Garmin.

 

Very frustrating. At this point, I am wishing I had not bought the Garmin Vista. Their QC appears to be wanting.

 

Civet Cat

[+RTJM]

I've been having the same problem. My Vista has version 3.06 loaded, and turns itself off without warning, even on external power. I have watched it just go blank while tracking down a cache. It will start up and reaquire pretty quickly but it is annoying. What other suggestions does anybody have?

[+raouljan]

I see the "Loss of external power" when I am running on the external power for the cig lighter and I turn the car power off. Sounds to me like the unit thinks it is on external power (read sw bug).

 

Regarding battery-saver mode. The tribal legand has it that when you are in "saver" mode your co-ords aren't as accurate. The GPS calculations are pretty CPU intensive and battery-saver mode "sleeps" the machine. Therefore it is possible that the machine was in mid-calculation when it snoozed. I don't know how true this is... but I turn battery-save off when I am caching.

[macpanther]

Hi all,

 

I have a brand-new eTrex with 3.60 pre-loaded, so I don't think the firmware rev is at issue.

 

At least three conditions seem to accompany the spontaneous shutdowns.

 

• I'm driving (I miss any shutdown warnings that might exist). But speed of recalcing position might be at issue.
  
• Batteries are "low," at least less than half full by the battery level icon.
  
• The map display is being refigured (switch from Nav to map mode) after having display a location miles away.
  

I vote for the computational intensity / power requirement model for explaining this.

 

I can't seem to find a way to set the battery saving mode.

 

I'm not putting duck tape on this.

 

I notice that one battery connection has a spring clip and the other just has two tabs. But the unit was just sitting "still," relatively "level" and not being jarred when this happened.

 

This is annoying as all get-up and erodes ones confidence in the unit.

 

macpanther

[MacBandit]

Hi all,

 

I have a brand-new eTrex with 3.60 pre-loaded, so I don't think the firmware rev is at issue.

 

At least three conditions seem to accompany the spontaneous shutdowns.

• I'm driving (I miss any shutdown warnings that might exist). But speed of recalcing position might be at issue.
  
• Batteries are "low," at least less than half full by the battery level icon.
  
• The map display is being refigured (switch from Nav to map mode) after having display a location miles away.
  

I vote for the computational intensity / power requirement model for explaining this.

 

I can't seem to find a way to set the battery saving mode.

 

I'm not putting duck tape on this.

 

I notice that one battery connection has a spring clip and the other just has two tabs. But the unit was just sitting "still," relatively "level" and not being jarred when this happened.

 

This is annoying as all get-up and erodes ones confidence in the unit.

 

macpanther

What brand and type of batteries do you use?