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60cs Shuts Off?


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My 60CS shut off while hiking and I got it to it by tapping it in my hand.

 

What's the story with this problem some of us has have? Is this a real problem or just isolated to a few?

 

Is there a fix from Garmin out there? I use PowerEX 2200 NiMH's. I've had no problem in the past but this concerns me now.

 

They offered to have me send it in to look at it.

 

Capt.

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I'm experiencing the same problems. I'm nearly 100% certain the problem is caused by the batteries losing connection with the terminals when the bottom of the unit is bumped.

 

I can temporarily fix the problem by shoving some paper toweling behind the battery terminals but after about 2 weeks the paper becomes compressed and the same symptoms return.

 

I emailed garmin but they did not believe it was caused by the batteries and asked for me to return it to them for service. I was hoping they could provide some sort of spacer to put behind the battery terminals.

Edited by Crossbar
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I read another thread on this subject and the problem for them was as much side to side movement. One owner put a spacer between the batteries and that cured his problem. You might want to look at this also.

A garmin tech suggested putting a piece of foam in there. But it wasn't clear as to how. Between the batteries? or between the outer door and the batteries?

 

I don't like the idea of jerry rigging it if they have a better battery holding system now. He seemed to say that they would do something in the battery compartment.

 

I'm going to send it in when I can get anotherr one to borrow.

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My 60 has also been turning off quite frequently of late. It started out as what seemed like an isolated incident lo those many months ago but has progressed to something of a regular thing.

 

Annoying as hell and I've definitely got to do something about it. Send it in? The horror!

 

Maybe when it gets close to the end of that year warranty!

 

-=-

michelle

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Take a small peice of dense foam and cut it into 5 pieces, 4 about the size of a peanut M&M and 1 the size of a quarter but about 4x thicker. Put the small pieces behind the battery terminals so that the tabs have pressure on them from behind and will hold the battery snug. Put the large piece between the batteries and the door. I know this is not the way we would all like to do things but untill Garmin fixes the problem this is the only way to solve it, if you send it in they will only bend out the tabs and send it back, the problem will come back. It worked very well for me now no amount of vibration will shut down the unit.

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To those who have had only RECENT "shutting off" problems:

 

I think this is a beta software issue. Mine has been shutting off since I updated to the latest beta software, while plugged into the cigarette lighter of my car, so it's not the batteries. Also, the problem is 100% repeatable -- it shuts off every time at exactly the same location when I drive to work every day. Whether I'm going or coming, and without regard to how long the unit has been on, whether it is shaking, etc., within about 20 feet of one specific location, it just shuts off. Pressing the on/off button doesn't turn it back on, you have to press it twice. Same thing every time. It did not do this before I updated the firmware.

 

And it's not just that one location, it's just that I finally discovered that that one location is what triggers the shut-off. I noticed it shut off while driving before (after updating to the beta software), and figured it was some sort of hardware issue. Now I realize it must be the software.

 

By the way, if Garmin is listening, the 60CS will shut off when you cross over I-495 on Leesburg Pike in Vienna (McLean?), Virginia. Right on the bridge, it turns off. Very odd. The only unusual thing I can think about that spot is that the cross-streets you approach are labelled "47A" and "47B" -- the exit/ramp numbers, but that's sort of an unusual name, rather than "Exit 47A" or "Ramp" or whatever.

 

In any case, try to make a note of where you are when it shuts off, then take that same route again the next day and see if it happens again. It can't just be me that this is happening to! :o

Edited by 4x5shooter
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small peice of dense foam [ ... ] s behind the battery terminals so that the tabs have pressure on them from behind and will hold the battery snug. Put the large piece between the batteries and the door. I

FWIW, a 60CS that was shipped last week has small foam rubber pads on the backs of all four battery terminals, presumably to help with this very problem. Are you folks saying that your unit doesn't have these pads or that they're too wimpy?

 

Be cautious about getting too much pressure on the back panel, though. I'd guess that lowering the pressure on the gasket might compromise the water seal. (OTOH, looking at three rubber plugs, I doubt that the battery compartment is the weakest link anyway...)

 

I do hope that those of you experiencing problems with betas are contacting the maker directly with your feedback - that's sort of the point of beta programs.

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To those who have had only RECENT "shutting off" problems:

 

I think this is a beta software issue. Mine has been shutting off since I updated to the latest beta software, while plugged into the cigarette lighter of my car, so it's not the batteries. Also, the problem is 100% repeatable -- it shuts off every time at exactly the same location when I drive to work every day. Whether I'm going or coming, and without regard to how long the unit has been on, whether it is shaking, etc., within about 20 feet of one specific location, it just shuts off. Pressing the on/off button doesn't turn it back on, you have to press it twice. Same thing every time. It did not do this before I updated the firmware.

 

And it's not just that one location, it's just that I finally discovered that that one location is what triggers the shut-off. I noticed it shut off while driving before (after updating to the beta software), and figured it was some sort of hardware issue. Now I realize it must be the software.

 

By the way, if Garmin is listening, the 60CS will shut off when you cross over I-495 on Leesburg Pike in Vienna (McLean?), Virginia. Right on the bridge, it turns off. Very odd. The only unusual thing I can think about that spot is that the cross-streets you approach are labelled "47A" and "47B" -- the exit/ramp numbers, but that's sort of an unusual name, rather than "Exit 47A" or "Ramp" or whatever.

 

In any case, try to make a note of where you are when it shuts off, then take that same route again the next day and see if it happens again. It can't just be me that this is happening to! :o

Try to load the previous version back in and see what happens at the point of previous shut offs at the bridge and let me know.

 

I can't go back to my shut off spots because it's on top of a mountian that I don't plan on going back too.

 

Also bumping it in my hand it shut off. Not on the first bumps but it did shut off. But I don't think I was bumping it while hiking at the point of shut off so I'm still open to the beta doing it.

 

Capt.

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small peice of dense foam [ ... ] s behind the battery terminals so that the tabs have pressure on them from behind and will hold the battery snug. Put the large piece between the batteries and the door. I

FWIW, a 60CS that was shipped last week has small foam rubber pads on the backs of all four battery terminals, presumably to help with this very problem. Are you folks saying that your unit doesn't have these pads or that they're too wimpy?

 

Be cautious about getting too much pressure on the back panel, though. I'd guess that lowering the pressure on the gasket might compromise the water seal. (OTOH, looking at three rubber plugs, I doubt that the battery compartment is the weakest link anyway...)

 

I do hope that those of you experiencing problems with betas are contacting the maker directly with your feedback - that's sort of the point of beta programs.

I don't have any pads in the unit. I got mine in April. If I send mine in for the repair I believe that's what they'll do. I hope it's a good rubber or foam as certain grades of foam will lose the resiliency. Rubber would be better.

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My 60c (purchased about 10 days ago) also has the pads. If anyone wants to track the timeframe in which they seem to have added the pads, mine is serial number 379247XX.

Will I be able to make these pads by myself ?

 

I never had shutdowns until I tryed to do it on purpose - shaked it hard and it shut off.

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I've had my 60CS for about three weeks and it too has the foam pads behind the battery terminals. My unit's serial number is also 38019xxx.

 

My unit shipped with firmware 3.30 from the factory, but I've been running it with version 3.42 and 3.43 since day one and I've never experienced a shut off problem with it. In fact, I took it on a boating trip last weekend out on the ocean and it got beat around pretty good due to the boat slapping on the water in the waves. It still never shut off on me.

Edited by TheOfficeMaven
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I believe they should have a kit for us to upgrade too. And sent out free for the asking.

 

After all this isn't a $99.00 special here.

 

I still love the unit though and what they've done for us in changes in software,etc.

 

And they have offered to have a look and do something for me.

 

Go Garmin.

 

p.s. There is one thing that bothers me. When I use the right angle MCX connector for antenna it won't snap in all the way because the jack in the back case is recessed. I have to put a heavy elastic around it. If I use a straight MCX it sticks out far so when I put in in the case it pokes out and is also difficult to get in and out.

Edited by capt caper
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I believe they should have a kit for us to upgrade too. And sent out free for the asking.

 

After all this isn't a $99.00 special here.

 

I still love the unit though and what they've done for us in changes in software,etc.

 

And they have offered to have a look and do something for me.

 

Go Garmin.

 

p.s. There is one thing that bothers me. When I use the right angle MCX connector for antenna it won't snap in all the way because the jack in the back case is recessed. I have to put a heavy elastic around it. If I use a straight MCX it sticks out far so when I put in in the case it pokes out and is also difficult to get in and out.

Just go my 60CS in the mail yesterday. Checked and it indeed has pads in the battery compartment. Batteries are extremely snug.

 

FYI the unit came with firmware 3.40 installed on it.

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I got curious and looked to see if I had the pads behind the clips. Lo and behold I do! And I got mine 27 May! It had v 3.20 S/N is 380120xx. i usually replace the batteries at my desk where the lighting isn't so bright (so my middle-aged eyes can see the monitor). I use Energizer 2300 mAhers which fit very snugly. Never had it shut off on me yet.

Edited by Centex Trekker
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p.s. There is one thing that bothers me. When I use the right angle MCX connector for antenna it won't snap in all the way because the jack in the back case is recessed. I have to put a heavy elastic around it. If I use a straight MCX it sticks out far so when I put in in the case it pokes out and is also difficult to get in and out.

I have an antenna with a right angle as well. It goes in far enough to work but does look like it could go in further. As a note though the connector on my antenna is so tight I have to use a screwdriver to pry it back out.

 

Also I have not had the shut off issue. I'm still running sw version 3.30. Unfortunately my GPS has gone flying more then once and in none of those occasions has it shutoff due to the impact.

Edited by MacBandit
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That little orange thing in the hole the battery compartment door lock hooks into looks interesting - mine does not have that.

Actually, once I posted the picts, I noticed that too... It must have been some sort of reflection or something, because there is nothng orange there now. :D

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To change the subject slightly - as I mentioned above, mine would shut off at certain locations with 3.43beta. I've tried v3.5 now, and the problem is still there. No problems with v3.4, so it's clearly some new bug in the s/w upgrade. I've done some experimenting and it's also clear it only happens when "guidance text" is set to "always on," and it doesn't happen during a route. So I'm guessing it has something to do with it trying to display "47A ahead" in the guidance text box (which is what it is trying to display at the spot where it shuts off). Also, I noticed it doesn't always shut off -- sometimes it just resets (jumps to the power-up screen and re-powers up). I'll send another bug report to Garmin. In the meantime, I have to use v3.4.

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p.s. There is one thing that bothers me. When I use the right angle MCX connector for antenna it won't snap in all the way because the jack in the back case is recessed. I have to put a heavy elastic around it. If I use a straight MCX it sticks out far so when I put in in the case it pokes out and is also difficult to get in and out.

I have an antenna with a right angle as well. It goes in far enough to work but does look like it could go in further. As a note though the connector on my antenna is so tight I have to use a screwdriver to pry it back out.

 

Also I have not had the shut off issue. I'm still running sw version 3.30. Unfortunately my GPS has gone flying more then once and in none of those occasions has it shutoff due to the impact.

Give it time and it will come out easier for sure. Also at that point it will come out enough to lose contact for reception. At that point I had to put a lobster claw rubber band to keep from losing the signal. The band has to be on tight.

 

This is with the right angle MCX from Gilsson's antenna.

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Same here.

 

After implimenting the rubber tabs under 2 of the 4 clips ( at opposite ends) I did not get 1 shut down while caching! Thanx again for the pics!!

 

Also, that organge area, I know inside mine, it has a brass-colored look to it. Hopefully you orange is not rust ! Probably just an anomoly from the picture.

 

Thanks again so much for the pics!! I'm sure you've helped alot of people!

Not having to send the gps away for repair is always a good thing! :smile:

 

-Jayloki-

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I've had my 60cs since late May and been following this thread for a while now but oddly enough my unit has no pads under the contacts as seen in the previous pictures and nothing I have tried to :huh: do to it causes it to shut down. Anyway just wanted to contribute some data concerning the behavior of this design.

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Wiz: Just wait, trust me, it will happen. You'll look at it and go Hmm..the batteries must have been too low or some other reason and you'll turn it back on and it will do the same thing. But!! At least know you won't have to send it away!

The solution is truly at hand here. I put some tabs behind 2 of mine and whalla!! No more shut downs!

 

-Jayloki-

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I've had my 60cs since late May and been following this thread for a while now but oddly enough my unit has no pads under the contacts as seen in the previous pictures and nothing I have tried to  :huh: do to it causes it to shut down.  Anyway just wanted to contribute some data concerning the behavior of this design.

Try to drop it from 1 foot height on the carpet floor.

Edited by vr12
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I've had my 60cs since late May and been following this thread for a while now but oddly enough my unit has no pads under the contacts as seen in the previous pictures and nothing I have tried to  :huh: do to it causes it to shut down.  Anyway just wanted to contribute some data concerning the behavior of this design.

Try to drop it from 1 foot height on the carpet floor.

The method I used is to simply hold the GPS normally, hold out your other hand and strike the bottom end of the unit onto the palm of the empty hand (you have to do this quite hard in some cases so hold the GPS very firmly and don't hurt the palm of your hand). If your unit has the problem, this should trigger it. I found that if the sound that the unit makes is a solid sounding thud, then the unit will likely NOT stut down. If the unit sounds "spingy" (for lack of a better description), the unit may indeed shut down.

Edited by SergZak
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I've had my 60cs since late May and been following this thread for a while now but oddly enough my unit has no pads under the contacts as seen in the previous pictures and nothing I have tried to :huh: do to it causes it to shut down. Anyway just wanted to contribute some data concerning the behavior of this design.

Different battery brands have slightly different sizes, both in length and diameter (especially rechargables). This has alot to do with whether or not your unit will shut down or not

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Striking my palm with the unit is precisely the method I used here to make my determination. I believe I'll leave the drop on carpet test to the foolhardy crashtest dummy but do wanna give my thanks in advance for your sacrifice and any results when available. For the record, the batteries here involved in my original palm test with good results are the 2300mah NMh Energizer cells.

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I am thinking of getting a 60cs. Is anyone here still having problems with the belt clip coming off? Heard this was a problem a while back, has Garmin done anything to fix this?

 

I assume there is a round knob for the belt clip to attach to. Can anyone tell me where there are pictures of the back side of a 60c/cs? I was wondering how this worked? Is the knob still there when you don't use the belt clip?

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Well I've got an update on my shutdowns. I hiked for two days this weekend and found that on the way in it was o.k. the first day. One the way out the second I changed just before leaving and had a few shut downs within a few hours.

 

I took the batteries out and reinstalled them and all was fine for the last 2 hours. But I've never had shut down's since April til recently and I've used it alot.

 

So my conclusion now is that the terminals or a terminal might be loseing strength,spring,reflex to hold the contact with the batteries.

 

I will run it with tonite with fully charged batteries til it runs out and see if it shuts down before a long run of time. I've gotten at least 10 hrs. on batteries so it should do it inside. If it shuts down premature then something on the inside is failing.

 

Capt.

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I assume there is a round knob for the belt clip to attach to.  Can anyone tell me where there are pictures of the back side of a 60c/cs?  I was wondering how this worked?  Is the knob still there when you don't use the belt clip?

Here are some picts of the back including one of the belt clip attached:

 

knob removed:

60cs-nostud.jpg

 

knob attached:

60cs-stud.jpg

 

belt clip attached:

60cs-beltclip.jpg

 

Hope these picts help!

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Also having the same shut down problem with my 60CS. Interesting in that it didn't start happening till I installed the firmware update 3.5. I suppose it simply could be the battery clip pressure... I do not have the pads mentioned in these threads. I can't really tell from the pix... are there pads actually added INSIDE or behind the clips? Will need to try this, but am interested if after this modification if people are still having the problem. Never happened before, and now I'm seeing all these threads... suspicious if firmware related.

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The only problems I've had with my 60C are that the knob fell off on an 11-mile hike (found .2 miles from where the brush began to thicken to ugly proportions, which I cured with the use of some Lock-Tite (blue) on the threading.

 

The other is that occasionally I find coordinates 'alter' themselves in the unit when downloaded from MapSource. On 3 occasions over the last month, I've been out caching, only to be 200-300' off wandering in a place where there is little likelihood of a cache being hidden. Once I verify the PDA download (using the same file to download to the GPS), I find the discrepancy, correct it and go on about my business.

 

Anyone else had that problem?

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I have the older 76S and I also have the 60C. The 76S battery compartment is a bit better than the 60C. I had wished that the 60C was a little bit heavier and better made. I have not had any problems with either the 76S or 60C. On the 60C I never had software problems even though I done a few firmware upgrades, and I never remember any shut-offs with either GPS.

 

The 60C of mine has been so much better than my 2 GPS V units, since Ive had alot of firmware probs with the V's and alot of the shut-offs because the GPS V uses 4 batteries, and the older GPS V is so loose due to wear and the newer GPS V is pretty snug in the battery compartment. I do prefer a GPS with 2 batteries than one with 4 batteries also.

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The only problems I've had with my 60C are that the knob fell off on an 11-mile hike (found .2 miles from where the brush began to thicken to ugly proportions, which I cured with the use of some Lock-Tite (blue) on the threading.

 

The other is that occasionally I find coordinates 'alter' themselves in the unit when downloaded from MapSource. On 3 occasions over the last month, I've been out caching, only to be 200-300' off wandering in a place where there is little likelihood of a cache being hidden. Once I verify the PDA download (using the same file to download to the GPS), I find the discrepancy, correct it and go on about my business.

 

Anyone else had that problem?

I might have had that problem with the waypoints being off. I'm not sure what exactly is the situation. I believe no all of the waypoints are off just some.

 

So what do you think is happening? And how to fix? I didn't clearly understand what you meant.

 

Capt.

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Also having the same shut down problem with my 60CS. Interesting in that it didn't start happening till I installed the firmware update 3.5. I suppose it simply could be the battery clip pressure... I do not have the pads mentioned in these threads. I can't really tell from the pix... are there pads actually added INSIDE or behind the clips? Will need to try this, but am interested if after this modification if people are still having the problem. Never happened before, and now I'm seeing all these threads... suspicious if firmware related.

Seemed that way with me also. I never had problems since April. It happened to me on Aug. 1st. 3.50 didn't come out til the 8th. Alhough I had the beta version.

 

But also it could be the clips are losing some of there spring.

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