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Friday, September 19, 2008

Garmin Down

As I was getting ready for my 3 miler today, I strapped on the Garmin, fresh off its charger, and turned it on. Nothing. I pressed the "power" button harder. Nothing. Held the "power" button down for 5 seconds. Nothing. Ack! I then tried pushing the power button over and over hoping that magically it would remember that it was supposed to turn ON. But...nothing. So I pressed every button on the Garmin and, yup, you guessed it. Nothing. I put it back on the charger and the screen remained blank. Nothing. Nothing. And more nothing.

So I ran my 3 miles without the Garmin, and vowed to deal with it when I got home. Running the 3 without the Big G was a bit like running blind, and I even caught myself looking down at my wrist a few times only to then remember that Garmy was at home.

After the run, I consulted the owner's manual only to discover that it offers no troubleshooting directions regarding a problem of this nature, and because the Garmin is 2 years old, the limited warranty has worn off. However, with a little more careful reading in the manual, I found a section that directed me to hold the "lap" button and the "mode" button simultaneously to reset the unit. And...it worked! I healed it! So, now it seems to be working just fine.

Phew! That gave me some panic. I mean, I wouldn't mind having a legit reason to finally go out and purchase the 405, but by getting the most life out of this one, I can save myself the dinero of an upgrade. Ahhhh, now I can go enjoy my Friday evening. Thank you Garmin gods.

22 comments:

Running Jen said...

Glad you got it working. I'm thinking about getting one, but I just can't decide if I really want one.

MN Mom said...

Garmin Good! Running without it Bad...

Christie said...

I don't know what it is, but everyone's been having Garmin issues these days. Good thing you fixed yours. Who has the funds for another Garmin in this economy?

Marci said...

Glad its working. I discovered today my ipod is likely toast. It got wet when I ran Quebec and kept dousing myself with water to stay cool.

E said...

Good thing you got it to work again!

Razz said...

I'm going to have to bookmark this post just in case. :)

Marlene said...

PHEW!

Mine's been doing that lately and thankfully the "lap" and "mode" button trick worked.

Anonymous said...

Glad you were able to solve the Garmin problem. I am on my 3rd Garmin due to different issues. Luckily, REI took them back and gave me new ones without question. They say it is pretty common.

TNTcoach Ken said...

Ha, I remember when we used to run without anything. We ran uphill all the time. Back in my day, we didn't even have watches, no music, no roads. We just chased dinosaurs....

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you healed your garmin.

Unknown said...

phew! broken garmin would be a bad thing!

raulgonemobile said...

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago. The only ill effects I noticed from doing the reset was that my data wouldn't import correctly into SportTracks. I erased the history, and all was well again.

Marcy said...

Ahhhhh that was close! Glad you got it up and running ;-)

teacherwoman said...

Nice work with the garmin!

Wes said...

Thanks for that tidbit. I usually put mine on the charger until it magically comes back to life (in a day or two). I like your solution much better :-)

keith said...

The inconvenience sounds like a perfectly viable excuse to go get a 405.

J~Mom said...

Whew, that was a close one. My shuffle keeps doing that kind of thing off and on. DIE SHUFFLE DIE.

Aron said...

whew that was close!! i will have to remember that trick just incase mine every decides to do that!

Aron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MNFirefly said...

Jess, I had happen to me. E-mail me and I will help you with the solution. It will require a hard reset.

mrjwhit~ said...

Glad you got it working. I really appreciate my Garmin. You haven't heard a rant until you've heard some of my colorful words for the nike plus system. My Garmin has been faithful for years. Thanks for telling me about the reset function.

Viv said...

Oh good! Those things are to expensive to go to shit after two years.