Garmin 800 died mid-ride, full battery

Ands

My Garmin 800 died 2hrs into a ride yesterday, on a full battery. I glanced down just in time to see the screen go black, from top to bottom, like someone pulling a blind down. Pressing the power button did nothing - it just seemed completely dead.

When I got home, I plugged it in to USB & mains but it didn't bleep and I still couldn't turn it on. In the end, I held the power button for about 10 secs and it came back to life (wish I had done this on my ride). The battery was showing as 81% charged. I can power it on/off as normal but the backlight is no longer working.

Has anyone else had this happen to them - either device failing mid-ride or backlight not working?

mjbennett

Has it got damp by any chance? My garmin is excellent when it's dry, but when it gets damp it's unreliable. once it's been damp it's a nightmare to upload.
It could also be possible that you stopped the timer, then it will auto power off.

saprkzz

My 800 gets a real beating from my MTB getting covered in mud and rain and is very reliable, the only thing that has happened to it it switched off coming down Cwmcarn, it appears to not like vibration.

You dont remember hitting a pothole and something like that?

Gizmodo

I agree with sparkzz, mine has been used in the worst of the winter, long rides in downpours, mountain biking in frozen conditions, it has never missed a beat. Time to contact Garmin as presumably it is still under warranty. There are forums on the Garmin web site as well that may be able to offer more specific advice.

Let us know how you get on please.

Ands

Possibly vibration related - I'd just done a 4km descent on a pretty awful road surface and it died about 3-4 mins after that. I'm not really electronically minded, but the fact the backlight is not working, would that be something like a loose connection on the circuit?

Not sure about the warranty - my original purchase was Dec 2010 but I had the unit replaced under warranty last June. So this unit is less than 12 month's old.

whojanicanackerov

That`s a bit off putting.

Ands

whojanicanackerov wrote:

That`s a bit off putting.

I've been very pleased with the 800 so far, and not really had any reliability issues, and Garmin customer support has been excellent in the 3 dealings I've had with them. Pretty hacked off yesterday tho as it was the longest ride I'd done in a year, with the most climbing, and a new climb I'd not done before . Fortunately I didn't lose the ride data for the bit I did do (which included the new climb) but I've lost the 2nd half of the ride. What will be a pain is having to send it off and be without it for 10 days or more.

The other thing that happened was that about 10 days ago, I switched it on and it had reset itself - it asked for language settings, etc as soon as I swtiched it on. It had lost all my user & bike settings and screen configurations, so I had to redo my timer pages, my bike profiles and personal data.

rolf_f

Ands wrote:

Not sure about the warranty - my original purchase was Dec 2010 but I had the unit replaced under warranty last June. So this unit is less than 12 month's old.

A warranty isn't there to say "if you buy this item you can expect it to last a couple of years and then fall to bits" - it is there on the assumption that any manufacturing defect will take no more than two years to show up.

Therefore, a brand new unit, replaced under warranty, should have the guarantee reset; it may have a manufacturing defect and that defect may take two years to show. If they try to argue about this they are charlatans. I went through about 9 table lamps from Argos once over a period of at least two years - after about six months, one of the two light fittings would stop working permanently. Eventually, they gave me one that worked and I've had that one about 10 years!

Ands

Well, managed to find out that the backlight does still work - I had inadvertently turned the brightness right down, which I now understand happens when you press the power button several times in succession (a shortcut I wasn't aware of) :oops:

So, no need to return to Garmin support. Still not best pleased about it powering off mid-ride, however, but at least it's working.

g4ogami

Just thought i'd share my experience. Garmin 800 back light would not turn on. Having read some of the earlier posts something told me to try the screen calibrate option... and wouldn't you know it... bam! back light on and fixed.

So to surmise try the screen calibrate option... worked for me.