Garmin not recognised on laptop even with plug in

ForumNewbie

I have tried to download my Garmin rides via my wife's laptop as my PC in for repairs. Garmin Connect and Strava did not find my Garmin when connected so I downloaded to Communicator plug-in from the Garmin site as it said, but the sites still don't recognise my Garmin device.

Any ideas on how to fix this so that I can download my rides?

WiganLardster

I've noticed the same problem with my garmin edge 200, the only remedy seems to be to keep unplugging it and reconnecting it until the computer 'sees' the device. It never did this when I got it a year ago, seems to be an age (or use) related problem :x

pinarellokid

garmins are so unreliable. its usually damp which has got into the plug and coroded the pins..

lots of info if you google

ForumNewbie

I'll try it again, but it always works in my PC. Seems to be the laptop rather than the Garmin that is the problem.

Peddle Up!

I found the Garmin plug-in to be temperamental. Try uninstalling it, reboot to make sure that any drivers are unloaded then reinstall. Reboot again, disconnect any other USB devices from the laptop then connect the Garmin. Good luck!

southdownswolf

Are you able to see the Garmin drive folder on the Laptop? If so, you should be able to grab the file and manually import to Connect & Strava.

pinarellokid

the best thing Garmin ever did way make the uploads wireless

shame they cant make their devises waterproof

diamonddog

southdownswolf wrote:

Are you able to see the Garmin drive folder on the Laptop? If so, you should be able to grab the file and manually import to Connect & Strava.

+1for this, I found it the easiest way to upload really straightforward.

amaferanga

pinarellokid wrote:

the best thing Garmin ever did way make the uploads wireless

shame they cant make their devises waterproof

I've never had issues with an Edge 205, Edge 500, Etrex HCx and Edge 800. My Forerunner 310xt that uploads wirelessly on the other hand would often taken a dozen attempts to upload a single ride. So I don't really agree that the wireless upload is the future (unless Garmin can sort their software out... ha ha).

patrickf

Try about a million other USB cables. My Garmin Edge 800 is extremely picky about the USB cables I use.

I even used a cable for ages at work before it started becoming temperamental. Changed it for a cable I knew worked before and it's absolutely fine.

It appears that thinner cables work better. Perhaps less resistance?

southdownswolf

amaferanga wrote:

pinarellokid wrote:

the best thing Garmin ever did way make the uploads wireless

shame they cant make their devises waterproof

I've never had issues with an Edge 205, Edge 500, Etrex HCx and Edge 800. My Forerunner 310xt that uploads wirelessly on the other hand would often taken a dozen attempts to upload a single ride. So I don't really agree that the wireless upload is the future (unless Garmin can sort their software out... ha ha).

My phone (sony xperia s) has Ant+ built in and I find is easier to upload my 310xt via that than I do via the laptop. The Edge 800 is fine via cable though, although sometimes easier to start Garmin Connect before attaching the unit via usb.

southdownswolf

No problems with either being waterproof, the Edge did my JOGLE with some VERY wet days with no problems.

pinarellokid

if you take the emotion of your own Garmin out of the conversation, the statistics speak loudly..
there are loads of cases of garmins failing.
i would love to buy one but am just scared to pay £400 for an 810 for it to die in 12 months.

and for garmin to offer me £75 as a trade in on a new one is a total disgrace.

just my tuppence worth.
currently struggling along with my iphone hoping Strava bring a navigation edge to their software

southdownswolf

pinarellokid wrote:

if you take the emotion of your own Garmin out of the conversation, the statistics speak loudly..
there are loads of cases of garmins failing.
i would love to buy one but am just scared to pay £400 for an 810 for it to die in 12 months.

and for garmin to offer me £75 as a trade in on a new one is a total disgrace.

just my tuppence worth.
currently struggling along with my iphone hoping Strava bring a navigation edge to their software

No emotion involved in my post, I rather think that it is YOU that has the emotion involved regarding Garmin.
As for statistics, yes some Garmin's fail and you will hear about it all over the internet. But I bet it is only a small proportion of their actual sales. As with anything, you always hear about the bad cases....
I bet Garmin's, except in a few cases, are more waterproof than your iPhone......

djm501

Mine did this with one computer and then another and then another.

I spent many days slagging off Garmin and the quality of their devices.

As a last resort before sending it back to them I bought a couple of new USB cables off amazon at £1.49 each.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C ... UTF8&psc=1

Now it works perfectly. What you think is the Garmin may just be the cables. I have rescinded my previous low opinion of them.

Corrosion of the cables can be a problem. If you use it in the wet don't plug a back up battery into the socket without a good coating of vaseline around the contact area. When you finish the ride don't plug it in until it's thoroughly dry.

In short - it's almost certainly the cables as others have said above.

diamonddog

viewtopic.php?f=40013&t=12939910
Lots of happy Garmin users on this thread.

Mikey23

Another happy 500 user bunny here. I think the advice is to only use the cable that it comes with and to watch out for bent or corroded connectors on the device

Grill

I've had the issue before and it's almost always solved with a reboot of my laptop. There have been cases where certain USB cables don't recognize it as well.

UpTheWall

southdownswolf wrote:

pinarellokid wrote:

if you take the emotion of your own Garmin out of the conversation, the statistics speak loudly..
there are loads of cases of garmins failing.
i would love to buy one but am just scared to pay £400 for an 810 for it to die in 12 months.

and for garmin to offer me £75 as a trade in on a new one is a total disgrace.

just my tuppence worth.
currently struggling along with my iphone hoping Strava bring a navigation edge to their software

No emotion involved in my post, I rather think that it is YOU that has the emotion involved regarding Garmin.
As for statistics, yes some Garmin's fail and you will hear about it all over the internet. But I bet it is only a small proportion of their actual sales. As with anything, you always hear about the bad cases....
I bet Garmin's, except in a few cases, are more waterproof than your iPhone......

I'm frickin emotional about my Edge 810. More buggy than a baby's pushchair.

And the same for everyone in my cycling club, so it's not anecdotal.

Garmin are renowned for low quality assurance of their products - they know they have the market cornered, so release software with many issues.

I have many reproducible software faults that they wont fix.

rolf_f

UpTheWall wrote:

southdownswolf wrote:

pinarellokid wrote:

if you take the emotion of your own Garmin out of the conversation, the statistics speak loudly..
there are loads of cases of garmins failing.
i would love to buy one but am just scared to pay £400 for an 810 for it to die in 12 months.

and for garmin to offer me £75 as a trade in on a new one is a total disgrace.

just my tuppence worth.
currently struggling along with my iphone hoping Strava bring a navigation edge to their software

No emotion involved in my post, I rather think that it is YOU that has the emotion involved regarding Garmin.
As for statistics, yes some Garmin's fail and you will hear about it all over the internet. But I bet it is only a small proportion of their actual sales. As with anything, you always hear about the bad cases....
I bet Garmin's, except in a few cases, are more waterproof than your iPhone......

I'm frickin emotional about my Edge 810. More buggy than a baby's pushchair.

And the same for everyone in my cycling club, so it's not anecdotal.

Garmin are renowned for low quality assurance of their products - they know they have the market cornered, so release software with many issues.

I have many reproducible software faults that they wont fix.

My 810 is fine. At least, once I got rid of crappy Strava live segments it was. Infact, I'll be rolling it back to a 2014 firmware as Garmin introduced a bug that stops it working with a hub dynamo. They don't even acknowledge that as a fault presumably as the solution is to buy their £70 charging device. Fortunately, there have been no changes to the firmware since 2014 that I need or care about but I'm annoyed that Garmin tried to pretend that they couldn't provide me with that firmware themselves. But yes, really the device is absolutely fine.

Craig0657

Having the exact same issue, Garmin is still charging when plugged into the PC but now not going into "mass storage mode"

I've found the simplest solution to be to save all rides to the SD card and then plug that into the computer and manually upload the file to strava.