When GPSrs Go Bad...

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

My Garmin 60 CSx went belly up on me a few weeks ago. I turned it on and got a bunch of horizontal and vertical lines on the screen and that was it. Replaced the batteries, ensured the chip was locked, made sure it wasn't over-heated and..nothing. Turned it on a few days ago and still the "Lines of death" persist.

Any ideas what caused this? Broken display crystal? To many geocaches found with it? I've had the unit just shy of two years. And it was working perfectly the day before this happened. It wasn't dropped, left out in the sun, or exposed to chemicals/water. It still downloads/uploads to the computer and the buttons all seem to work, I just can't get a display on the screen.

I'm not going to get it fixed, as it's cheaper just to get another one. So I now have my 4th GPSr paperweight. But I am curious as to what the problem may be with it.

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:30 am

My guess? Gremlins. Definitely gremlins. Or a broken solder joint. One of the two. I don't really know much about electronics, but I know gremlins. So yeah, I'll go with gremlins Smile

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:08 am

I had my 60CX go bad. E-mailed Garmin and sent in my unit for a refurbished one since it was out of warranty. Cost is $110. A new one is $350 so I opted to go this route. I also bought an Oregon 450. That one is sweet if you are looking to upgrade!

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:39 pm

Did you try it without the chip? I had one memory chip that caused numerous problems. Without the chip, it booted up fine. I had to return to the horrible base maps until I bought a new memory chip and downloaded the maps again. Not sure how the chip goes wacky, but I'm glad it was that and not the unit.

When the bad chip was in, it did two different things at startup. It either went on for one second and turned off or it would start up and freeze on the Acquiring Satellite screen. I've never seen the horizontal or vertical lines.

$110 doesn't sound bad, especially if you've invested in the maps which are tied to that GPSr. I hope Garmin allows someone that goes the refurbished route to get another unlock code for the maps and refurbished unit. Otherwise, use the opportunity to upgrade.

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:35 pm

I had my Garmin e-Trex only a few months and had the vertical line problem...I checked out the GC.com forums and found out all I needed was an update. It was very simple and took only a few minutes. You probably already considered that, but if not, I hope that is all you need to get it back to working order.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

I like the Gremlins thing. It would explain why all four of my Garmins had the exact same problem.