Is my GPS broken?
 

Hi there!
My GPS Garmin 76S does 'see' satellites but fails to complete the Autolocate procedure. It sees all the satellites right above and almost never one lower on the horizon. The GPS has lived now about 16 000 km on my handlebars and has worked fine till now.
I am currently in Campeche, Mexico, and the problem started when going down the mountains into the real humid and hot tropics.

Time for a new GPS or something I miss?

Any advice appreciated!

Auke

I found this online. You will lose and data you have stored.
I am not sure what user "data to make the unit usable" means.
:oops2:
It could be waypoints, maps ?
Be careful.
76/Map 76/Map 76S

The reported method to completely reset on of these units hold the "menu" key and the "quit" key down and then press the "power on" key. Hold for a full 7 seconds and then release. As with the other units all information will be lost and you will need to reload the almanac and all your saved user data to make the unit usable.
For the 76S try this sequence to master reset it. Press and hold quit, Menu, and the rocker down key. Then press and release the power on key. release the rocker down and wait for the welcome display. Now release the quit and menu keys.

The unit will download the almanac from the satellites once it has located one. It may take 20 minutes or so.

Sounds like the antenna may be struggling to pick up low altitude signals, which are having to come from considerable further away.

It may be damp / water ingress causing poor connections inside?

How old is the unit? Could you open it up somewhere very dry and check the inside for damp / condensation?

problem solved!
 

I updated the software from the Garmin site and reset the unit - got a fix in 30 seconds!

Thanks for replying!

So this would mean that a GPS needs a good clean - a reset - once in a while ?!

Auke

hi Auke,

you are right, every now and then a 'hard reset' is required, unfortunately.
i experienced this with my old streetpilot III and my current cx60.
I owned a new 278c for a while and even that one needed it.

a hard reset doesn't wipe out mapdata, but i cannot recall if it deletes active tracklogs and manually inserted waypoints.

cheers,
sanderd

GPS reception.
 

Hi Auke,

Had a simmilar thing with my eTrex Vista, of course that happend in the middle of the Air mountains in central Sahara Niger. Enough satelites but no fix for 2 days!A bit unnerving :helpsmilie:

Didn't know how to reset it and no internet at hand. After 2 days it suddenly got a fix again, no reset done!

To bad you guys will miss out on Jan's birthday party tomorrow. :clap:

Bon Voyage, :mchappy:

Noel
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