I am really hating my Garmin Forerunner 610 right now!

sjp_511

I cannot get it to charge. The terminals that the charger connects to are on the back, against the skin and without covers. Sweat, dirt, and lint get on them very easily. I have tried cleaning, but it isn't helping. I cannot get the watch to charge at all. I have spent too much time cursing at it.

Anyone have similar issues? How do you handle it?

I love my Garmin when it is working, but since the 1-yr warranty has expired, the watch has been increasingly problematic - even when I can get it to charge. Ugh! My husband has had his Garmin 310 for more than 5 years without a single little problem. I am so frustrated!!

msf74

Have you tried this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYHSV_7Rnk

Garmin products are notoriously buggy.

timeasterday

Every time my 310XT started acting up I just did a hard reset and that always worked. Maybe try that.

sjp_511

My Garmin is a mess. When I apply pressure as shown in the youtube video, the watch beeps and screen turns on, is all black with the Garmin logo. After 10-15 sec the copyright info pops up under the logo for a few seconds. Then the screen goes to the charging screen. It shows 100% charged and the time - which is accurate and not frozen. When taken off charger, the charging screen remains on. The time is then frozen.

I cannot do a hard reset since the watch is not responding to any buttons being pressed.

I have had a slew of other problems with my watch - reverse charging, screen freezing during run (still logged data), and failure to connect/maintain connection to satellite. It is a big headache!

How well is Garmins service? Is it costly?

msf74

I would post your question in the Garmin support forums and see the answers you get before sending it off for repair.

When my garmin chest strap stopped working I almost threw it in the bin. Then I discovered a thread on the support forum which showed reversing the polarity of the battery temporarily solved the problem. Lots of novel workarounds on that place...

sjp_511

I would post your question in the Garmin support forums and see the answers you get before sending it off for repair.

When my garmin chest strap stopped working I almost threw it in the bin. Then I discovered a thread on the support forum which showed reversing the polarity of the battery temporarily solved the problem. Lots of novel workarounds on that place...

Thanks. I have been surfing around their forums and it is making me very irrate that they have such an inferior product! I see several posts of people with the same problems I am having. I am just having so many problems with it all at once and I am not sure what problems are related and which ones aren't. If it wasn't such an expensive watch I would just replace it!

DavPul

i hate it too

alli_baba

Have you tried using an eraser? I've used a general pencil eraser to clean the contacts when the charger is acting buggy and it typically works like a charm.

Good luck!

sjp_511

Have you tried using an eraser? I've used a general pencil eraser to clean the contacts when the charger is acting buggy and it typically works like a charm.

Good luck!

How do you get an eraser to fit in there?

I need to get the contacts cleaned real well and do better at rinsing it off after every run.

ATT949

I cannot get it to charge. The terminals that the charger connects to are on the back, against the skin and without covers. Sweat, dirt, and lint get on them very easily. I have tried cleaning, but it isn't helping. I cannot get the watch to charge at all. I have spent too much time cursing at it.

Anyone have similar issues? How do you handle it?

I love my Garmin when it is working, but since the 1-yr warranty has expired, the watch has been increasingly problematic - even when I can get it to charge. Ugh! My husband has had his Garmin 310 for more than 5 years without a single little problem. I am so frustrated!!

I don't see a mention of your conversation with Garmin tech support. What did they say?

I've been using various Garmin products for 15 years and some of the problems are design issues, some are simply a function of it being a mechanical device (which means it will fail but we just don't know when), and some occur when the user causes the problem, either through lack of routine care or because we just do "dumb stuff" (that's a technical term).

When my 610 started causing my wrist to turn green Garmin RMA'd it and sent me a refurb at no cost.

Good luck with this and, if you get totally frustrated with you 610, contact me off list and I'll sell you my refurb 610 (it's only a few months old) I've replaced with a 620.

sjp_511

I cannot get it to charge. The terminals that the charger connects to are on the back, against the skin and without covers. Sweat, dirt, and lint get on them very easily. I have tried cleaning, but it isn't helping. I cannot get the watch to charge at all. I have spent too much time cursing at it.

Anyone have similar issues? How do you handle it?

I love my Garmin when it is working, but since the 1-yr warranty has expired, the watch has been increasingly problematic - even when I can get it to charge. Ugh! My husband has had his Garmin 310 for more than 5 years without a single little problem. I am so frustrated!!

I don't see a mention of your conversation with Garmin tech support. What did they say?

I've been using various Garmin products for 15 years and some of the problems are design issues, some are simply a function of it being a mechanical device (which means it will fail but we just don't know when), and some occur when the user causes the problem, either through lack of routine care or because we just do "dumb stuff" (that's a technical term).

When my 610 started causing my wrist to turn green Garmin RMA'd it and sent me a refurb at no cost.

Good luck with this and, if you get totally frustrated with you 610, contact me off list and I'll sell you my refurb 610 (it's only a few months old) I've replaced with a 620.

I have not contacted Garmin support. I was seeing some stuff online about how bad they are, but I looked again after seeing this and have found a lot of decent reveiws for Garmin support. I finally got my Garmin to charge and it worked well for my workout last night. Next time it acts up, I will be a little more quick to contact Garmin.

I am going to get in the habit of rinsing off the contacts after every use. I never really was in that habit. My husband had his Garmin 310 for a few years before I bought mine and he doesn't have to do any maintaince. I assumed mine didn't require maintaince - wrong!