major battery drain Oregon 700

[wanderer]

Hi all -

First post EVER!

Purchased March 2021 (I lost my Oregon 600:( )
Software Version: 6.0

Things tried
1 - Software update from 4.0 to 6.0
2 - factory reset with chip in
3 - factory reset with chip out and clearing of all internal data

Other settings
Battery type set to correct battery
Bluetooth always OFF
Tones always OFF
Screen brightness adjusted to just where I can see it
Screen ALWAYS OFF when I'm not looking at it


I pretty much only monkey with the battery type setting. All the other settings I leave at factory.

I noticed earlier this year 2023 that my battery life was much shorter than usual. Usually if I'm out in the woods and turn my GPS on to track my movements say when hunting, I check it here and there, wander back to camp after sundown, and I'll still have a bit of juice at the end of the day and into the next day. Now when I'm out, maybe 2-3 hours after putting a fresh pair of Duracell or Energizer (same as I have always used) Ill get the alert that battery life is low.

After I did the software update to 6.0 as mentioned above, I noticed no increase in battery life. Still about the 2-3 hours, 4 maybe until DEAD.

After I did a factory reset with chip in, I set the device in my backyard with device powered ON, but screen OFF. Also to note, I had not STARTED tracking. No change in battery life. Still the 2-4 hours.

I did another factory reset (after taking my OnX hunt chip out of the unit), set the device in my backyard with device powered ON, but screen OFF - and voila after 7 hours of it sitting there, I got the same error message.

Not sure what else to add to this post, info that would be helpful. Maybe that percentage of internal memory used was very low, probably max 15%.

Anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this?

Thanks for your help.

Jason in AZ

[wanderer]

Update -

Got a reply from Garmin about my Oregon 700. They said that I've tried all of the procedures that they would recommend and that I should just buy a new unit.

[mity!]

It probably doesn't fit to your problem as you described it but I had recently some battery issues, too.

I first noticed that I got a battery warning with quite freshly charged batteries (I am using Eneloop Pro). I could observe even spontaneous shutdowns after only some hours of use. After switching the unit on again, the battery indicator showed me a quite full battery again. And recharging the battery showed that it was not completely discharged at all.

I then noticed, that pushing one of the side buttons seemed to drain the battery dramatically (at least on the battery indicator) which afterwards recovered again. I already feared that my unit (a 6 or 7 years old O750t) could have reached its end of life (i.e. aged caacitors) when I became aware that the same effect of spontaneous battery drain occured at any harder "squeeze" of the case.

That was the moment of remembering an old problem of my former GPSMAP 60csx: The "inner" battery contacts. The spring steel for the batteries was not soldered to the main board but simply pressed on some contact pads on it.

So I finally opened the unit by unskrewing the backside with the battery compartment. And I found a quite similar construction. It seemed to be improved in comparison to the GPSMAP 60csx but in the end it is again a "spring contact". The tip of the spring steel is pointed sharply and left a scratching point on the contact pads. I rebent the spring steel for more pressure and "cleaned" the contact pads. They were not dirty - the sealing works really fine - but I suppose that caused by the pointed tip of the spring steel and the corresponding scratch mark on the contact pad there was just a very small contact point when the tip moved just a little out of its "scratched bed" and produced a bigger input resistance.

After that operation my unit works just fine. And a set of Eneloops lasts for at least 8 hours again...

[wanderer]

Hey thanks for the information. I'll have to crack it open and look around. I thought that maybe something was happening inside, because nothing had changed when things turned south battery wise.

Much appreciated.