Random Restarts and Crashes

[gps_techie]

Etrex SE acted weird with turning-on/off repeatedly. FW is the newest at this time, 3.51.

During a trip, Etrex SE was set to record a path and show stats (i.e. default setup). At some point it turned-off by itself - showed blank screen (unclear why, it was not noticed at first). After turning-on by button, it showed intro video, start screen (option menu), then seemed to reset and show intro video, and repeat with reseting.
On intro menu screen when entering "Tracking" mode manually it shut-off several times. I turned it off after a while.
During this time Etrex was mounted on a moving vehicle and experienced some vibrations (nothing excessive, though, it was done many times before). Unit works well after this glitch.

I thought battery voltage could be an issue, but DMM showed ~1.40-1.42V open circuit per AA battery and ~1.36-1.38 loaded (with batteries removed). Plenty of battery life left, IMO.

I am starting to suspect that internal digital accelerometer (part of digital compass) gets too agitated and throws a reset condition which resets/crashes whole unit. One time it crashed (froze up) while showing a GPX track after small drop.

[luvvinbird]

Etrex SE acted weird with turning-on/off repeatedly. FW is the newest at this time, 3.51.

During a trip, Etrex SE was set to record a path and show stats (i.e. default setup). At some point it turned-off by itself - showed blank screen (unclear why, it was not noticed at first). After turning-on by button, it showed intro video, start screen (option menu), then seemed to reset and show intro video, and repeat with reseting.
On intro menu screen when entering "Tracking" mode manually it shut-off several times. I turned it off after a while.
During this time Etrex was mounted on a moving vehicle and experienced some vibrations (nothing excessive, though, it was done many times before). Unit works well after this glitch.

I thought battery voltage could be an issue, but DMM showed ~1.40-1.42V open circuit per AA battery and ~1.36-1.38 loaded (with batteries removed). Plenty of battery life left, IMO.

I am starting to suspect that internal digital accelerometer (part of digital compass) gets too agitated and throws a reset condition which resets/crashes whole unit. One time it crashed (froze up) while showing a GPX track after small drop.

I experienced something similar shortly after purchasing my SE. I had just successfully navigated to a geocache (my own) and then went on to navigate to a waypoint. While on the way to the waypoint it shut down and restarted twice. I couldn't recall if I had stopped navigation after locating the geocache and attributed the cause to that. Since then I've been careful to stop navigation before proceeding to something else and it has never happened since. But reading your report makes me wonder if it might.

[GPSrChive]

Please send these error reports to Garmin with a zipped copy of your Garmin directory (very important), as outlined on the eTrex SE Common Issues Page!

[luvvinbird]

UPDATE: I sent a detailed email to Garmin product support as suggested here but never received a response. I did, however, get a survey of my experience, go figure. Yesterday, while geocaching, the device kept shutting down and restarting. it did this many times rendering it virtually useless to navigate with. I contacted Garmin Support by phone and outlined the problem to a support specialist who recommended I return it. He did so almost instantly after hearing my experience, suggesting to me he was familiar with the problem. In any case, it went back this morning. It's too bad as I was convinced, save for some minor bugs, that this model was a real winner. Great features and exceptional value caused me to recommend it to many friends and family. I hope the problem is limited to only a few devices.

[GPSrChive]

Are they sending you a new replacement?

[luvvinbird]

Are they sending you a new replacement?

It looks like it. On the exchange summary they list a 010-02734-00 being returned and a 010-02734-00 being received.

[luvvinbird]

Correction. Should read 010-02734-00 returning and a 010-02734-00 receiving.