Montana 700 Map Screen Redraw Issue [Bug 54], Startup Issue, and Small Request

[LostAgain]

Received another email today, they've created a case in their system and are waiting for me to return the 700 for repair/replacement.
Hopefully whatever they send back will work correctly

[LostAgain]

12 days ago I received an express package from Garmin containing a replacement 700, not sure if it's new or refurbished but it has a different serial number to the previous one, there was no paperwork or email with it explaining anything.

Today I finally had the time to try it out...

Unboxed it, put the battery in, took it outside and turned it on.
Within about 20 seconds it had a good satellite lock then it started beeping about low battery.
Turned it off, took it back inside and plugged it into the charger via it's USB port.

It kept beeping it'd lost external power instead of showing as charging, when I powered it down manually it never showed the battery charge icon or charge level as it should have, just a black screen like it had powered off completely, even though still plugged in to the charger.
I then unplugged the USB and placed the 700 in the USB powered cradle & connected the cradle to power, and the resulting behaviour is even worse, as you'll see in the videos below.
Again powering down manually did not show the battery charging icon as expected, just a blank screen as if the device had powered down completely.

Videos showing what happens when trying to charge the battery via the USB charger and the cradle.

Using the charger via it's USB port:




Using the powered cradle:



In the cradle video I turned it back on manually by the power button after it'd shut down, no change.
The tick tick tick noise is coming from the device itself and stops once it's powered off, did it a couple of times while using the charger and USB but not constantly like it does when using the cradle.

Seems to work ok and starts every time using battery only, but there's not enough charge in it for a proper test of the other issues I was having.
I never touched any settings or went to any other screen but the one it started with which is the map screen

[GPSrChive]

Which cradle?

What power supply and cable are you using for each?

[LostAgain]

I used the USB lead supplied with the 700, and tried a couple of others.
The cradle is the suction cup mount with speaker, part no: (010-12881-00).
I tried 3 different AC 240V to USB chargers, each of them 5 volt 1 amp.
Took it out to the car and tried the 12 volt Garmin cigarette lighter plug that came with the original.
Also tried plugging it in to Windows and Linux computers, same happens.
The only time it will start correctly is if it's started on battery.
If I have it running on battery then plug it in, same happens, complains about external power lost etc..

[GPSrChive]

The 1A power supply sounds low, most USB will provide a minimum of 2A.

I would recommend performing a Master Reset:

Power the Montana 7x0 off.
Remove battery pack for >30 seconds and reinstall.
Press and hold the Power button until the Status LED turns red.
Release the Power button.
The Montana 7x0 is now in 'Boot Block' mode, which last about 8 seconds.
Quickly press and release the Power button twice.
The Status LED will turn green, and the device will begin the boot process.
A "Restoring settings and activities to defaults." message will be displayed.
The Montana 7x0 is now clearing all data and restoring all settings to factory defaults.

[LostAgain]

The 1A power supply sounds low, most USB will provide a minimum of 2A.

Interesting, didn't know that, after the reset it still plays up on a 1 amp adaptor, but it works ok in the car and plugged in to the computers now where it wouldn't before.
I found an old phone charger adaptor that's 2 amp & it works ok with that as well.

Well that's that drama solved hopefully, thanks.

Once I get some more time I will upgrade it's firmware from 7.10 and then test it for the freezing issue I had previously.
Looks like the horrible screen display in night mode is there to stay

[LostAgain]

I updated the replacement 700 and tested it for the redraw/freezing issue I had with the original one.
It also freezes, exactly the same as the other one did.
When I get a chance I'll do another video of this happening with the replacement and annoy Garmin about it again.

I wasn't expecting that redraw issue to be fixed with the latest firmware update, to soon, and was hoping it was something only that original 700 did & the replacement wouldn't do the same, but sadly that's not the case.
Perhaps all these devices have the same issue.
It doesn't seem to have the startup issue the other one had though, it's started ok every time I've turned it on so far.

I had it in the powered cradle all night, one time I scrolled down on the map screen to show the status so I could turn the volume up, hit the arrow to put it back on the map screen after doing so, about a minute later the screen brightness turned itself right up without any input from me, it only did that once.
The 600 series has a similar bug I've noticed but it's repeatable and not random like this was.
The speaker in the cradle thingo actually works with this device too which is nice, it wouldn't work at all with the older one.

[CavReconSGT]

I updated the replacement 700 and tested it for the redraw/freezing issue I had with the original one.
It also freezes, exactly the same as the other one did.
When I get a chance I'll do another video of this happening with the replacement and annoy Garmin about it again.

I wasn't expecting that redraw issue to be fixed with the latest firmware update, to soon, and was hoping it was something only that original 700 did & the replacement wouldn't do the same, but sadly that's not the case.
Perhaps all these devices have the same issue.
It doesn't seem to have the startup issue the other one had though, it's started ok every time I've turned it on so far.

I had it in the powered cradle all night, one time I scrolled down on the map screen to show the status so I could turn the volume up, hit the arrow to put it back on the map screen after doing so, about a minute later the screen brightness turned itself right up without any input from me, it only did that once.
The 600 series has a similar bug I've noticed but it's repeatable and not random like this was.
The speaker in the cradle thingo actually works with this device too which is nice, it wouldn't work at all with the older one.

Thanks for pursuing this. I have the same issue though it doesn't usually present itself as badly as yours is. Looking for a resolution though. I'll keep tracking this.

Regards,
KR

[LostAgain]

Thanks for pursuing this. I have the same issue though it doesn't usually present itself as badly as yours is. Looking for a resolution though. I'll keep tracking this.

Regards,
KR

No probs KR, I would advise that perhaps you contact Garmin about it also, the more users that do the more the possibility Garmin might fix it soonest.

[LostAgain]

Here's a video of the replacement 700 doing the same freezing thing as the original one.
As before it's repeatable every time, and the trip odo doesn't seem to work correctly while this is happening, and as before it still updates the location on the screen, just doesn't rotate the map as it should.
At the end of the first clip, around 2 mins 3 seconds, when it starts rotating the map again it's not even pointing the right direction as I speed up, unlike the 610 beside it that is.
I never saw that behaviour with the original 700, though it's common when doing a lot of stopping/starting low speed moving etc. with a 276CX.

I unlocked the data fields and went to change the top left one from Trip Time to Time of Day and when tapping the field itself about the bottom two thirds of the screen went haywire, almost like something was interfering with the 700, a bit like when a tv station isn't tuned correctly, lines through it & sort of static looking.
None of this apparent 'interference' seemed to move or scroll on the screen at all and I could still see the screen behind it.
It stayed that way until I hit the back arrow then it came good again, I thought the camera was running at the time but discovered when I got home & viewed the footage it wasn't, I couldn't make it repeat that behaviour and I never noticed it with the original 700

Montana 7x0 v820 Bug 54 Replacement Unit Freezing [640x360].mp4