Garmin GPS problem

anneellen · #1 (**permalink**) 09-20-2007

I have a 6 year old Garmin 76Cmap GPS. Suddenly the screen went blank and no buttons affect it. It was wired to the boat; I have taken it off and put new batteries in. The screen is still blank as it is when turned off. The power button has not effect. Has anyone had this experience? Richard

tomaz_423 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-20-2007

Not on Garmin, but on a mobile phone.
I think some electronics have build in timer and is programmed to fail when the new model comes on the market (and cheap stuff fails random).

Edit: Once I changed to night mode by accident and I thought the screen is blank - You problem probably is not just that, but let us hope it is.

sailingdog · #3 (**permalink**) 09-20-2007

If you hold the unit at an angle to the light, can you see anything on the screen? If so, then the backlight has probably died... if not, then something blew in the unit. I don't remember if the unit has an internal fuse. I'd check on my Garmin 76CS, but it's on the boat.

anneellen · #4 (**permalink**) 09-21-2007

Thanks for the replies. I let the unit sit around for a couple days and tried it again; it fired right up. Have no idea why. Maybe the new batteries needed time to have an effect.

Lancer28 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-21-2007

I've seen that happen before when I was flying. Now that is scary.. What hapened is the instrument had collected humidity from a bad gasket and a windscreen leak perfectly placed.

I'd give it a good internal cleaning with a good near-anhydrous isoprophyl alcohol. (meaning no water) At least shoot for a nice bottle of 97%... then leave it sit in the warm dry air of your home for a few days and reassemble. You shold be able to get 97% from wal-mart (ugh I know) or Target for about 80 cents. I don't think 100% is practical because it sucks the water out of the air and IIRC it is only allowed in labs... I forget.

If you really want to dry it out, Do what I did with a cell phone I dropped in the drink - Give it the ETOH cleaning, then put the pieces in three gallon sized plastic baggies with a few packets of silica or whatever it was called (those pellet packets that suck the water out of the air) and let it sit in a warm place like on top of your PC's case for a few days.

Remove, reassemble, you're in like flynn.