It seems as though I am getting about 4 years out of the Garmin Handheld units. I had a 12XL and it crapped out after about 4 years, and now my Garmin 76 seems to have crapped out too.

I bring them ashore with me, so they do not get excessive moisture exposure, etc. I am wondering what others have to say about the lifespan of their units.

I typically run them off of the boat's 12 volt system, rather than the internal batteries. I am wondering if that is contributing to their limited life span.

I do like the Garmin units though . . .

A trusty e-Map unit gave up the ghost earlier this season. It turns on but it appears that the receiver is no longer receiveafying. Last time I attempted to use it, it did not get a lock on any sats after 10 mins with an unobstructed view of the sky while remaining stationary.

It was about 7-8 years old and was used extensively on the boat and in the car. It was about exclusively powered by the batteries rather than via a power cord.

imo, they should be guaranteed for the life of your hands.

My 7 year old Magellan map 330 is still going strong, but It's got a low res black and white LCD, it's slow, and doesn't have a ton of features.

I suspect 4-5 years is the technological life of them anyway, so you're not losing a lot if they go bad in 4. Still it's probably aggravating.

I have a Garmin GPSMap 76s that I have used for about 5 years. Most of the time it is in the boat. But, sometimes I use it on my 4 wheeler. It can really get vibrated and bounced around a lot on the 4 wheeler.

I use the 12 volt connection when in the boat and on the 4 wheeler. One thing I have noticed is that if the AA batteries are low, or dead, I will have problems even when plugged into 12 volt power. It will only stay on for a few minutes. Then it locks up, with a single vertical line on the display. To get it reset, I have to unplug the 12 volt, and remove the batteries for a few seconds. Once I put in new batteries, everything is fine.

Opus -

It is the exact symptoms that my GPS has. Perhaps I'll try some new batteries and spend the money that I had set aside for a new one on beer instead

Man after my own heart.

But that's a lot of beer. Don't go drinking it all once once.

I'd say at least 2 or 3 sittings minimum.

I hope the batteries resolve the problem for you. Enjoy the beer!

Keep us updated. I've had my 76Cxs for just over a year now, and use it on the boat exclusivly.

Update -

Yes, I started to work on the beer. Haven't quite got around to finding new batteries for the GPS.

Bump

For everyone with a Garmin that goes to a vertical line or has trouble acquiring a satellite...

After talking to Garmin, I hooked mine up to my pc and downloaded and used the Garmin GPS Updater software from Garmin. That updates the firmware to take care of some satellite and programming issues.

It worked like a charm!!

I also heard that the battery contacts lose some springiness over time, but I can't confirm that. Mine was fine.