Satnav repair

[88V8]

My Garmin 2599 is bust again.
Sent it to Satnav Repair Service in North End Road 18 months ago, it came back working but with a battery that doesn't hold charge.

Yesterday I fitted a new battery. Not as easy as it looks, the case didn't want to come apart.
Now, it won't charge, doesn't come on, and all I get is a recognition beep. Presume I broke something.
I should stick to woodwork, and cars, and not fiddle.

Could just buy another but I hate throwing things away. Any recommendation for repairs? Don't want to go back to the previous people.

V8

[bungeejumper]

Commiserations. No experience with Garmins, but I replaced the battery in my TomTom about three years ago with the excellent advice from Hardgrafter, who seemed to know a lot about it. TomTom had wanted £115 to change my battery; the battery itself was fifteen quid. No brainer.

Tutorial at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pej4PJ9MN2A. TBH, the inside of the 2599 looks a lot less fearsome than my TomTom!

The weak link (some say it's deliberate) is the long ribbon bus that connects the screen to the rest of the works. If you're not getting any video signal at all, that's what I'd look at first.

Any help?

BJ

[Infrasonic]

My Garmin 2599 is bust again.
Sent it to Satnav Repair Service in North End Road 18 months ago, it came back working but with a battery that doesn't hold charge.

Yesterday I fitted a new battery. Not as easy as it looks, the case didn't want to come apart.
Now, it won't charge, doesn't come on, and all I get is a recognition beep. Presume I broke something.
I should stick to woodwork, and cars, and not fiddle.

Could just buy another but I hate throwing things away. Any recommendation for repairs? Don't want to go back to the previous people.

V8

Check the seating on the small connector onto the main board from the battery.
Whenever I've had an issue with repairs like this invariably it's a seating issue which gets resolved. I tend to power stuff up before closing the case to check if possible, saves breaking case clips from constant opening/closing.

[88V8]

Thankyou.
I watched the 'how to' video, it looked easy. Fail to see why the case has to be such a struggle.

OK, I'll have another look. Tbh, my eyesight isn't really up to this sort of thing any more. Better in fact than it used to be for distances, but near to, oh dear, where's me specs........

Meanwhile this afternoon I bought a Tomtom Go 6200 on eBay. A best buy in Which.
Be interesting to see how it navigates; Garmin has an obsession with sending us, indeed detouring us, through city centres, and has on occasion sent us down bridleways not at all suitable for a car whilst ignoring adjacent and parallel B roads.
I suppose it's what happens when Friday afternoon comes and the programmers are bored.

V8

[AF62]

Be interesting to see how it navigates; Garmin has an obsession with sending us, indeed detouring us, through city centres, and has on occasion sent us down bridleways not at all suitable for a car whilst ignoring adjacent and parallel B roads.

Which is why I am surprised that stand alone sat navs still exist in the age of up to date navigation from Google Maps on a phone.

[bungeejumper]

Be interesting to see how it navigates; Garmin has an obsession with sending us, indeed detouring us, through city centres, and has on occasion sent us down bridleways not at all suitable for a car whilst ignoring adjacent and parallel B roads.
I suppose it's what happens when Friday afternoon comes and the programmers are bored.

They all do that, sir. My TomTom took me through a most interesting tour of the back streets of Manchester, down around the Victorian canal wharfs where the streets are seven feet wide and the locals park their six foot wide vans all day. Instead of directing me another 50 yards to the crossroads where I could have taken the next major road out of town.

Or in the Lake District, where She Who Must Be Obeyed saved me 400 yards by taking me 800 feet up a mountain face and then vertiginously down the other side. Still, at least the sheep in the road were amused.

Or in the Midlands, where Mrs TomTom decided that Warwick should henceforth be called Doubleyew Wick. Or in Hertfordshire, where she declared that Enfield should be called Uxbridge. (Quite some distance away.)

Mind you, my wife's Garmin caught her by surprise when she hit the Home button and it tried to take her to Nuneaton instead. Nuneaton, fer chrissake. Do you know where it is? Nor do I, and nor do I ever want to. They all throw glitches. All part of life's rich tapestry.

BJ

[kiloran]

Or in the Lake District, where She Who Must Be Obeyed saved me 400 yards by taking me 800 feet up a mountain face and then vertiginously down the other side. Still, at least the sheep in the road were amused.

BJ

Easy solution to that. I changed the settings on my satnav from "She Who Must Be Obeyed" to "He Who Must Be Obeyed" and the navigation was much improved

--kiloran

[UncleEbenezer]

Or in the Lake District, where She Who Must Be Obeyed saved me 400 yards by taking me 800 feet up a mountain face and then vertiginously down the other side. Still, at least the sheep in the road were amused.

BJ

Easy solution to that. I changed the settings on my satnav from "She Who Must Be Obeyed" to "He Who Must Be Obeyed" and the navigation was much improved

--kiloran

I was following a google map up a Cornish lane. Having crested a steep uphill, I groaned as I saw the lane continued upwards, just a little less steep. And there were road signs placed like speed limit signs on either side, with the message to turn back: "your satnav is wrong"! Ignoring that, I continued (up quite a lot more hill), ending up exactly where I (and the phone) had intended.

[Dod101]

What I do is use a map printed on paper. It always works and I know where I am at any time. Works a treat.

We occasionally get trucks coming up our little lane and when the driver stops and asks for directions I usually ask him why the h*** he is coming up here anyway. Invariably it is 'the satnav mate' so I deliberately send him the longest way round I can think of, but at least it is a nice wide road all the way.

Dod

[jackdaww]

my garmin 2797 battery is not too good , keeps saying its low .

but most of the time its plugged into the car cigar lighter , so its not a big problem .

these satnavs do not seem to have the option of avoiding MINOR roads .

i try to review my route before starting off to be sure its ok.

you CAN do that with a PAPER map of course , but then you have to REMEMBER it all - and there is a serious issue observing direction signs now that councils are not clearing obstructive vegetation.

[Dod101]

The obstructive vegetation is a problem I agree. I have a fairly good sense of direction but in all neighbourhoods there are places that fox me. My problem is with the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland. it is to me a closed book and I can assure anyone that satnav will take you down all the highways and byways and there a lot of them in Fife. I find it impossible and so does the satnav.

Dod

[Itsallaguess]

I try to review my route before starting off to be sure its ok.

you can do that with a paper map of course, but then you have to rememberit all - and there is a serious issue observing direction signs now that councils are not clearing obstructive vegetation.

I use the free Google Maps navigation as my sat-nav and I think it's an amazing free resource, almost completely removing all of the stress associated with setting off for unknown realms...

One of the biggest advantages that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that if you happen to take a wrong-turn for whatever reason, off your pre-planned route, a sat-nav instantly knows that you've done this, but also learns on the fly as to the best method of getting you from where you 'currently are' to where you really want to be, and modifies the suggested route to keep up with any changes to your actual route...

I'm a huge fan, and don't really see how the free Google Maps method could be improved by spending money on a Garmin or Tom-Tom solution, especially given the issues related in this thread, and also update-issues I've heard anecdotally.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Slarti]

What I do is use a map printed on paper. It always works and I know where I am at any time. Works a treat.

Other than handling traffic delays.

Coming home on the M40 a couple of weeks back I noticed that my ETA for lunch was going up, drastically, when SWMO piped up about finding a route that was 1.5 hours quicker

Turns out that there had been 2 accidents between J3 and J2 and the road was closed. She guided us round it and back onto an empty motorway.

Also, paper maps are usually 18 months out of date by the time you get them and then keep getting worse.

Slarti

[tjh290633]

I don't know how the proprietary sat-navs compare, but Google Maps does a good job of re-routing you, when it has seen problems on the original route.

I was coming down the A1M, intending to use the M11 and the Dartford Crossing, then accidents on the A14 near Cambridge caused it to re-route me down to the M25 and thence to Dartford. Further accidents on the M25 east of Potters Bar led it to divert me at Hatfield and take the M25 via Heathrow, which was free flowing for a change.

Would the others have done that?

TJH

[bungeejumper]

Also, paper maps are usually 18 months out of date by the time you get them and then keep getting worse.

Not that satnav maps are necessarily much better. A couple of years ago, when leaving Manchester, we used the new M56 link road which had been open for five or six months, but which wasn't known yet to Mrs TomTom.

Believing that we were traversing a ploughed field, she spent the whole journey imploring us to take the next available muddy farm track to the left or the right. Then she told us to turn round, which wouldn't have been a good idea on a motorway-quality road with no exits. Oh, how we laughed.

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

I use the free Google Maps navigation as my sat-nav and I think it's an amazing free resource, almost completely removing all of the stress associated with setting off for unknown realms...

Google maps are good.

But I still miss Nokia maps, which were quite a lot better in that they didn't suffer the problems Google does when your data connection is poor or unavailable.

[Slarti]

Also, paper maps are usually 18 months out of date by the time you get them and then keep getting worse.

Not that satnav maps are necessarily much better. A couple of years ago, when leaving Manchester, we used the new M56 link road which had been open for five or six months, but which wasn't known yet to Mrs TomTom.

Believing that we were traversing a ploughed field, she spent the whole journey imploring us to take the next available muddy farm track to the left or the right. Then she told us to turn round, which wouldn't have been a good idea on a motorway-quality road with no exits. Oh, how we laughed.

BJ

That is the advantage of Google maps, they are pretty much up to date, eg when we were going up the A1 and there was the new section just opened, bypassing the Ollerton/Clumber Park roundabout, it knew where we were, though as I've mentioned elsewhere, it was not aware of a handful of new roundabouts on the N125 in the Algarve, or a York car Park entrance being moved.

I had the crossing a ploughed field when using the built in satnav on the new road between the M4 and Cirencester.

Slarti

[Itsallaguess]

I use the free Google Maps navigation as my sat-nav and I think it's an amazing free resource, almost completely removing all of the stress associated with setting off for unknown realms...

Google maps are good.

But I still miss Nokia maps, which were quite a lot better in that they didn't suffer the problems Google does when your data connection is poor or unavailable.

I'm not sure when it happened, but there's been an update to Google Maps that will now prompt and allow you to download any route directions 'for spotty connections on your route', so I think this area has been improved.

I'd not seen it before this weekend when I used it, but this was the prompt I saw -



I think it must be a fairly recent update, because I don't remember seeing it the last time I used Google Maps.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Slarti]

Google maps are good.

But I still miss Nokia maps, which were quite a lot better in that they didn't suffer the problems Google does when your data connection is poor or unavailable.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'd forgotten to turn Data on after entering my destination while on home wifi and it got me the 47 miles into Stratford with only the loss of the mph readout.

And now it is offering to download directions for where the connection is "spotty" as you set a route.

Slarti

[UncleEbenezer]

Fine, google maps can do some tasks without a data connection.

But I don't want to tell it a route. I want to fire up maps and see exactly where I am, at whatever scale I choose, zoom in and out, explore, etc. With Nokia that was fine; with Google I need either a data connection or to jump through hoops to load (and save) data in advance.