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Garmin devices don't reliably appear when plugged in to a Windows 10 machine - why?

tinkertoy
over 3 years ago

No Garmin Forerunner device I have ever owned has ever been shown as connected when I plug it in to any Windows 10 system I have used.

When I first boot my computer, and plug in any of my devices (Forerunner 745, Forerunner 935, Forerunner 620), it USUALLY appears, but not always.

After the computer has been up for awhile, devices stop reliably being shown as connected when plugged in.

This has happened for YEARS.  I have never seen a reliable connection when I plug in any Forerunner device to my several Windows 10 computers.

Does anyone know why this happens?  Is there any fix for it?  My only guess is that Forerunner devices just don't play well with Windows 10 USB subsystems and drivers, but shouldn't that have been fixed after all this time?

- Tim

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Aumate

    Only with Garmin. I've been building my own computers for 20 years and dealing with the vagueries of cables and connectors and drivers for every device and manufacturer under the sun, so though you're well-intentioned, you're barking up the wrong tree ;-). I've rarely seen this happen with any other device family.

    This has happened on several different computers, versions of Windows, cables, different Garmin devices, etc. It seems to be something to do with Garmin's USB implementation at the hardware level, and possibly its interactions with windows drivers.

    - Tim

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    You must use the original USB cable supplied with your Garmin Device. No other ones will work.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 8677428

    Already doing that.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to tinkertoy

    My not-so-considerable experience suggests that the issue is usually tied to one or more of the following:

    1. USB cable not being the one supplied with device (yes, it's somewhat different when powere to the device is taken into account)

    2. State of battery and level of its charge when connecting this device to PC

    3. USB ports configuration within the PC (mostly related to power saving measures and such, that probably could be disabled).

    4. The age of PC you're playing with.

    I have to say that I was/am lucky that I have not experienced such nonsense for quite some time now - 5+ years, and definitely not on my own PC (current and past one, before 2017).

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Since trying a few of the suggestions here, things SEEM to be working better - sometimes my devices take awhile to appear, but they are eventually showing up.  Might be due to the suggestion of disabling power-saving USB features.

    I'll report back here in awhile to say whether things continue to work.