Another dead garmin product? GPSMAP 64S goes to weird diagnostic screen and is essentially bricked

After a day of hiking, 64S can't connect to PC, boots to a diagnostic screen and is completely unusable. No combination of keystrokes or button pushing makes any difference. I can't even factory reset since it defaults to these screens immediately after booting.

I guess it's just another dead garmin product for the bin? I guess this will be about the 4th garmin product I've junked in 10 years. Not much of a surprise at this point, to be honest.

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1095520 over 4 years ago in reply to seilogramp +1

They're closed now but I'll try them tomorrow. I do view Garmin products as essentially disposable (i.e. 2 year life on average for most devices I've had) and this one is almost 4 years old so I won't…

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0 seilogramp over 4 years ago

1095520 said:
I guess it's just another dead garmin product for the bin?

Would it be worth a call to Garmin support before you throw it away? I know this device is not in the current lineup, but I'd at least try.

0 1095520 over 4 years ago in reply to seilogramp

They're closed now but I'll try them tomorrow. I do view Garmin products as essentially disposable (i.e. 2 year life on average for most devices I've had) and this one is almost 4 years old so I won't stress over it much. But still...!

0 1095520 over 4 years ago

UPDATE: After "resting" overnight with the batteries out of the unit, it magically began working again on powerup. Strange. I did nothing to fix it, couldn't even hard reset it, although I tried. All user data was recovered and the unit is like it was before the failure.

Although I'm happy that it is working again, would you really want to rely on something as wonky as a garmin device? This is my 4th different garmin unit in ten years and they ALL have failed now. My girlfriend is on her 3rd Fenix in about 2.5 years.

0 seilogramp over 4 years ago in reply to 1095520

1095520 said:
would you really want to rely on something as wonky as a garmin device?

I've not had consistent wonkiness. It happens, but not like your experience. Glad you're happy.