Frozen baro and themometer issue: the official answer of Garmin Italy Support

Garmin's official answer to my dealer.
For the non-italians: They performed a master reset, removed the map and the baro/thermo started working again.

ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1299727.png

Interesting. If it was hardware failure changing anything software wise wouldn't do anything. Did they say which map they removed?

It's all about the money!I am pretty sure that they will release another watch this year....with a software full of bugs and bad hardware :)

All I can say right now is let's wait for the watch to come back and see what option they took (replace/refurbish).
The situation is unclear because the way the operator spoke sounded like it was my fault with this map I have no idea about.

Yet, I placed a request for the new connector pins 2 weeks ago when I sent the watch. With or without map issue, the connectors of the first production batch are still faulty so I'm curious to see if they did it right this time.

https://imgur.com/8H1Dh7l <-- Test walk uphill and downhill, no ascent/descent recorded.
https://imgur.com/k0lCZkd <-- last 6 hours the watch was on the desk and I was sleeping when this happened.
https://imgur.com/Asikiud <-- Performed master reset (GearMin watchface not loaded) and soaked 30 minutes AFTER calib 154m (watch is at 154m even underwater)
https://imgur.com/LZRBJ5f <-- Second master reset, altitude goes back to -29.000, recalibrated to 154m, flat again.
https://imgur.com/jfUy5yM <-- Thermometer stuck at 301.6°C.

ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1299994.jpg

Actually, that may be a normal reply from a country support. I know a person from Garmin distributor in my country and he doesn't know such a problem. The first time he heard was when I said. I have a friend who has a Fenix 3 HR with broken barometer but it's bought from USA. So I think products are produced for different areas and some get faulty parts while others get good parts. Thus barometers in some areas are broken earlier but in some parts people don't experience so much problems. I read a lot of posts about broken barometers in the forum or other groups etc. However, I don't remember anyone from my country. So products sold in my country may be less prone to such issues for F3 HR range.

However, I experienced barometer going mad issue with my Fenix 5X in August but it resolved after some hours and it never happened again. So don't know about 5 series. :)

The watch got back an hour ago and I took it on the run coming back from Total Body.
It is the same watch I sent them and of course it has the same old connectors which make a mess with the USB connection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5-WAGS_Fc

I am disheartened by this behavior of Garmin Italy and hope Garmin UK takes over. I don't feel like going to train tonight with the watch... I have to configure it from scratch, it has no Vo2Max, no sensors nor phone paired and even if the baro survived 3 months, the mere problem with the connectors is enough for another RMA so why bother. I don't even feel like putting back the red and white silicon straps, setting the WIFI or the hundred data fields I use, let alone the 50 POIs through BaseCamp. Jesus Christ they didn't even clean the glass before sending it back, it was full of fingerprints...

I don't think they changed the baro so it must have been frozen in position by something. Surely not the map because I didn't install it (and even if so... it crashed overnight while it was sitting on the desk, not after a map was installed). It can't have been their master reset. I did 2 before sending it to them. This means there must be something we, the users, can do. 30' in water and soap didn't work for me but that may work for others. I think they know what's going on and used this map joke to keep us away but if we knew what's going on we could prevent it from happening and this would mean lots of saved time and money for everyone.

The UK supervisor will get in touch with me within 48 hours to resolve this situation. I don't hold it against the guys in Milan... the operators act like robots following orders but somebody here forgot that when a watch with a jammed baro AND a USB connection problem gets to the labs, the Tech Support should solve ALL problems before sending the watch back to the user.

I don't know what to say other than at this point I must collect all data and all evidence in view of a possible litigation with Garmin. The altimeter is set on 153m from the GPS time setting outside. In 3 hours I'll be at the pool and it's 99m descent. Anything may happen, really, including the altimeter being still frozen. Time will tell.

For the records, the operator at Garmin UK clearly said maps are not known to cause this issue: https://i.imgur.com/eOxlDoT.png

I don't know... I'm between disheartened and shocked right now.

Just receive mine from Milan also (same fingerprint on the glass and i found the watch turned on when i open the case :eek::eek::eek: ), however i have sendt the watch because i couldn't pair the watch with my phone and with garmin express anymore. I had performed master reset of the watch, of my S8 but was impossible to pair even with Garmin Express... they only do a master reset and software upgrade but i don't know why, now it works... However almost 2 week for a software reset and software upgrade...