Fenix 5s sapphire powering off issue

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hi all, hoping someone might have some info they can share.

I bought the 5s (sapphire version) a few days ago and have been having weird issues with it from the start. Namely, it will power off randomly and stay off until I plug it in to charge. It will then power back on, and if I unplug it, will usually stay on again. After unplugging it, it will then show the battery percentage at around 2-3% and then slowly increase at about a % a minute until it reaches its current charge that it should be. This incremental increase of the battery percentage occurs while it is unplugged as well.

I have completed multiple soft resets and one rest to factory settings. It is running the latest software available to me (v7.60)

A common scenario:

While on my my wrist at 90% charge, it will shutdown. It will no start up again after that, even trying a soft reset.
Then, I plug it into the charger and it will start up. From here it will either show the 90% charge or show 2-3% charge.
I unplugged it from the charger and it will worthier power off again or stay on. If it powers off, I plug it in briefly and when it shows the triangle, I unplug it and it turns on fine.
after turning on, it will show 2-3% battery, even if it is finished charging and will slowly increase the battery percentage over the next hour.
It will then continue to work until it next powers off.

i have tried searching for similar cases like this but have come up empty handed. Hoping someone here must have some feedback or similar experience to what I’m having.

Thanks!

0 chunkywizard over 7 years ago

Have you tried using different chargers?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Thanks chunkywizard for the reply. I have charged the watch, using the the provided Garmin cable, on my laptop, desktop and two different USB chargers. All with the same results.

0 peyj over 7 years ago

Hello guys,

Last week I bought Fenix 5s. It seems I have the same issues.
The watches can power off randomly (but it happened several times when Fenix was on table, not on my hand), and only a charger will wake up it. When I plug a charger, the watches will show Garmin logo. And only after this it is possible to press 'Light' button to power on the device. Interesting thing, but it shows wrong charge level, for the first 1-2 minutes it can be on 20-30% more than original level.
The software version is 8.0.

Also, the strange things happened while charging the first time. The watches powered off after disconnecting the charger. But after charging to 100% from laptop USB (not from a regular charger) the issue dissapeared.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi all,
same here

it happened several times when Fenix was on table, not on my hand, and only a charger will wake up it.

And only after this it power on. Interesting thing, after unplugging it, it will then show the battery percentage at around 2% and then slowly increase at about a % a minute until it reaches its current charge that it should be.

I have completed multiple soft resets and one rest to factory settings.

Hoping someone here must have some feedback

thx

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

this is happening to mine also - what did you do to resolve the issue?? did you return the watch??

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Same here, although mine is 2 years old now and it randomly started having this issue with no luck after doing a hard reset and removing any customizations and turning off pretty much everything (bluetooth, wifi, auto-sync) etc, thats the only way I can have this watch to last a day.

If you search properly you'll notice this is an ongoing issue with Garmin Fenix (and some Forerunners). I thought it was caused by firmware 4.20 released Sept 2019, but I see this just keeps going.

My advice? Return as soon as possible, it seems it won't get fixed (you can't change the battery!) and you're out of luck if the one year warranty is due. In my case I'll have to use the RMA program and get a refurbished one, but after having three Fenix watches (3, 3 and 5) I think I'm ready to try a more reliable brand.

0 5088715 over 5 years ago

Well looks like am just another victim who is having the same issue. They wanted $170 from me to fix an issue they new about before I even bought the watch just because I did not save the original receipt. Guess the expensive watch I thought would last me for many years is done after 9 months. Thanks Garmin!

0 5088715 over 5 years ago