Fenix 5x, gps working in diagnostic mode only

Hello everyone!

GPS on my Fenix 5x stopped acquiring signal, the watch has been left discharged for a month (while I was away on holidays). When I came back and charged it up, it is not able to acquire GPS signal even after I left it outside for more than 1 hour (with an activity that incldudes GPS trakcking), the map still shows position somewhere in the US (the deafult GPS position for Garmin as far as I know), and the circle around the bezel stays red. I've tries some GPS testing apps from garmin connect - they show that the watch is unable to connect to any satellites. I've tried glonass, gps and galileo options.

I have already tried the following: - full factory reset erasing all user data - connecting to WIFI, to latest version of Garmin Conncet on a PC, connecting to my phone, runnign all avaialble updates (after factory reset) - in the diagnostic mode GPS seems to find singal pretty quickly (2-3 minutes max ) - and gets singal strength over 30.

Software versions: SW Version: 25.00 (3ca0dea) GPS: 2.70 CIQ: 3.1.9 EPO: Current (also checked that latest one is downloaded to RemoteSW folder once watch is synched)

Any hints? the watch is obviously outside warranty so garmin are not in a huge hurry to help.

thanks,

Adam

  • I am sorry you have the issue. You have completed all the troubleshooting steps that I have seen sometimes resolve your GPS issue. For the sake of being thorough and in an effort to do every step possible, also try this unprompted master reset.

  • Thanks, I've tried this before too unforutnately. looks like a new watch then... a bit of shame as it does seem some software glitch...

  • To be honest,  can't help you, and am responding here just to get some information, if you would not mind, it would help me forming an idea about what went wrong here. You are not the first. If you look in the files in the /Garmin/EVNTLOGS, are there many lines with "Invalid time"? 

  • Hey mate - nothing that would contain "invalid" in the logs /Garmin/EVNTLOGS

    the only suspicious lines in there say:

    13* 10 00 00 00    4:43:44.077 HWM misc  Update Error. Time between updates: 17021840 ms

    the other thing that caught my attention was - under /Garmin/Debug/SNS_ERR.txt I get:

    Sensor hub AFE HW ID check failed

     

    I must say I dont really know what to look for so let me know if you want to have a look at sth else 

  • Thanks for checking. The "time update" errors are harmless. None of the logs or error codes are documented, I just learned from experience a little bit over the years, so I can be wrong:

    That sensor hub error sounds serious, probably the module has failed and that may prevent the watch from booting successfully.

    Because it happened after a month of flat battery, it may be not hardware failure but loss of internal configuration, but even that you can't remedy yourself, it likely needs reprogramming at the factory.

    Something you could try is copying the maps to local storage on a computer (as a backup), then deleting everything on the storage in the watch, and then an unprompted reset. If it boots, you can reinstall maps etc. later via Express. Small tiny chance though, unfortunately.

  • Thank you, appreciate your detailed responses!

    Unforutunately that didnt work, just letting you know. Thanks again!

  • Sorry to hear that. Do give Garmin Support a try, for out-of-warranty replacement, I found that a very reasonable solution when my 5 Plus died.