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inReach SE+ arrow buttons fail to turn unit on

Hello all,
I had a show-stopping issue yesterday with my Garmin inReach SE+ and thought I would put it out here to see if anyone else has encountered this.
I purchased my device on 12/17/2017 and jumped right in using it during backcountry hiking, skiing, etc. Yesterday I found I could not power the device on even though the battery was fully charged. My device has a power button on top of the unit which turns the screen display on and provides two options: either turn the unit on or cancel the request. To turn the unit on, the left arrow button needs to be pressed to highlight the "Turn on" option. My power button and display worked fine. However, the left arrow button would not work and the unit kept turning itself off. It was snowing and temperature around 30. Thinking the temperature or humidity might be a factor, I put the unit under my jacket for 5 minutes and tried again. Thankfully that worked and I was able to send my spouse my usual check in message. Back home later that evening (warm and dry environment), I tried turning my device on and encountered the same problem, though with a few more tries I was able to turn the device on. Anyone else run into this issue? Is this a temperature or humidity sensitivity? Thanks for responding

0 twolpert over 6 years ago

I have not encountered this issue, nor have I seen forum posts for this specific problem. Several people did report the opposite issue - the unit powered up immediately on pressing the power button, without requiring the two-step confirmation process involving the arrow keys. The OP on that thread reported resolving that issue by performing a soft reset on the device. In addition to being a different problem, that was also a different device model.

If I were you, I would contact tech support.

0 rkjenner over 6 years ago

Thanks for weighing in, Tom. The vendor where I purchased my device gave similar advice along with a phone number which I haven't yet tried. Finding contact info for tech support on the Garmin website is a little confusing. The link they supply doesn't navigate to the web page/form they say it should.

0 twolpert over 6 years ago

They really prefer that you look at the FAQs first. The easiest way that I have found to locate the numbers is to go to support.garmin.com, select the product, and then use the CHAT or CALL button at the bottom of the page. For Explorer+ (my device), this gives US numbers of 913-397-0872 or 888-442-7646. I get the same results for the SE+.

Disclaimer: I have not had occasion to call Garmin support - all my support experience was with DeLorme before Garmin bought them.

0 SondreU over 5 years ago

Have the exactly same problem with my inreach explorer+ (purchased November 2018). It worked fine my first trip and than the arrow buttons (and the check button) started failing when turning it on from the second trip. I had it hanging on the outside of my backpack, but it was not wet, and it was only about 5-10 minus (celsius). The first time this happened, warming it up worked well, but now that does not help anymore. Anyways, the cold or wet should not be a problem with a product like this. It sometimes works after several attempts tho, but is not reliable at all. I will give a heads up if i find out anything more.