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MARQ Expedition keeps restarting on higher altitudes

Dear All,

Today, I went hiking where the start point was at 1550m. When I selected the Walk activity and applied the course I had created on the GC website and started the activity, a couple of seconds later the watch restarted. So, I tried to

- hard reboot the watch
- remove it from the phone, factory reset and add it to the phone again
- use the Hike app

and nothing helped. In fact, there were a couple of times when I couldn't even choose the activity, the watch restarted when I pressed the Start button. Once, I managed to select the activity, but I wanted to check something so I pressed the Back button; the watch restarted.

Eventually, when I spent more than half an hour to make it work instead of doing what I actually went to, that is hiking, I gave it up and used my Ambit3 which luckily I had with me.

The only thing I managed to start was the Track me activity which basically worked, but I had no navigation, and honestly, I didn't dare to try, I was happy (frustrated :/) that it didn't even restarted.

When I finished the hiking and started to come down from the mountain I tried to check the elevation widget to see if it gives correct result, but as soon as I pressed the Down button, yes, the watch restarted. I was at 1200m at that time. Then I remembered I had tried to check the Maps on two of my flights the previous week where I had had the same experience; continuous restarts.

My next target was a small town at around 550m. I started the Walk activity and everything was perfect. I tried with the Hike activity with loading the course, kept pressing buttons all the time, no restart at all. So it seems my Expedition keeps restarting when the altitude is higher that probably 1000m.

Has anyone had similar issue? Garmin-Heath, do you have any suggestion if it can be a software of a hardware issue? This is the 3rd replacement item due to issues with the previous ones and while I like the watch design and the functions I already regret to buy it and I am at the point when I feel it was a complete waste of £1500. So please, give me some advice what to do now.

Thank you,
Zoltan

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0 nmyeti over 5 years ago

There was a similar bug in the 945 forum that may be of interest. For what it is worth, I run, hike, and climb at elevations starting from about 5500 feet and up. Never had the MARQ restart due to this.

0 Garmin_ODQA over 5 years ago

Hi Zoltan,

Thanks for your report, I'm sorry to hear that you've encountered these crashes on your watch. Could you provide some additional information and files? This will help us understand more about what is happening, and then we can work on fixing the problem.

1. What version of software do you have installed on your MARQ?

2. On the watch, can you open Menu - System - About, and then repeatedly press the Light button. A menu should pop up, select the option for Save RAM Region. It may take up to 30 seconds to save.

3. After saving the file, please plug the watch in to the computer. Open the GARMIN\Debug folder. Copy these files on to your computer. (If you have a Mac, you'll want to use Android File Transfer to access the folders on the watch. Make sure Garmin Express is not running at the same time.)

4. Please also copy the Garmin_Device.xml off of the watch, and the files in GARMIN\Courses.

5. Once you have the Debug, Courses, and Garmin_Device.xml files, please create a zipped folder containing all files, and email this to us at [email protected]. You can make the subject of the email "MARQ high elevation crash - forums"

Thanks!
Mel
Garmin Outdoor Software Quality Team

0 crt_hun over 5 years ago in reply to Garmin_ODQA

Hi Mel,

Thank you for your reply. I have sent the requested details along with a lot more information and steps what and how I did in my hiking today with the watch and when the watch crashed.

I have also included the FR945 forum thread url in the email that nmyeti suggested, they are basically struggling with the same issue and you might find those details useful too.

Thank you once again and please, let me know if you need more details.

Zoltan

0 crt_hun over 5 years ago

I had a flight last Thursday and I tested the watch again with the latest firmware/hub updates installed.

Sterted a 'Track Me' activity and checked the watch during the flight.

Under 1000m it was all ok, next time I checked was around 1200m as far as I recall, the moment I pressed the down button the watch restarted. When it came up I resumed the activity and did not touch any button during the rest of the flight, this way there wasn't any restart.

Another interesting thing that after I got home I saw when the watch reset the daily steps/floor counters, however the next morning when I next checked, which was around 2 hours after I had woken up, the counters show more than 11000 steps and 29 floors. Believe me, I am not that active after 4 hours of sleep

I don't know if it was caused by the crash or the time zone difference (only 1 hour ahead), but more interestingly these numbers was decreasing during the day and finally, at the end of the day I got ~9700 steps on the GC Web interface (~5000 on the watch :/ ) and 24 floors.

Eventually, I factory reset the watch. Again.

Garmin_ODQA, Garmin-Heath, FYI.

Thank you,
Zoltan

0 Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago in reply to crt_hun

crt_hun / Zoltan,

I think this is best that you reach out to your local support team. That way they can confirm you are on the latest software and get the files that are needed to look into this more. Plus with the steps and floors climbed numbers, that is always best to talk to someone about it since there might be a few small details to you that mean a lot to us.

If you run into any issues, please let me know.

0 crt_hun over 5 years ago in reply to Garmin-Heath

Hi Garmin-Heath,

As I stated in my comment, the latest firmware is installed to the watch, however it did the same crashes on higher elevation with the original MARQ firmware (3.40) as well.

I am not really into investigating the steps/floor counter issue because I think it was due to the crash.

I already spent hours to collect all details that Garmin_ODQA requested and sent an email report with screenshots, attached debug logs, exported activities when the watch crashed, my account details, where it can be checked, detailed steps about what I did and when the watch crashed and also with the link to the R945 forum thread where there are other users having the same issue. I really don't know what else I could provide more.

In terms of the "local support team", I sent an email to a support address that Jura provided me after the second replacement watch had issues as well. It was on 6th August. I have never received any response from them since then.

0 Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago in reply to crt_hun

crt_hun, if you are already working with odsweng then you are in good hands, I just wanted to make sure you had someone from Garmin to look into this issue with you.

0 Steve over 5 years ago in reply to crt_hun

Zoltan, Mel,

I've had exactly the same issues with both an FR945 (returned) and now F6sS (current). All the same functions work fine at lower elevations (0-2,000ft). As soon as try to use any activity and/or course at higher elevations (5,000-10,000ft), crashes when try to rotate the screens. At least yesterday it resumed after every reboot and the track/data were there.

Worked with tech support. All software updated. Wiped and reinstalled, etc. Can only think something about barom/altimeter sensor and or climbpro, but elevation readings were right on...

VERY FRUSTRATING on an $800 watch, especially since I have to wait 3-4 weeks btw high hikes to test.

Any ideas?

0 nyqand over 5 years ago

For what it is worth, I tried this:

Living at sea level, I turned off auto calibration of altitude during activity and otherwise. I manually set the altitude to 2000m.

I did a short (and fairly flat) GPX-route (1.55) in EasyRoute, transferred it to GCM, and then to the MARQ (Expedition)

I started a hike activity with navigation based on the route, and it worked as expected. I even shifted from GPS to GPS+glonass during the activity, and the watch picked up on map/route/navigation/tbt. I also changed power schemes during the activity. Again it worked for me.

BT on, WHR on, smart recording.

But, I did NOT use climb pro. Also, I did not (obviously) use autocorrect of altitude. and it was a very short try out.

My use cases for higher altitudes are XC and alpine skiing during winter. Trail and hike during summer. Plenty of these with navigation and with a close look at altitude as well as ascent and descent.

0 Garmin_ODQA over 5 years ago

Hi crt_hun and Steve,

I wanted to circle back to this issue, as our engineers have not yet been able to identify the cause of this crash with the data we currently have. Are either of you still seeing a crash at high altitude? If so, I would like to collect another set of data from each of you. (And if you are still having this crash, I want to apologize for our delayed action in resolving it.)

If you are still having the crash, please follow these steps:

Reproduce the crash at altitude
Immediately after the watch reboots, go the Menu - System - About. On the About page, repeatedly press the Light button until a menu pops up. On that menu, select Save RAM Region. It may take up to 30 seconds to save.
Once back at your computer with your watch plugged in, open the GARMIN\Debug folder. Please send me the contents of this folder. There will be an err_log.txt (or possibly err_log.BAK) and a RAM.txt. (If you have a Mac, you'll want to use Android File Transfer to access the folders on the watch. Make sure Garmin Express is not running at the same time.)
Email the files from the Debug folder to [email protected]. You can make the subject of the email "Marq Crash at high altitude - forums"
In your email, please let us know how frequently you see this crash (every time you record at altitude, occasionally, infrequently, etc.)

If you aren't able to reproduce soon (I know recording at high elevation is not something we can all easily do from home), that is fine. But please let me know if you have seen this issue recently. If you have, and if there is an err_log.txt AND a Ram.txt in the Debug folder, feel free to send that to us now. However, without the RAM.txt as well, we will not be able to troubleshoot this issue. The RAM file is key to understanding what is going on.

Thanks! We appreciate your patience.

Mel
Garmin Outdoor Software Quality Team