Cold water crash

No, this comes straight from Garmin… unfortunately I can’t attach the file but this is the email straight from them:

“Thanks for contacting Garmin Product Support. I've included the steps to use that file below and included the file here as an attachment. 

The following steps will allow you to calibrate the buttons of your watch and possibly resolve the button issue you are experiencing. 

1. Plug your watch into a Windows PC or a Mac that has the ability to read MTP devices (a third party program may be needed for your Mac to see the watch as a drive).
2. Locate the drive for your watch on the computer, and open the drive. 
3. Place the KEY_CALIBRATION.BIN file in the Internal Storage of your watch. It should not be placed in a subfolder. 
4. Disconnect your watch from the computer. 

The watch will go to a button calibration screen. Press each button fully a couple times. A green check will appear when the button is calibrated.

After calibration has completed, turn off touch on your watch, and test the buttons to ensure they are working. 

If the buttons are still not working, let us know.

bw said:

But I also think that

nickk said:

I'd imagine that a dive rated watch that costs $1100 shouldn't display issues such as this one. Nor should the user try calibrating anything.

Should not, but it happened. Anyway, now you have to decide for yourself whether you return the watch, and buy something else, or whether you wait (possibly a few weeks) till Garmin fixes it, or whether you prefer spending 10 minutes of your time in trying to fix it yourself instantly.

Odie21 said:

KEY_CALIBRATION.BIN

Apparently it's sufficient to create a blank file with this name and use that. I haven't done that.

Now that I know the watch will shutdown in cold water what I do before a swim is get in the water and let the watch do its shutdown thing then restart it and swim. Once I've done that the watch works as expected for the hour or so I'm swimming. It's not ideal but it's also not stopping me from swimming.

At no time while I've been communicating with Garmin have they suggested it's a hardware problem but that's not to say there might be a problem with some watches. What I do understand is that a fix will be provided shortly.

And no, before anyone asks I do not have any idea of a timeframe for 'shortly'. If you are having this problem - and not simply bumping your gums - then contact Garmin Support directly. The more contact from people genuinely experiencing this issue, the more likely the fix will be provided quickly.

Even if they don't say "certified according to," they would not be allowed to sell this as a dive computer if it were not compliant with that. Let's wait a bit and see if they resolve the issue, but if they don't, I suppose Garmin should be put in the spotlight for this.

It's already getting grip in the news media www.notebookcheck.net/Garmin-Fenix-8-users-flag-important-issue-with-dive-watch.893258.0.html

PS: also had a similar local news post suggested in my google news feed

Confirmed. The same here (ca. 7 C) and Fenix 8 Amoled 47 mm rebooted after a while.

Would be interesting to see if this is a general problem with cold temperature or water specific. Maybe someone can start an activity and put the watch into the fridge for some time? 

Already checked. I left Fenix 8 in a freezer for 15 min and nothing happend - worked fine.

It’s cold water and something to do with the touch screen.