Watch restarts when viewing a glance - Solar 45MM

I have it permanently disabled and I’m experiencing crashes. They occur mainly when the solar charging intensity is at maximum and the sun is strong, and I enter the charging statistics

I'm experiencing the same problem in my Garmin Instinct 3 Solar 45mm Tactical, updated to the 9.25 firmware version. In my case I often get the watch crashing when I go into the HR widget, but sometimes also when going into other widgets too. Most times, after rebooting I can see the widget just fine, although there's been a few occasions I got 2-3 reboots chained when trying to access the widget's content just after rebooting.

I've accessed the contents of the watch via USB and I found a "RTL Trap" as "error cause" in the error log file inside the DEBUG directory every time this happens. For instance here's the (simplified) log's content of today's latest error at 19:13 CEST:

[
  {
    "product_name": "Instinct 3 - 45mm Tactical",
    "software_part_number": "006-B4585-01",
    "ms_since_epoch": "1751569991000",
    "system_version": "9.25",
    "build_type": "Production",
    "backtrace": "0x100006b1\n\t0x1000048b\n\t0x10005c91\n\t0x10000419\n\t0x100003ff\n\t0x10036f6d\n\t0x1003d139\n\t0x10036f9d\n\t0x1003d127\n\t0x1003d083\n\t0x1003d073\n\t0x10036c19\n\t0x1003d061\n\t0x10044f5d\n\t0x10036ca9\n\t0x1003d0c5\n\t0x10036ccd\n\t0x1003d0b3\n\t0x10036d5d\n\t0x1003d0db\n\t0x10036dc5\n\t0x1003d0c9\n\t0x1003702d\n\t0x1003d153\n\t0x10037045\n\t0x1003d13f\n\t0x10037339\n\t0x10037291\n\t0x1003d175\n\t0x1004525f\n\t0x100379c5\n\t0x10037945\n\t",
    "error_cause": "RTL Trap",
    "proprietary_info":   {
      "Commit ID": "082b93d0b189c1f551a02e6f6f90067de10ecee9",
      "Time": "2025-7-3 19:13:11",
      "uptime": "322359",
      "RTL Error Number": "0x034",
      "rtl_reg": "r[0]: 0x00000001\n\tr[1]: 0x00000000\n\tr[2]: 0x7fffffff\n\tr[3]: 0x00000000\n\tr[4]: 0x000000a1\n\tr[5]: 0x3029baa8\n\tr[6]: 0x3029baac\n\tr[7]: 0x302957d0\n\tr[8]: 0x301cdf34\n\tr[9]: 0x0000001e\n\tr[10]: 0x00000009\n\tr[11]: 0x301cdf40\n\tr[12]: 0x00000001\n\tr[13]: 0x301cdf10\n\tr[14]: 0x10005c91\n\tr[15]: 0x184f09e4\n\tr[16]: 0x81100000\n\tr[17]: 0x40000000\n\tr[18]: 0x00000082\n\tr[19]: 0x00000000\n\tr[20]: 0x00000000\n\tr[21]: 0x00000000\n\tr[22]: 0x301cdea8\n\t",
      "programCounter": "0x10001bbf",
      "stackPointer": "0x30206168"
    }
  }
]

And here is a similar error reported today at 17:36 CEST, for the sake of comparison:

[
  {
    "product_name": "Instinct 3 - 45mm Tactical",
    "software_part_number": "006-B4585-01",
    "ms_since_epoch": "1751564212000",
    "system_version": "9.25",
    "build_type": "Production",
    "backtrace": "0x100006b1\n\t0x1000048b\n\t0x10005c91\n\t0x10000419\n\t0x100003ff\n\t0x10036f6d\n\t0x1003d139\n\t0x10036f9d\n\t0x1003d127\n\t0x1003d083\n\t0x1003d073\n\t0x10036c19\n\t0x1003d061\n\t0x10044f5d\n\t0x10036ca9\n\t0x1003d0c5\n\t0x10036ccd\n\t0x1003d0b3\n\t0x10036d5d\n\t0x1003d0db\n\t0x10036dc5\n\t0x1003d0c9\n\t0x1003702d\n\t0x1003d153\n\t0x10037045\n\t0x1003d13f\n\t0x10037339\n\t0x10037291\n\t0x1003d175\n\t0x1004525f\n\t0x100379c5\n\t0x10037945\n\t",
    "error_cause": "RTL Trap",
    "proprietary_info":  {
      "Commit ID": "082b93d0b189c1f551a02e6f6f90067de10ecee9",
      "Time": "2025-7-3 17:36:52",
      "uptime": "18882030",
      "RTL Error Number": "0x034",
      "rtl_reg": "r[0]: 0x00000001\n\tr[1]: 0x42917770\n\tr[2]: 0x7fffffff\n\tr[3]: 0x00000000\n\tr[4]: 0x000000a1\n\tr[5]: 0x302a2d98\n\tr[6]: 0x302a2d9c\n\tr[7]: 0x302a3708\n\tr[8]: 0x301cdf34\n\tr[9]: 0x0000001e\n\tr[10]: 0x00000009\n\tr[11]: 0x301cdf40\n\tr[12]: 0x00000001\n\tr[13]: 0x301cdf10\n\tr[14]: 0x10005c91\n\tr[15]: 0x184f09e4\n\tr[16]: 0x81100000\n\tr[17]: 0x40000000\n\tr[18]: 0x00008200\n\tr[19]: 0x42917770\n\tr[20]: 0x42917770\n\tr[21]: 0x00000000\n\tr[22]: 0x301cdea8\n\t",
      "programCounter": "0x10001bbf",
      "stackPointer": "0x30206168"
    }
  }
]

As you can see, the errors are very similar, only changes in the logs are in the time-related fields like "ms_since_epoch", "time" and "uptime" (which is expected), and then some of the hexadecimal values in "rtl_reg".

In my case this is a brand-new watch I just started using on 5 days ago, updated to the very latest firmware (9.25) and with only one extra thing installed form the Connect IQ Store: the "Modern Tech" watch face (also made by Garmin), which is what I'm using now.

This is very annoying since it's not a cheap watch, and also because I come from a Fenix 6 that also had its fair share of issues. I hope this gets resolved soon, I'd love to use this watch as I like it a lot, but I can't do it in the current way.

PS: I'd also appreciate workarounds, if any. So far I tried uninstalling as many things as possible and forcing the watch not to use Multiband satellites in case it helps, but I haven't seen any evidence this has worked.

Garmin Support reassured me that they are working on the fix. I understand that it's been 5 month since the problem was discovered, but at least they admitted that problem is known and they are working on it.

Also having this same issue on the latest software update on my 3 day old i3 45mm solar. Restarts when opening a glace and after the restart it works fine until eventually it does it again. Today when looking at my solar glance, after the restart my logged lux hours for the day actually went down around 5k. Very odd.

I have now tried/returned around 9 different Instinct 3 models (45mm solar and tactical models).  I understand that's insane, however, this confirms this is an incredibly widespread issue.  Garmin doesn't know why it's happening and I've had hit or miss experiences talking to support.  Some of them don't care at all.  To spend this amount of money on a watch plagued with issues is a little insane as well, even more insane giving it 9 tries with 9 separate units.  My latest one I got yesterday evening is insane.  It's crashed 6 times this morning in a matter of 2 hours.  It's a press of two buttons (down which gets me to my stress glance) and hitting ok to view the stress glance.  Constant restarts. Constant HR issues.  I think I'll be going back to just wearing a Protrek and stop the insanity of tracking all this garbage.  Hopefully gets resolved for you guys. 

I don't quite understand why did you ordered nine units. It should be obviously that its the software problem after you experience it twice. 

I have had it happen again multiple times, I'm basically getting used to it by now. Any updates?

удивительно, но на бетаверсии v.10.16 у меня пока ни разу не повторилось. Боюсь сглазить. Нужно постучать по дереву.

Have you tested version 10.18? Does anyone have an opinion on it?