Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to resolve this. I bought a Garmin 1030 around 6 months ago which got the blue halo issue. I returned the unit and Garmin kindly replaced it with a refurb around 2 weeks ago which has been fine, however I went for a night ride a few nights ago and the backlight does not work whilst riding. The screen backlight will come on when I touch the screen but it goes off the 15 second timer expires even when its pitch black. I don't use a case or cover on the unit and the brightness is set to auto. The device is running version 7.0 of the firmware. Is it possible I got a dud?
Sounds like normal behaviour to me. In the dark you need to change the time out so it stays on. Also, set the brightness to 100%, instead of auto.
Really? On my old unit i was sure the backlight used to stay on at night. I was under the impression that it has a sensor that detects night and day and will keep the back light on if you are doing an activity when it was dark....maybe I always had it on and didn't know. I wonder why Garmin wouldn't make this a setting given that the unit can already detect the difference between night and day.....
I had a quick test with mine last night before I posted my reply and the automatic brightness setting only affected the brightness, not the timeout duration.
The night and day detection is based on time of day and location as the unit knows sunset and sunrise times for where you are.
My 520 backlight would stay on the same timeout (15 seconds) after sunset. Going to an always on setting after dark would be good, but I didn't need it lit up constantly. That's why I had the remote so I could light it up when ever I wanted. The operation of the remote seems a bit more hit and miss with my 1030. More research needed there as I have read of others with the same issue.
What sort of battery life were you getting with the old one? Near the quoted figures or much less? That might tell you if the backlight was on or not.
Good luck with your replacement and the blue halo flaw. I too had the halo and received a (new) replacement unit last year andwas told the problem had been resolved. An untrue statement. The halo returned within four months. Major design flaw.
