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Garmin 830: worst purchase ever

I purchased the Garmin 830 hoping for a good cycling experience. But, alas, its probably the most unintuitive and complex piece of kit ive ever bought.

I ride a course, but then I cannot end the course, or turn it off. No finish or end button. The online instructions are hopeless and make absolutely no sense whatsoever. 

  1. Select Pause to pause the current workout step.
  2. Select Back to end a workout step and repeat the previous step.
  3. Select Next to end a workout step and begin the next step.

I had to look online to see how to pause:

From the workout screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and select an option:
  1. Select Pause to pause the current workout step.
  2. Select Back to end a workout step and repeat the previous step.
  3. Select Next to end a workout step and begin the next step.

I tried 100s of times to 'swipe up from the bottom of the workout screen, and nothing happens. I read that perhaps pressing the right hand physical button would help...but of course, this didnt work either. i thought about rebooting, but the device told me that an activity was in progress. I tried starting a new course, this didnt turn off the existing activity. I tried double clicking everything, this didnt work. Short of pulling my hair out, is there anybody who knows how to stop a cycling activity on the bloody device?|?????

  • Perhaps it will help to say that recording/saving ride data, navigating a course, and doing a workout are three separate things.  To record and save a ride, press the bottom right button at the beginning, and the timer will start counting.  At the end of the ride press it again, and you'll get an option of saving the ride, discarding the riding, or doing nothing.  To end the ride and save it, tap the save option.  Or, if you want to continue, you can press the button again to continue recording.   You can do nothing and power down the unit.  When you power it up again, you'll get the option to continue recording.  All this is independent of navigation.

    To navigate a course, you need to download it to the device, select Navigation, select the course and select RIDE.  Then press the bottom right button to start riding and continue as in the previous paragraph.  The same options apply to the bottom right button. If you chose to save the ride, navigation will stop.  During a ride, you can cancel navigation while still recording the ride by tapping the red cross on the lower left of the map screen.

    To complicate things a bit there is an option in Profile settings for the device to start automatically recording when you start movementing.   You can also set it to auto-pause when waiting at a stoplight etc.   IMO, it's best to set these to manual until you see how things work then experiment with the auto settings.

    Next comes workouts, which means scheduled intervals of power/hr/rpe.  That's a whole 'nother thing.

  • Thanks.

    So, I press the right hand bottom physical button , as suggested to start the timer. Nothing happens. I try this ever which way. Nothing happens. So thats a no go. I try rebooting my 830 and trying again with this cursed right button, again, nothing happens. My right hand bottom button simply does nothing, however I press it: hard , soft, slowly, quickly, long or short. NOTHING

    I managed to download a course, that was never the problem. My only issue was stopping the activity. In  the end, the only way I could stop my activity was to reboot my 830. It then gave me a choice to save or end. Surely this is nuts!!

    I give up. I shall ask for a refund and go across to trust Pilot for a 'choice' review of this unfathomable device.

  • you can stop a course anytime during a ride. I use the map page. On the bottom left of the screen there is a red X that you can press and it will ask you if you want to stop the current course. Hit Checkmark and navigation will stop

  • Or try the grown up thing to do and exchange the faulty device, if the physical Start / Pause button doesn’t work. Stuff like (monday devices with faulty buttons) that happens and you don’t have to rant about it like an infantile.

  • maxkobe, 

    A forum is a conversational place for people to express their views and disappointments about products purchased. Especially expensive purchases. This is the 'grown up' thing to do, as can be observed by many views expressed here. I suggest you orientate yourself with other views made here on this forum. It's clear from your laughable and unhelpful response, that you don't understand this. I should be more than happy to explain this to you, should you wish.

    Your Monday comment is confusing and has no relevance or bearing on my product concerns, so I assume you struggle with basis English. Local colleges and educational facilities local to you will offer basic English for 5 year olds. I apologise if this level of English is too hard for you.

    Your ignorance and obvious low intelligence is frankly laughable, and I suggest you orient yourself to the purpose of forums.

  • It does sound like you may have just received a defective unit with a physically defective Start/Stop button.  I would recommend exchanging for another 830, you may end up very happy with this product once you have one that works.  Any manufacturer can let a bad one slip by, give Garmin a chance to fix the mistake.

    (The Monday quip is a bit of slang, sometimes people aren't at their best on a Monday after the weekend and might make a mistake at work.)

  • @nfp40uk Please refrain from using abusive language, or attacking other forum users. This may result in a permanent ban if you continue these kinds of posts. 

    In regards to your product issue, it does sound as though you may have a hardware issue if your Start/Stop button is not responding. I would recommend reaching out to your local support team by visiting support.garmin.com as this will result in a local team who can assist as quickly as possible for your location. If an exchange is necessary, we cannot process these via the forums. 

  • It sounds like your device is faulty so I would definitely contact garmin support. Garmin is great with support and I imagine will figure this out for you very quickly. If you just purchased it you might just be able to exchange at a store.

    Sometimes devices have issue, this goes for every manufacturer. I think you just had some bad luck this time around.