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Edge Explore goes blank and locks up during ride

Had my Edge Explore screen go blank and lock up twice during yesterday's ride.  Started late last year and is now practically an every ride thing.  When it happens the device is completely unresponsive.  After a few minutes, holding the power button for 10 seconds brings it back, and when it comes back it's aware a ride is in progress and the data from the earlier part of the ride is intact.  It used to initiate a crash alert during most of these lockups until I disabled it and deleted my emergency contact.

Is anybody else having this problem?  I see it mentioned on the Edge 830 forum.  I began the repair process (I'm out of warranty) and was quoted $130.  I don't want to do it and just get sent a refurbished unit that has the same issue.  My device worked fine for a year.  Then the issue started, I believe after a software upgrade....

  • Problem still exists in firmware 5.30.

    Screen goes blank and it is not possible to wake it up by touching screen.

    Device is still registering activity and beeps navigation hints.

    Waiting for fix in next firmware version.

  • i'm having the same issue as well. customer service of garmin belgium claimed the issue didnt exist and that i'm the only one reporting it. after many complaints they replaced the device and the new (it says refurbished on the invoice but they claim it to be new) device has the same issue.

    after me telling them that this is clearly a software issue they all of a sudden agreed with me and claimed "they" are working on it. after that they refuse to answer me and having been ignoring me completely.  it has been months now.

    this was my first and most definitely last garmin device.

  • Faulty battery save mode is very frustrating. Last time it happened to me (test ride with software 5.30) I checked sequence that allows to exit from locked empty screen. It is as follows:

    1. Press start/pause button to pause activity recording.

    2. Press power button to send device into sleep mode.

    3. Press power button once again to wake up device. After this step screen shows correctly.

    4. Press start/pause button to continue activity recording.

    I hope it works for other users too.

  • I have this problem (and another one!) early in 2019. Garmin replaced my device in July 2019. The replaced device does have have the same problem again (but not the other). I've done all available updates. I got back in touch with Garmin and received another replacement for my Edge Explore in September 2020. Unfortunately, this - the third - device has the same behavior again.
    Nevertheless, I have now installed version 5.3 and switched off the power save function. In the spring I will test again and wait for the next firmware.

    Until a final solution from Garmin, I will try your four steps!

  • I'm a new owner of the Edge Explore (firmware 5.30) and had the screen freeze problem yesterday. On previous rides I didn't use Battery Save Mode and didn't have any issues.

    Yesterday I tried Battery Save Mode for the first time as was going on a longer ride and needed the battery and had 3 screen freezes - two times it was blank and the other froze with the map on.

    I had bluetooth connected to my phone and ¨Connected Features¨ enabled with all four ¨smart notifications¨ turned on.

    In Battery Save Mode I had System Alerts (I'm not even sure what they are... no description in manual) and Off Crs Warnings enabled. Note that I had smart notifications turned off here - I guess with battery save mode enabled this takes precedence over the smart notifications set in "Connected Features" (although this is not made clear in the rubbish manual). I didn't receive any whatsapp messages to my Edge so I assume so (my phone did receive them). Maybe there is a "conflict" between the smart notifications settings in Connected Features and Battery Save Mode which is causing the Edge to freeze?

    No ANT+ connections to other devices.

    In another thread linguinee suggests turning off Bluetooth connection to phone resolves this issue. I'll go for another ride soon and try it but as linguinee says, it's not a long term solution. We really shouldn't be looking for a work-around. I'm very tempted to return it to get my money back and look for something more reliable.


  • Guess what, now I am hearing that Garmin Dash Cams' mobile phone app has some issues, and Garmin's commitment to support is holding me back from buying it.

  • I chatted with Garmin support on the chat and it the following is there response:

    “It sounds like there is a corrupted file on the Edge itself. Are you near a computer with Garmin Express installed on it?”

    I am not close to a computer, but I am very frustrated with this ***. Lost about an hour today with the device acting up. 

  • What did they want you to do on the computer? (I'm having this problem too. Started today. Alerted my emergency contact that I had had an accident!)

  • Hi. I have the same issue, I bought the devide for a long bike trip and can tell that was a pain since sometimes was freezing 3 or 4 times in one ride. 

    I contacted the support and they  told is a know SW issue that they are working on to fix but cannot say when and even if actually there will be a solution for that, the only thing you can do is not to use battery save mode, which sucks since bettery life is not a strenght from the edge explorer. 

    Honestly I am not so convinced a soltuion will come since this issue has been there for quite  long time and they were not able to solve it yet...lets see

  • You've been lied to by support, they won't be able to fix this problem since it's there for over 2 years now, the other issue K-Reg mentions is also a very common, riding on a near perfectly smooth surface and suddenly receiving accident detection texts of the rider next to me..

    I'm also puzzled as why my Garmin 530 never seems to have any issue besides being (extremely) slow in syncing with power data. I also find that both devices are horrible at displaying the route and often miss or mistake turns.