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Battery life very poor and device often crashes when using battery savings mode

4083632
over 3 years ago

The battery of my Explorer is down 50% after only 3h of riding. It's completely onreliable for trips of over 6h. I tried using the battery saving mode, but the device then often crashed and all data was gone. This happened more than once, so I don't trust the saving mode anymore. I then bought an external battery pack (that I thus had to drag along with me), but when you charge your device during the ride, it can also suddenly crash and reset all data. Very very disappointing...

  • +1 over 3 years ago

    Is Your device crashing or just screen goes blank and it is unable to wake it up from batter save mode by touching screen? Does device beep after pressing start/pause button?

    In my case issue with blank screen happens often when using batter save mode and getting different notifications (going off the route, sharp bend, or phone notifications). Device is still working in background as it generates beeps when going back to route or approaching turn on the route. When I ride without any action after several minutes screen wakes up and shows correct content (self recovery happens). I suspect some software bug in synchronization between battery save mode and notiifcation handling.

    I found following workaround to wake up screen from that blank screen frreze: 

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

    2. Press power button to send device into sleep mode (it should not be configured for screenshots).

    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'm discussing issue with blank screen happening in batter save mode with Gramin support but they still claim they can't reproduce it Disappointed

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to AdKo

    Both things happen. Sometimes it turns blank and it's unable to wake-up for a few minutes, after which it suddenly wakes up again. I've also done the samen things as you discribed, and indeed this sometimes works. Ofcourse this is not ideal, since you have to worry about your device during your ride, instead of enjoying the ride.

    What also happens is that the screen freezes while showing the map. It then still generates beeps, but nothing works anymore. What worked yesterday during my 8h trip was holding the on/off and pause button simultaneously. The device was rebooted and most of the ride was still in there (the final 30min were gone).

    Because I had to save battery, I again put it in save mode. After that, the device crashed again and I just gave up on it. I was lucky my friends brought their Wahoo's with them. They apperently never have any issues with their battery life. Their devices lasted easily during the 8h trip. Mine was long gone.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4083632

    I agree this issue is the most frustrating one. Device that should navigate me gets freezed usually at critical point of time. I'm hearing beeps but can't see what direction I should turn Disappointed

    I stopped using battery save mode due to this issue with blank screen freezes.

    To limit battery power consumption I'm using following settings:

    1. Map orientation set in menu Ride settings -> Map -> Orientation to fixed North Up (no map rotation each second = less processor load = less power consumed)

    2. Map display set to manual move mode using "hand" icon (one between - and + on map screen) and manually moved slightly to lock autoscroll (no screen autoscroll = less processor load = less power consumed). This need to be done each time You display map screen.

    Drawback of this is that I need to move map manually from time to time.

    These settings give me map visible all the time during ride and power consumption abount 66% for 63km, 5h ride. 

    Not happy with that semi manual mode but have no better option due to faulty battery save mode Disappointed

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to AdKo

    Have you tried enabling Battery Save Mode with these parameters?

    a) Settings-->Battery Save Mode-->Select Alerts (Disable ALL except Turn Guidance and Off Crs. Warnings.

    b) Turn off BT & peripheral connectivity

    Granted this isn't a solution but I find after reducing the functionality of the Explore to strictly navigation it's stable, responds adequately if not well, and I can squeeze out a day's worth of riding from the battery.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I'm a new owner of the Edge Explore (firmware 5.30 - are others with the same issue on the same version?) 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.

    I'll go for another ride soon and try it with Bluetooth turned off to see if I get the same issue - 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.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to tomaquet

    @tomaquet, please don't post identical messages or issues in different threads (see "Edge Explore goes blank and locks.....). Confusing for readers to decide where to answer and waste of server space. Readers may even not answer at all anymore feeling your posts as too intrusive...

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    @bikepc01 I posted here first and then realised that the other thread was a better fit for my post. If it would make you able to sleep easier I can delete the post here? I really doubt server space is an issue and as you can see, it was already confusing for readers to decide where to answer as both threads cover the same issue. If there was any proper moderation in these forums then these posts would be merged or re-directed at least.

    As for being "intrusive", maybe it would have been more welcoming on your part to thank me for my (first) contribution in trying to understand the specific conditions when this bug is caused, rather than berating me for double-posting?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to tomaquet

    I am very 'grateful' to you for your forum posts and sleeping is no problem. You've got my message, but maybe I used too many words for it - this has always the risk touching the adressee...

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I think it's clear more people suffer from the same issue. So now it's the question, what is Garmin going to do about it? I've already contacted the shop who sold me the device, and they are willing to take it back and give me a refund.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4083632

    There's ample evidence here in the tenor and history of comments to suggest that retaining the Edge in the hope Garmin will address software shortcomings in a timely manner is misplaced. A more realistic criterion for hanging on to the device should be whether it's satisfactory for you, as it is right now.