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Issues with Charging/Charger?

My vivoactive 3 music has been working flawless since I've had it. Over the weekend I left it to charge and realized that the battery full drained and did not charge.

After more inspection, it seems the charger was "woobly" in connection with the battery connection, which means it wasn't making proper connection. When I pressed down on the charger, the contact seems to be more secure and the watch proceeded to charge. When I released pressure, it stopped charging.

It seems that there might be something wrong with either the charger itself (easy fix) or the connection on the watch (not sure about fix?). I went ahead and ordered a different charger from amazon, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this kind of issue, and can pinpoint where exact the problem is? I've already inspected both contacts on the watch and the charger, and have cleaned them. There was no lint or dirt or anything preventing the charging. It seems the charger is not making a tight enough connection with the watch.

Thanks
  • It's the last resort before I bin it for this rubbish watch that has plagued me with charging issues since the day the warranty ran out. I've ground down the top of the plug with a file to expose the four pins, cleaned the contacts with carbon tetrachloride and use a 3 way clamp to literally force it connect. It works for now but not for long I expect. 

  • I have had problems charging since I first got it 3 years ago. The cable does not click securely into the socket on the watch. As time has gone on it has needed increasing amounts of pressing and wiggling to start charging.

  • I have a similar issue, to make it worse my charger only works when I insert it into the watch a certain way. I'm constantly removing and reinserting the charger to get it working. Wireless charge capability would be good.

  • Same problem. Charging got less and less reliable. Lots of wiggling and eventually got to where I could barely get the charging to start. I have multiple chargers, none worked. Read this thread and learned that the watch has charging pads, not sockets. As others have written the charger pins are spring loaded. They just need to contact the pins. I learned a long time ago that a good way to clean edge connectors on circuit boards was to use an eraser. Grabbed a pencil and gave the pads on the back of the watch a good scrubbing using the eraser. Now all the charges work like when I first got the watch. I expect I will need to clean the pads an a regular basis.

  • Regular wd40 is not very good for electrical contacts but certainly can help with sticky pins. There is a version of wd40 made specifically to clean contacts. When the pads are clean and pins are making contact, the watch will charge unless some other part is broken.

  • Funny this is coming up today.  I resolved the issue 2 years ago to this month by getting new charger cable.  It came in a 2-pack, and I'm just now having to start using the 2nd once as it started acting up again this week.  So that's good resolution for me.

  • The WD-40 suggested by others, applied to both the watch pins and cord pins, worked well. Just dry both well before plugging in. No more problems.

  • Same issue here. Bought a new cable, troubleshot/cleaned everything as described in this thread to no avail.

    Reached out to Garmin Support and they said they'd replace for $110. I said "No thanks," and they said, "Have a good evening" and closed the chat. Disappointed

  • Garmin always suggest cleaning the contacts with Rubbing Alcohol. I didn't have any so I used gin instead and now it charges fine.

  • Nice thread of information.  I had tried eraser, rubbing alcohol ... but a regular cleaning with an electrical contact cleaner sprayed onto a Q-Tip keeps my charging system working on my Vivoactive 3.  I used CRC QD Electronic Cleaner because I had it, but any cleaner should work.  The watch is up against skin which is covering the contacts with skin/grease ... and then transfers to the contacts on the charging cords, so the watch and cables require maintenance.