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Vivoactive 4 boot loop

Former Member over 5 years ago

My Vivoactive 4 has less than a month.

Tonight it showed that a firmware update was available and it will restart the watch in about 1 min. I pressed yes and the watch got stuck in the garmin logo on the boot. I even let it for several minutes and is still on the same screen. I've also tried the 15 s button to restart. The watch turns off, but when I try to start it again, it is still stuck on garmin logo screen. Plugged it to my computer to see if garmin express can reset it, still no lucky.

Is it bricked for good? Is there a button combination to overcome this issue?

The sad thing is that I bought it in another country and since Garmin is not in my country anymore, I don't know how to change or ask for another unit.

Somebody help me, please.

0 RunnerM over 5 years ago

Doesn't sound good at all. If you can't return or do warranty, maybe plug it into a wall, restart it and let it go for a while (a few hours) and see if it gets past whatever is causing it to hang up. I have had computers revert back to a prior version after an update failed. Maybe that will happen here.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RunnerM

Thanks for your reply. I've already let it overnight plugged to energy (though the battery was at 90% at the time it asked for the update) and nothing. I'll let it in this "semi-boot loop" until the battery dies and then try to start it again. For now it is my last resource.

I saw in other posts some "hard reset" button combination for Fenix and Vivoactive 3, though I did not see it for Vivoactive 4 yet.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Well, after almost two days, everything stays the same. I won't even bother to send My bricked Vivoactive 4 to another country to exchange it for a new unit. If only I can have a refund (280 CHF).

The new unit will still be a Garmin, and my previous experience with Garmin devices 4 years ago (3 vivosmarts in less than a year) tells me that they keep replacing fault units until the warranty or customers' patience ends.

That kind of thing never happened with my old Suunto, which by the way still works fine.

0 RunnerM over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Have you talked with Garmin? Maybe they have something that can fix the watch in this situation?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RunnerM

Nope. I bought the watch in Zurique; then I traveled back to Brazil. If I were still there, I would already exchange it or ask for a refund. To my knowledge, Garmin has just a certified reseller here, but it does not have a customer center anymore (it had until a few years ago, though). The reseller only takes watches that were bought there. Thanks for the answer. For now, I am without options. I'll be back in Zurique next year (still a big if) when the warranty is over. Just got over it, and I'll probably cross out Garmin products for life. It is two out of three products with recurrent problems.