Vivoactive 4s stuck on triangle

Hello :) I went for a swim yesterday with my vivoactive 4s (it was fully charged before) and seemingly worked whilst in the pool. When I got out it froze so went to switch it off and on again and now all I'm getting is the blue triangle. I've tried the soft reset and plugging it into my laptop (it isn't finding it) and a different cable. When I switch it off and plug it in the triangle comes back but I can't get any further than that - any help would be appreciated! 

  • I had this issue with my old Garmin 920xt. 

    You basically try key-combinations to Force Reset the watch (Please google for it, OR someone else can pitch in). If this is a SW issue, it could likely reset and restart. It can be a HW issue in which case its just dead. 

    For my 920xt, I tried everything I could find including - multiple charge/discharge cycles, keeping the watch in silica (to remove any moisture), even opened the back panel and cleaning the PCB with rubbing alcohol (wont suggest that, since it will void your warranty). Anyhow, it was basically dead.

    If under warranty, reach out to Customer support asap!

  • Hey there! I am sorry to see this has happened. If you can not get this device to boot back through the triangle, the device will need to be exchanged. 

  • This happened to me too, actually twice. The first time I was eventually able to factory reset it. What I did is I would hold down the top button until the blue triangle showed up, and then immediately hold down the bottom button until the screen changed.

    But now after the second time that doesn't even work. This is completely ridiculous, I just had my watch on while doggy paddling in a river--my watch never went more than a couple feed deep in the water. It's unacceptable that this happens on a watch that is advertised as water proof up to 5 ATM. I've only had the watch about a year.

  • I've had this happen a couple of times. Hold down that top button for 10-20 seconds until it shuts down, then restart it. Unfortunately since it's just a triangle with no backlight, it won't even run the battery down. You have to force it to shut down.

  • This "hang up at the blue triangle" happens to me often when I turn the watch off and then plug it in.  I have found the same technique suggested by Bryan W does the trick.

  • When you power it down, if you wait for the backlight to go out (which takes a couple of seconds) before plugging it in, I think this can prevent the stuck triangle issue. It looks like when you power down, if you plug it in during that brief 1-2 seconds when the backlight is still on, it causes it to lock up.

  • Thanks - I will give this a try!

  • verified: the methodology below works like the charm!

  • Verified: the below methodology....after a lot of "poking & hoping" works like the charm!

  • Thx Bryan W !!! Vivoactive4 os7.8 showed triangle outline.  Was  really annoyed. Of course a reboot works, trick is in knowing how to do it:)  Hold the top button until the triangle disaapears. Wait, press button down briefly (pray).  The reboot, kept my  custom watch face and the Hike 2+ app I use almost every day.  Now I am happy with the watch again.  

    This also worked on a VA3, that my wife retired for not holding a charge. The VA3 displayed a solid triangle.  Apparently  she and Garmin support wiped the watch, because it rebooted asking me which language.  She is using my retired VA3 and not having any issues.