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Garmin 235 Rebooting When Starting/Ending Charging

morielly1979
over 3 years ago

Update: March 9, 2022.  It's been over 2 years since I posted this concern.  This problem still happens on my watch and I have learned to live with it.  I still suspect it has something to do with voltage levels.  In order to deal with this issue I now do the following: 

  • Only charge with a portable power bank (Anker 10,000mAh).  I rarely get reboots/data loss when I use this method.
  • Make sure my runs are synced to Garmin connect prior to charging.
  • Only attempt to charge when battery is low.

I'm very tired of buggy Garmin watches (the 235 is my 3rd watch) and, even worse, the complete unresponsiveness of their support team; I'm currently shopping for a different brand for my next watch.

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Hi all: 

I've seen a lot of similar messages issues in the forum, but I have not yet seen a suggestion/fix for this issue:

My watch frequently reboots when it is connected to a computer (or a charging device such as a wall charger or battery charger).  It seems completely random -- I never know when I'm connecting to a charger whether it's going to get restart.

Usually when it restarts I lose data in the phone: 

  • Often the time is wrong when it restarts
  • Often the daily step count is now zeroed
  • Often my recent activities are gone from the watch (but still in Garmin Connect if it had synced previously)
  • Often my heart rate data for the past 4 hours is missing.
  • Often the next GPS fix takes a considerably longer time -- presumably GPS data is lost.

None of the above are guarantee: Sometimes none of these things happen, sometimes all of them happen.

I have a background in electronics, firmware, software, development, etc.  I suspect their charging circuitry has issues and when your input voltage is a little too high it causes the above issue; that's why portable power banks, which may be lower and will be more consistent than a wall charger, can be used to mitigate the issue.  It also explains why a fully charged device is more likely to cause the problem -- because lower charge will draw a higher initial current and dampen the initial voltage spike (assuming a RC filter network).

Can anyone help?  The watch is getting barely usable when I have so little trust in it.

Thanks, 

Mark

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Bumping this in the hopes that someone can help me.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to morielly1979

    Oh well, I guess no one uses this forum, or no one knows the answer.  

    Anyway, think I figured out why this is happening -- at least I have a theory.  I think the Garmin is overly sensitive to higher voltage chargers (i.e. 5.2v).  Shame on Garmin for not being compliant with the USB standard!!  Anyway, playing with a multimeter and some long cables I have determined that the watch doesn't reset when the voltage is about 5.1V, but at 5.2V it resets.  I'm planning on putting an inline resistance and capacitor in my charging cable to fix Garmin's poor design.  

    Yes, I'm a little frustrated with Garmin here... I've loved and promoted Garmin to friends and family for years, but I've had 2-3 watches now that are buggy and have design issues... 

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Hi I also have the same problem here. However, maybe you can "sync" your watch with your phone before you charge. At least Garmin Connect had captured your data. When you sync again after charging, your data will still be intact. Only problem is, you will need GPS to manage the "time setting"

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 3865300

    I am having the same issue, except I also loose my uploaded watch face and apps/widgets. 

    disappointed. Wondering if the issue is the line voltage as the OP identified?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to joegribben

    Nope! Still does it. Really hoping garmin addresses this at some point. I have noticed it tends to do it more when the battery is already mostly charged. I don't think it does it if the battery is well below 50%.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to joegribben

    Oh, and also, sometimes my watch face gets messed up too when this happens.  Like it might revert back to a previous watch face that I had tried, etc.  Eventually I uninstalled all watch faces that I wasn't using and it "fixed" that part of my issue.

    I'm no longer sure if it's to do with voltage.  I couldn't get any repeatable result when using lower voltage unfortunately -- sometimes it still did it at a lower voltage.  

    The only repeatable result I can get is that it rarely (maybe never?) does it when the watch's battery is well less than 50%

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 3865300

    This is better than nothing... But I'm my case there's 2 reasons why it doesn't work.  One, I use a program called sport tracks, have for 10 years. It needs a usb connection to upload.

    Two, when I experienced this issue I was doing a lot of back country hiking and was out of service range. Garmin connect only works when you can connect to their servers, as we all learned last year.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to morielly1979

    I am having the same problem with Garmin 235.  Reboots when charging.  Time is incorrect.  Very frustrating.  Since I recently lost some step data, I am syncing with phone prior to charging.  Is there any solution to this issue?  Thanks.       

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to nuckos27

    @nuckos27 are you saying it reboots in the middle of charging? I have seen my FR235 reboot, after charging, via USB on the computer. In this case, I think it's because something was updated on the FR235, and a reboot is required. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to EricJRW

    Sounds like he's experiencing hte same issue I describe above (I'm the OP).  Does not sound like he's experiencing a normal reboot considering the time change and loss of data.  Frankly sounds like your reboot is not normal either; the watch should never update on its own unprompted.  It prompts you to update and you have to say Yes to firmware updates.

    To your point: I've never seen this issue happen in the middle of charging.  I've seen it happen as soon as I connect to charger, and when removing from the charger.

    I've been a garmin fan for years, but have seen bugs like this in all 3 watch models I've owned.  I'm investigating other watch brands for my next watch.  Garmin is too unresponsive and apparently don't follow good software engineering practices when it comes to pushing updates and testing firmware.