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No updates for 7 months and my 645 keeps crashing while Hiking/Running

Labronico
over 4 years ago

I'm trying a new post since my latest reply on the matter has been removed from the moderators.

My 645 has been abandoned from Garmin. Seven months with no updates even though it's right below the top of the line of the forerunners.

I created an Hiking activity duplicating the walking one: nothing fancy here. I'm using only native data fields embedded on the watch, not even Connect IQ ones from Garmin, and yet it crashes.

When I'm super lucky it happens at the start (within a minute or so), so that nothing is really lost. Other times I'm not as lucky, especially when I was navigating a course and it leaves me with a black screen, refusing to wake up unless I trigger a soft reset. Which on turn greets me with zeroes aerobic and anaerobic efforts from the point it wakes up, after hours of hike.

And yes I tried everything:

  • Navigating a course or just start a free hike
  • Long courses or very short ones
  • With zero or more external sensors attached
  • Soft reset
  • Hard reset
  • Factory reset
  • Watch replacement (the old one had faulty battery at the age of 11 months)

It still crashes and that to me is the proof that's just a bugged software. It doesn't crash 100% of the times, but it happens so often that I can't really trust my device, which is the point of a pricier Garmin watch instead of a generic cheapo.

Am I the only one which hikes with a 645? Any other feedback?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    No problem too here. I use it for running/Hiking/trailrunning about 5x/Weeks and it's very stable and reliable now. I would prefer no update and a reliable watch instead of regular update with "fancy" new functions and unreliable watch.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to tercier

    So you’re basically telling me that existing bugs should be left where they are because, even though we both use it correctly, you don’t face the crashes that I do?

    Beside that, you can turn updates off.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    FW:6.70 - Another crash yesterday morning: started to navigate a hike course, crashed a few seconds later. After that it worked just fine.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Labronico

    Another crash last week. Just started a run activity (no training, just started it) and crashed a few seconds after.

    Passed the blue triangle of death, everything worked since then.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Labronico

    I know you say this is a software bug but as it seems much worse for you than anybody else and you've reset the device to remove your setup as a cause, my money would be on a hardware fault. These are more common than many people imagine and can include anything from a faulty sensor to a microscopic crack in the silicon to a dry solder joint.   

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to George

    Well, I don’t think it’s an hardware issue because I’ve had crashes with the previous replaced 645 and it doesn’t crash all the times. 

    Plus there’s no cause-effect given that it mostly affects me. Maybe it crashes because of a very peculiar bug which happens only when GPS acquires signal in the area I live. I work in the software development: trust me, I’ve seen unbelievable bugs before.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Labronico

    Your replacement could've been the same hardware revision as your original. Either way, if this mysterious bug only affects you, there's not much hope of it getting fixed. I'd get it replaced under warranty, or if it's out of warranty, buy another on eBay and sell yours (noting the bug and its rareity, of course).

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Roedema

    It seems you care a lot about my issue! That’s flattening.

    However the replacement is -many- serial numbers after the previous one, and the issues are exactly the same.

    Beside that I don’t agree I’m the only one ha ong this issue. Others here reported similar behaviors. I may get it more often since I train with various sports almost every day. In addition to that my perception is that 1/1000 of the Garmin users actually contribute on this forums, so any statistical analysis would be a stretch of imagination.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Labronico
    Labronico said:
    my perception is that 1/1000 of the Garmin users actually contribute on this forums, so any statistical analysis would be a stretch of imagination.

    Agreed. So how do you come to the conclusion 1 in a 1000 contribute to the forum?  I think that would be a stretch of imagination.  You're telling Roedema he can't make an assumption on the rarity of the issue, based on your very own assumption on how many 645 owners actually use the forums.  Your comment also contains a 2nd assumption. It implies that the percentage of those with the issue increases from those not using the forums.  You don't know.  It could actually decrease.  The only way of knowing would be to contact every 645 user and ask them two questions. Do you have the issue and do you use the forums?  Then the data would have to be analyzed between the two. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to tess

    I guess this will be my last response on this specific issue (not the thread), since it seems someone is willing to argue over matter which do not apply to themselves. Please forgive my lack of proper terms, English is not my primary language.

    “1/1000” is a way to generally tell just a minor portion of Garmin users contribute on the forum. You don’t need a rocket science PhD to understand it may not exactly be 0.001%.


    “1/1000” is in sharp contrast with “only you have this issue”, which not only is wrong solely based on this very thread, but more so given than much less than 100% of all the FR645 users actually replied here. More classical logic than opinions.