Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Repeated Reboots when starting an activity - Highly Frustrating

badbri
over 4 years ago

I have encountered a major issue when using the Garmin 945 apparently with the Stryd running power sensor (Summit version - i.e. the latest version before the newly announced one)

This past weekend I was in Portland Oregon on a vacation trip. Greatly looking forward to doing some running on trails around Mount Hood, I had prepared accordingly (researching trail routes, creating courses on Garmin, packing for super long runs, etc) but I encountered issues with my watch that dampened the entire experience.

I think I have narrowed down the culprit as the Stryd sensor connection.

Friday morning, I traveled up to about 2000’ altitude anticipating a 13m round trip to 6600’+ and back down again. I had connected to GPS a few times in the day prior to make sure my Garmin wasn’t going to have difficulty in locating my position since I was 2000 miles from my home area. Everything was working fine…until i got to the trail head trying to start my run.

That’s when my watch repeatedly rebooted every time I tried to enter an activity mode (running, trail running, etc). When I would just press the activity button, it would show the screen briefly and then reboot. This happened over and over again for 30min. It would sometimes give me hope and stay connected for 10 sec, only to reboot.

FINALLY, I managed to leverage one of those 10sec periods to change the activity profile to “walk” instead of run. This didn’t have all my data fields that I like to use, much less all my sensors (including Stryd) but it would at least record a GPS track for the run. This worked okay, allowing me to record the 3 hour 30min + activity. I changed it back to “run” in Garmin Connect post run, but again, no stryd metrics etc.

The next morning, in downtown Portland, I went for a run in Forest Park. Trail running activity worked fine, no issues whatsoever. Just an aberration I thought.

But then the next day I went back up to the Mt Hood area to attempt another long 3+ hour run. Same deal as before, I had made all the proper preparations. Again unfortunately the same deal. Catastrophic failures and reboots. I couldn’t even get to the Walk activity this time to change it. I finally just gave up and borrowed my wife’s low level Garmin so I could at least tell my time/distance. About a mile into the run, I managed to get my 945 to drop all sensors and remove the Stryd CIQ Power field from the display.

This did the trick, the Garmin worked fine after that.

Remembering back a month, this happened before, again when I was in the mountains and starting a long trail run. Stryd totally hosed the activity, the 945 only working after it “forced” the Stryd CIQ field to drop out of the activity I was using.  A few weeks later, back in the mountains, it managed one activity just fine but then a later activity that same day it did the same thing - rebooting and forcing the Stryd CIQ field to drop out (along with the "Dozen Run" CIQ field I use as well).

Now back home, all is good with the 945 and stryd…absolutely no issues connecting/displaying etc.

So something appears to be happening either when my device is a) far from home…and/or b) at a far different elevation/altitude than it is used to.

As you might imagine, this was BEYOND frustrating. I was on a tight time schedule and this cost me 30 minutes in both instances fiddling with devices that I finally wanted to run over with my car.

Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts on what is happening between the watch in these instances??

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I have a very similar setup as you (945 + stryd + CIQ datafield) and just had a very similar problem two days ago (tried a run in the sequoia park, very far from where I live). I was able to make the repeated reboots stop after I synced the watch with the connect app, which presumably refreshed the EPO file - I suspect the file may have been outdated as I hadn't synced in a few days due to travel. Any chance this could have been an issue with you also?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RadimR

    I don't think so as I had my phone with me and assumed it had been syncing regularly.  However I experience VERY long syncs with the 945 usually so this may be a factor.

    One more thing to try next time it happens though, thanks for the suggestions.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hi, I don't have any sensors. I took my watch abroad for the first time yesterday, to the mountains. Same exact problem when starting the activity. It had not rebooted once back home... Highly frustrating. I can get an activity to start by turning the watch off and on. The activity then ran for 4 hours and stably. I then ended it and tried to start another one. Back to square one...  Garmin needs to fix this

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to sunshine775

    Garmin will only fix the problems you are experiencing with your 945 when you report the problem to them. Have you contacted Garmin support?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to philipshambrook

    No I have not. By process of elimination I uninstalled data fields one by one and found that after removing strava suffer score and garmin power meter fields the issue has gone away. Luckily for me I don't use them, so it's down to people who rely on these to carry the torch onwards. Hope this helps somebody else to narrow down the issue

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    This happened again over the weekend.

    I was in the mountains of NC, about 3-4 hours from my home, elevation around 3000 feet above sea level (home is 200-300' ASL).

    The watch would reboot not only if I tried to access an activity, but also when I tried to access widgets, the music player, etc.  Just crazy, flaky behavior.

    Further I would go in and remove some data fields (such as maps) and then exit and they would still be there when I went back in.  Finally I was able to remove a CIQ data field (DozenRun) from a Run activity, keeping the Stryd power data field as the only CIQ field.  This worked and the Run activity was able to be loaded and processed without issue (including following a course).  But any time I tried to access another Run activity that had DozenRun and Stryd CIQ fields, the watch would reboot.

    When I accessed a cycling activity with the CIQ field "DozenCycle" the activity processed just fine.

    Now I'm thinking it has something to do with having TWO CIQ fields in the activity type, along with being at a significantly different altitude than home.

    Btw - I tried all the stuff suggested here:  syncing the watch before hand, turning autocalibration settings off for altimeter, etc.  None of those worked.  Only removing 1 of 2 CIQ fields worked.

    Isn't there a Garmin rep reading this forum?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to badbri

    I have the exact same issue! At higher altitude (now at grand canyon), I cannot have two CIQ fields active with the running app - the watch immediately crashes. Having only one (singlefield OR stryd) is fine. Would be great for garmin to investigate and add to bug list.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    This happened again but this time on a flight where the cabin was pressurized to 3000-6000'.  The 945 again exhibited the flaky behavior, rebooting any time I attempted to enter an activity and also occasionally when I accessed widgets.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Back in the mountains over the weekend...happened again.

    I've learned now to just simply remove the extra CIQ field from the run activity before trying to start it up, however the watch still "freezes" sometimes when trying to scroll through data fields.

    Something is seriously up with changes in elevation and presumably the memory demands of the watch.