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My experience with a non-responsive touch screen for Forerunner 955

Short version: 1st 955 I ordered had touchscreen issues, 2nd one did as well, considering getting a 3rd one.

Long version: I ordered a Forerunner 955 in April 2023. I love it. I think this watch hits 'Peak Sportswatch'. I've had plenty of GPS watches before.

However, I soon discovered that occasionally I would get a non-responsive touchscreen. By non-responsive I mean that it would suddenly stop registering swipes and taps. I would swipe once, twice, 3x, and finally it would work. I would swipe up and it would work. I would try to swipe down and then it would not work. This isn't just a delay. It just wouldn't register. Same with taps. Multiple taps wouldn't register and then suddenly they would. Very finicky. Turning off the touch and then back on again restored full functionality. Sometimes doing an activity would restore full functionality (maybe because the touchscreen was turned off). However, the problem would always come back.

To further demonstrate this, I downloaded a touchscreen calculator and you can very clearly see the difference between normal working touchscreen, where every tap registers a number, and occasional touchscreen where some numbers just wouldn't show unless I tapped many times. I have a video that I made. I'll have to figure out how to upload it.

So, of course, I felt like I might have gotten a bad watch. I contacted Garmin and they immediately offered an exchange. Seems I'm not the first person to have this problem. Well, the second watch has the same problem as the first watch. So now I'm considering getting a third watch. All under warranty replacement. Maybe it will be fixed or maybe this is a software issue.

I don't think people have reported the same touchscreen issues as me. If it was a software issue I would think this issue would be more prevalent. It's also possible that there are many people who just aren't using the touchscreen as much as the buttons. I use the touchscreen constantly so this issue quickly presented itself.

Thoughts?

  • I had a 955 and used touch always with no issues both general use and activities. Seems be no risk in getting another one...ask Garmin to send it to you first (against a deposit) so you dint have time without a watch.

    Also read this on how to copy activity settings across. It may be helpful.

    forums.garmin.com/.../some-advice-before-upgrading-replacing-a-watch-or-a-hard-reset

  • Does the touch screen responsiveness return if you power off the watch then switch it on again? Which firmware version is your watch running?

  • I haven't taken that drastic measure yet. Turning off the touchscreen then on again works. It usually happens every 2 to 3 days.

    Today was really bad. Worked fine this morning and then about 11am I couldn't get it to respond to my swipes, meaning every 5th swipe or so it would actually do something. I took a video. It's pretty obvious from the video how bad it is.  Turned off the touchscreen,  then on again and it's working fine. 

    Firmware was received at 14.20. Updated to latest beta. Same problem. 

    I went ahead and ordered a new warranty replacement today.  Hopefully I don't get unlucky a third time. 

  • it's a software problem at least in my case. if I organize the views in folders the problem disappears. try doing this and see if you fix it.