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Low HR at the start of an activity, also in FW 21.19

Christian888
1 month ago

I've been using the 955 Solar since March 2023 and I was very happy with it at the beginning. The Wrist heart rate was so accurate that I was able to do normal runs without the chest strap (HRM-Run). I only used it for intervals.

Since spring 2024 I also had the bug that the HR was too low at the beginning of an activity. Mostly in the 2-10min range, but sometimes 20min. A few weeks ago, I contacted customer support and asked for the return of the watch, an exchange or at least a FW downgrade.
Support confirmed a software bug and therefore denied a replacement. The bug is known, they are working on a software update and I should wait for the update. A downgrade has been also denied. I was added to the official ticket list.
Two or three days ago I received an email that the bug has been fixed and I should update to 21.19. Garmin-Sierra has also closed all threads here in the forum.
Today I updated the watch and then made a hardware reset to be on the safe side. After that I was running. The bug still exists in FW 21.19.
The HR is responsive enough. You can see that it rises with a slight delay, but then remains at a low level. Then the heart rate jumps up to the correct level (heart rate is from the HRM run). When the Wrist HR works right after some minutes, I think it works very well (see intervals).

I am absolutely unhappy with the situation. Garmin has a software bug since months which is also confirmed by support. But there is no solution. A return of the watch is denied and a downgrade will also be denied. All forum threads pointing this out have been closed.
Garmin has made the watch nearly useless, because the HR is the basis for all other metrics. (For the 3 minutes in the picture it may not be so serious, but for 10-15min it is serious).

The situation is unacceptable.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 5767025

    for me it's astonishing that we clearly gave the Garmin all thes reports and data about how f-up and chaos their software impact on 955 series, yet, they do nothing and just simply say 

    "Oh! Just give it to your local distributor for warranty, bye!" 

    that's not solving any problem at all LOL

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 5767025

    One observation - when starting an activity, on the screen that shows information such as whether GPS lock has been obtained, I *never* see the "heart" icon to show that heart rate sensor is ready. Not even if I wait for a couple of minutes.

    I did see this on my old Venu 2, and the user manual suggests it should also happen on the FR955 (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-9D99A9D4-467A-4F1A-A0EA-023184FEA3DD/EN-US/Forerunner_955_OM_shared_EN-US.pdf, page 65).

    The FR955 does sometimes record heart rate correctly from the start of an activity, probably 60-70% of the time, so the missing heart icon does not necessarily indicate that there will be a problem.

    This is on the latest firmware 21.20.

  • 0 28 days ago in reply to 5767025

    And another activity with the first ten minutes of heart rate data being badly wrong. I think the watch was showing a reasonable value (not 60bpm!) immediately before I stared the activity. It's like the watch resets the sensor when the activity starts and it often takes a long time to get a lock.

    I understand optical heart rate sensors are not that accurate, but this problem has got much worse over time.

  • 0 18 days ago in reply to 5767025

    I've been testing a possible work around for this problem, of the heart rate measurement being far too low at the start of the activity and suddenly jumping to a reasonable value after 5-25 minutes.

    I was seeing this issue in about 1 in 3 activities. Since trying this procedure, I have not seen the problem in 9 activities in a row - running, walking and biking. Others might like to try it and give feed back.

    The work around is as follows:

    • Select the activity type from the list of activities as usual.
    • Get to the screen shown before you start the activity, where the watch acquires GPS (where it should show the heart symbol to indicate it has synced to your heart beat, but never does).
    • Remove the watch from your wrist. The green light on the heart rate sensor will come on/flash for a few seconds, then turn off.
    • Wait for a few seconds.
    • Put the watch back on your wrist, and wait a few seconds. You can scroll down through the data screens (even before starting the activity) to confirm the watch has acquired your heart rate again if you want, but it seems to happen quickly.
    • Start the activity with the top right button and proceed as normal.

    I believe this procedure will force the watch to sync to your heart rate, after it has set up the heart rate sensor at the start of the activity.

    Of the 9 "good" activities, 8 were recorded using the v21.20 firmware which had previously shown the problem. The final one was recorded with the v21.22 firmware.