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Screen often dimming, sometimes completely black

DarrenPick
over 1 year ago

I am currently having two issues with the display on my new Forerunner 965

  1. Intermittently, my display will dim so much it is unusable outdoors. I can see the screen indoors and when I go to the display brightness settings it does adjust the brightness but the brightest setting is still too dark to be readable outdoors. The only thing I have found to return the display to normal brightness is to power off and on the watch.
    1. the watch can go for a few days between this happening and there is no pattern that I have noticed
    2. it doesn't recover by itself after waiting for > 2 days
  2. Less frequently my watch screen will be completely black. the only way I have found to resolve this is to press and hold the power button for > 30 seconds, wait a while and then power the watch back on.
    1. the watch doesn't automatically cure itself, it was left for over 24hrs once and it remained in the faulty state
    2. there doesn't seem to be any pattern to when this happens, However it has not yet happened during an activity. 

I am currently trying to upload videos and pictures for support to check this out, pretty miffed that I bought this watch for an event later this month and it is highly likely I will not be able to trust the device to be able to use it.

Anyone else having these issues? found. way to cure? some rogue setting hopefully?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to DarrenPick

    I do agree, that this "dimming in activity no matter what + setting the brightness to auto (no matter what)", is a terrible solution that basically fits no one.

    Garmin definitely should fix this, as this makes this watch hardly usable in many situations.

    I tend to think that all this because to this point just very few used amoled garmins for training. The Venu series is completely dumbed down and unfit for training, the Epix is heavy and targeted to other demographic.

    These forerunners are the first amoleds used for training, so Garmin needs to learn this lesson.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 4698932

    That's what I was seeing except in full sun with my sunglasses on the screen looked blank.  I have to press the top left button to turn on the screen, and that only lasts a few second.  I don't think this was thought through very well at all.  The activity itself should override the dimming of the screen, otherwise it's useless.  

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to RunJeffRun!

    Yes I found that when I did a comparison of the 955 and then 265 and 965 as on the Garmin User Forums .

    especially if one is doing intervals and wants to see the rest period as well it keeps going dim and is illegible really unless one does a gesture .

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 4698932

    So in bright sunlight that's what mine looks like when my wrist isn't turned. When I turn my wrist it brightens up significantly and looks like the bottom watch. I.e. very clear and easy to read (even with sunglasses on).

    For those having this problem, I'd guess it's a gesture or ambient light sensor failure. Or software bug connected to these. I'd speak with Garmin and seek a replacement. It doesn't behave like that when it works as it should.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Did any of you get any update on this? I’ve had my 965 for about 3 weeks now and it was working perfectly, but this dimming issue started a couple days ago. Now the screen outdoor is barely visible. I’ve tried restarting and factory reset and it works for a bit, them the problem returns when I go outdoors, starting an activity or not. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Can we just get it to always on in an activity like after it's gestured for full on brightness, Garmin?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to guitarizt

    They did not make it on the Epix and I would say they won't do it on the FR. Max Display Brightness will eat your battery and everyone will complain about the bad battery life. 

    Only thing you can do is to set display timeout to max setting and use wrist gesture or light button. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to AgentMax

    This is an issue that was not resolved on the epix. essenially the AOD is only bright enough after a gesture, then it defaults back to a dimmer display to save battery and prevent screen burn in. This for me made it unusable while biking, especially if mounted on the handle bars and navigating. On the handlebars its always dim, how can you see the map and know when to turn if dim?, you can't. unfortunately i needed to buy an Edge to have something useful while riding. The Fenix 6 worked just fine, amoled is nice but not as functional outdoors.