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Heart Rate Stuck on 66

Former Member over 9 years ago

My 235 has developed a fault today, whereby the 24/7 heart rate is stuck on 66bpm, with no heart rate at all available during activities.

A quick forum/web search shows that a few people have had the same issue - Has anybody managed to find a solution yet, or is it a trip back to Garmin?

I've already tried updating to 3.13 (even reverting to 3.10 first, as I was already running 3.13 beta), restoring factory settings and the obligatory turning the HRM on and off, but nothing has shifted the issue.

Fast falling out of love with this device, after being over the moon with it a week ago. I was even overlooking the short battery life and the fact I couldn't pair my HRM strap with it (not sure if it is fault on watch, or strap) not to mention the cosmetic scratch on the LCD screen underneath the glass.

Hopefully, just teething trouble, as, when it was working, this was one *** of a running watch.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Also 66.

I have the watch for about 2 weeks, just got a '66HR' today and only noticed it later today. I have software 4.10 and am at 68% battery and do occasionally connect to my Mac (Macbook Pro Retina 2012).

The only thing I did was turn of the watch and almost directly on again and it started working again.. I hope it does not happen too often in the future. It would be nice if it would be flawless but nor is my iPhone OS 9.3 or other stuff. But would be pissed if this would happen to my GPS / Glonass during races.

But just to tell that it also happens to me. It is not software (seemingly as so many updates did not fix it) but a hardware fckp of the HR sensor?) Maybe it is why the Fenix 3 HR takes so long ;-)

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I bought a forerunner 235 yesterday , during the set up on Garmin connect the firmware was updated to 4.1. During a bike ride today when I wasn't actually recording any data (i have an edge 810 on the bike) I noticed the heart rate was on 71 and looking at the 4hr bar graph underneath the figure it looked to have been flat lined for about 30 mins. So, i too the watch back into the shop as the figure was indeed stuck and he did a reset which wiped the watch completely........Annoying to say the least!..... and then the watch went off and wouldn't come back on until the power cable was fitted despite the battery being over 70% full.

HR still seems to stick a bit as there are smaller flat lines on the graph.

Looking at this thread I'm thinking I might have bought a dead duck and it's time to ask for a refund.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Am also having this problem as of yesterday - in addition to having no heart rate at all during activities (it just shows two dashes and no heart rate). Have tried to turn heart rate on and off and restart watch but neither has worked. This watch was a gift so I guess I will have to call Garmin directly to send the watch back at my own expense?

The irony is that I don't think my resting heart rate has ever been 66 in my life. The lowest I've ever seen is 80bpm. ;)

0 ASmugDill over 9 years ago

Have tried to turn heart rate on and off and restart watch but neither has worked.

Try, and try again. My FR235 has twice had the issue of the optical HR sensor not feeding data to the watch's application, once after a hard reset and another time after clearing user data, but in my experience it is ultimately user-resolvable. I didn't do anything magical other than trying:

Turning off the wrist heart rate monitor, and turn off the watch (by selecting the Yes option in the ‘Power off?’ menu), wait, then turn the watch back on, and turn the WHRM back on; and/or
Turning off the WHRM, then resetting the device (by holding the Backlight button until the display fades to blank), then turn the watch back on, and turn the WHRM back on

It's annoying if/when it doesn't work the first, second or even third time, but it's nothing to fret about – especially when the more anxious I got (and feel the ‘symptoms’ of my heart rate increasing – even without a gadget telling me so – and my breathing becoming quicker and more shallow, among other things), the more I cognitively recognise it's my impatience and frustration getting to me and I was failing to hold my emotional (and hence my body's) responses in check. The watch is oblivious to all that, and will not cooperate better just because I was getting flustered, so why not just discipline myself to remain calm?

The irony is that I don't think my resting heart rate has ever been 66 in my life. The lowest I've ever seen is 80bpm. ;)

I'm pretty sure the figure of 66 is just what the Heart Rate widget is programmed to use as a default value, instead of showing a more sensible –– (which it does when the WHRM is turned off, and/or when the watch is charging using a power source other than a computer's USB port which temporarily suppresses the WHRM). This is in contrast to a reading of 72, which the watch's application code (including but not limited to the Heart Rate widget) takes to be an actual HR reading, but in fact the WHR ‘driver’ code is just providing the application with the former's own default starting value when it thinks the sensor hardware is able to read the user's heart rate in the circumstance.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Warranty replacement or no?

I am really confused. Garmin is suggesting that everyone who is having this issue after the software update must be having a hardware failure. However, it is random.
IMO, If it were a hardware failure you would think that it would either work or not work 100%?

Should I get my watch replaced for this issue? Garmin is saying that is the next step. Is it worth it if I am going to be having the same issue as others who have only had the watch for 2 weeks?

Thanks for any thoughts, ideas or suggestions on this.

0 chunkywizard over 9 years ago

There's a new firmware and OHR software release just out. I suggest you update and see if that helps

CW

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

so far, so good

There's a new firmware and OHR software release just out. I suggest you update and see if that helps

CW

Since the update I have not noticed any issues with my watch being stuck or the heart rate not recording during my runs. Out of habit I have started power cycling my watch just in case. However, I doubt I even need to do this.

Thanks for the heads up about the update.