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935 Random shutdowns and short battery life after update.

Former Member over 6 years ago

Anyone else having these problems? It's extremely frustrating.

1) Watch shuts off when disconnecting from power cable, or when stopping/saving activity. It also randomly shuts down during activities.

2) Battery life is not only terrible, but there's a rapid drain both during activities (I get an hour, max, when running), and when in watch mode ( 100% charge will be down to 75% or so after 2-3 hours as a watch).

3) Battery charge indicator is all over the place. 100% when connected to charger, will immediately drop to 70-80% when unplugged. While running, watch will get down to 3 or 4%, then die. Turning it on, several times, it will stay at 3 or 4%. Once it's back on the charger, it jumps back up to somewhere between 40 and 80%.

Originally, I thought it was a battery that was on its last legs, but the battery was strong until the last update, it would go several hours and only use 10 or 20% doing an activity, or DAYS when in watch mode. I don't think it's a battery, I think something is broken in the firmware.

I tried soft and hard resets, but they don't seem to have made a difference.

0 Bit over 6 years ago

Is the SW version now 12.10? It's the first time I read about this type of issue after the last update, maybe it is possible it is a coincidence that it started to happen after the update. You are listing all the symptoms my Fenix 2 had, and that did have a hardware problem, it could have been a defective battery or excessive power use by the vibrate motor, I never found out. If your device is still in warranty, contacting Garmin support to have it replaced would be best. If it is not, or/and to exclude the software update as a factor, you could downgrade to an older version and see if that helps.

Edit: saw that OnlyTwo already answered so this is a bit of a duplicate. I'm curious of downgrading to 11.00 helps, please post your result.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Software verion 12.10 (9fceddf)
M/N: A03191
GPS: 2.30
Wi-Fi: 2.40
CIQ: 3.0.1
BLE/ANT/SNS:6.30
WHR: 20.03.31

Firstbeat
ETE: 5.3.3.11
THA: 1.3.0.1

Those are the exact same numbers I'm getting. I'll try downgrading to 11.00 and see if that helps, thanks.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Is the SW version now 12.10? It's the first time I read about this type of issue after the last update, maybe it is possible it is a coincidence that it started to happen after the update. You are listing all the symptoms my Fenix 2 had, and that did have a hardware problem, it could have been a defective battery or excessive power use by the vibrate motor, I never found out. If your device is still in warranty, contacting Garmin support to have it replaced would be best. If it is not, or/and to exclude the software update as a factor, you could downgrade to an older version and see if that helps.

Edit: saw that OnlyTwo already answered so this is a bit of a duplicate. I'm curious of downgrading to 11.00 helps, please post your result.

So what was the hardwareissue with your Fenix 2?

0 Bit over 6 years ago

I never found out - Garmin replaced it. There was a lot of discussion about this on the Fenix 2 forum at that time, no firm conclusions. The vibrate motor was a suspect (the watch always rebooted as soon as there was a vibrate alarm), but it also rebooted at other times, and had general weird behavior in the power department; from 80% to 10% after an hour of running, having 5% charge and when connected to charger, go to 60% immediately, etc.

0 2goBeyond over 6 years ago

My battery life has undoubtedly tanked after 12.10, but I might have figured out the reason for it for my watch.

I use the watch face 'GearMin,' and have so for years now (I honestly can't see myself not using it), and when I updated the watch to 12.10, I checked if I had the latest update. I didn't and downloaded the newest one.

There are a TON of in-face polling options now (compared to the version I had prior) which I, of course, put on the face. Since then, I lose nearly 10% battery approx every 12 hours in 24/7 mode. Couple that with GPS use that drain is 20-25% (on a 45min run). I don't know for sure IF GearMin is the issue, but with how much I put up on my watch face it might be it or something it's interacting within the new code for the live update.

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

My wife's 935 has nothing extra added. There are no issues with her battery. life and no random shutdowns.

One of the first things anyone experiencing problems after an update should do, is to remove all add-ons, hard reset, and see if the problem persists. Either that or wait until the add-ons have been updated to reflect Garmin's software change

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

My wife's 935 has nothing extra added. There are no issues with her battery. life and no random shutdowns.(..)

This. I think many underestimate the impact third-party apps have on devices, not only when it comes to Garmin. I never install third-party add-ons, and (thus?) have never experienced weird behavior with, in this case, my 935.
Maybe I'm too OCD (my apologies to those who actually suffer from this disorder) but I cannot stand the feeling operating a device that's in a different trim than the manufacturer has intended. I guess that's why I'm a loyal Apple follower since the end of the 80s, and have used Polar since the 90s.

0 Bit over 6 years ago

I'm such a control freak that I only tolerate self-written addons on my FR935.. :D