My Garmin Forerunner 305 is dead

I was looking at buying one myself.  Just curious, how long have you had her?

I got her in November 2007. I'll consider buying another one if I can't get the issue resolved before my IM.

You blew through a Forerunner. That means you should be ready for your IM...

I got my Garmin 305 in August of 2006.  It worked awesome for awhile and then slowly started to give me problems.  The first sign was it started to take a VERY long time to get a signal.  Then it started to give me false pacing.  And then it just got worse and would just die in the middle of my runs.  And then finally it died and now it won't even turn on.  I would say that it really only lasted me 2 years- around that mark I noticed significant issues with it.

I called Garmin and I'd have to pay $79 to get it refurbished. I'm still deciding if I want to go that route, or get a new 205 from Amazon (I don't use the HR function anymore so I don't "need" the 305) for around $150ish or keep mine and get it fixed. 

I'm just surprised that mine hasn't last longer- although I used it religiously and definitely got my use out of.

I have a 305 from close to when they first became available (3/06). Late last year, mine kept turning itself off even during a run with full battery. Then after a run I was reviewing the data, the top half popped off from the bottom half. The 2 halves are just glued together.

There is also not a wired connection from the battery to the unit, but it works similar to how the charging cradle connects to it. I have a pic (camera phone)  here of mine with it apart. I've since glued mine back together and it's been fine ever since. I'm pretty sure it was shutting off because the contacts from the battery to the electronics were not solid due to the case coming a bit loose.

If grab the unit and try to twist it a little to see if the top & bottom separate a little, you may have the same problem.

Hope it helps.

I JUST fixed mine after it died today - because the two halves became unglued. It literally split in half, but worked fine when I pushed the halves together.

Mine is still in the "glueing" process - I looked online and somebody recommend "silicone gasket glue" from an automotive store, so I'm giving it a try, but I'd be crazy glue would work fine - what did you use? 

I've been having the exact same problem described by everyone with my 205. I just tried taking it apart and yep, it wasn't stuck together very well at all. I put it back together and held it tightly closed and it turned on right away. I don't have any glue right now, but I'm going to try gluing it tomorrow. Thanks for the tip! I hope it helps, too.

I have to say that this really does not endear me to Garmin. Clearly this is a common problem, and you'd think they'd have fixed this issue by now (I only got my Garmin in April 2008).

I'm on my 3rd 305 now. The first one couldn't find a signal after 9-10 months and yes, it just got worse and worse. The second one just kept turning itself off, I gave it a hard reset that worked for a while until it started doing it again and now the 3rd one died, it can't find a signal, then finds one and works fine for a few hours (just enough to give you a little hope)...but unfortunately, it then gives up and can't find a signal again. I now turn it on in the house until it asks if it's being used indoors, I enter 'yes' so at least I can use the distance/ cadence (I have the sensor) functions. Since the warranty only covers the first unit, I as well have to send the damned thing in and pay to get a new one.
This kind of reminds me of the time when Garmin used to own the car-gps market in Europe (they were the only brand out there) until tom-tom came took over the market in no-time since there were so many unsatisfied customers out there that were tired of the sub-par quality and the ridiculously customer un-friendly  user interface.
There must be a brand out there that can give us a better product, I'm very disappointed in Garmin.

This user's post has been ignored.

Just a final tip on the "gluing" - 

On the recommendation of someone who posted on the web and seemed pretty knowledgable about adhesives, I used their advice and went to an auto store and spent $3.50 on a "silicone gasket maker" adhesive. Apply a THIN layer with a toothpick or something like that to the inside edge, and then hold the Garmin together tight with electrical tape. Make sure that it still powers up while taped together - that way you know it's tight enough.

Also, be really careful to not get glue on both the tiny connector pins on top AS WELL as the button contacts on the side. The first time I applied the adhesive, it smeared onto the side button contacts and I thought I'd killed my Garmin. Fortunately, it wipes off easily in the first 20 mins, so I was good to go after that.

This morning, my Garmin is glued super solidly and works fine again. I think the advantage of the silicone gasket glue is that if you had to, you could pry it open again without cracking the plastic (don't know why you'd do that though.) 

Mine goes wonky and won't get signals for a while but then i clear the lap history and it works like a charm again. It's super annoying but that has seemed to make it work well again ... had mine since June of 2007 and have run 3 marathons with it. Love, love it!

Hope you get some resolution with Garmin soon ... apparently their customer service is great (as reported on these boardS)

This may have been mentioned already since I didn't read all the posts but I got a refurbished replacement free from Garmin a year past warranty because the problems it was having were apparently widespread.

Mine would turn off when I hit bumps and sometimes the elevation got confused and registered as high as 64k feet. In my case, I had to do a bunch of troubleshooting with their reps before I finally just told them I was sending it in and they could either replace it or throw it in the trash. I got a refurbished one in the mail in a couple weeks.

The 310 XTs are due soon - August was the last I'd heard.  Of course your 305's are dying....it's upgrade time! 

Only had my 405 a little over a year, no serious complaints so far.

My Garmin died about 2 months ago... I sent an eMail to Garmin, told them what the problem was... they tried to guide me through a hard reset, but that didn't have any effect, so they told me to send it back.

Sent it back and less than a week later I had a new "refurbished" unit.

It works great.

I thought the customer service I received was excellent. No questions asked. And the turn around time was quick.

Good Luck!

I first tried some two part epoxy I had, but the first time I used it, it came apart again. I ended up using Loctite Ultra-Gel and I've since used it for other things (kids broken toys) and it hasn't let me down on anything I've used it for.

I considered Permatex #1 (My first hobby was cars and this stuff is brutal to get off when used on engines), but that's mostly for metal and I'm not sure how it would do with plastic.


ETA: I also did call Garmin and all I got from them was to either send it in for repair ($100??) or try Gorilla Glue to glue it myself. I don't hold it against them though as mine was at least 2.5 years old. I do think the design (ie nothing mechanical holding the halves together) sucks.



Edited by camy 2009-07-04 10:47 AM

Wow, sounds like I smacked a hornets nest with my dead Garmin post. I did find that mine was partially separated so I pried it the rest of the way open. Some of my battery contacts were corroded and the springy part broke off when trying to clean them off. Looks like I'll either have to send this one in for repair/replacement ($79) or buy a new one. Thanks for all the input!

You should fix it yourself if the battery contacts still work. I'll bet they do - if your Garmin was partially separated, the problem is far more likely the lack of contact with the pins due to the separation versus the pins themselves.

See my posts above for how to fix it. It cost $3.50 for the silicon gasket glue and took about 10 minutes to put it back together. I just took mine on a bumpy 80 mile ride today and it's working fine again. The adhesive works great.

You should fix it yourself if the battery contacts still work. I'll bet they do - if your Garmin was partially separated, the problem is far more likely the lack of contact with the pins due to the separation versus the pins themselves.

See my posts above for how to fix it. It cost $3.50 for the silicon gasket glue and took about 10 minutes to put it back together. I just took mine on a bumpy 80 mile ride today and it's working fine again. The adhesive works great.

The other "trick" that was mentioned that you should try is to gently increase the angle of the contacts - they're bent upwards, and you can bend them farther to make it easier for them to contact. In the original website I found, the owner had to do this to fix his wife's Garmin. Good luck.

My problem is that about 3 of the angled parts of the contact are about to break off and 1 was already broke off when I opened it due to some corrosion. I know how to use a soldering iron and can probably make it work, but I'd like to talk to Garmin support first.

I decided it wasn't worth trying to fix so I had Garmin send me the $79 refurb and I sent mine back to them. I got the refurb one yesterday and it is working much better than my last one. I locks onto the satellites and uploads data much quicker. I am happy to have my training partner with me again.