repairs for GPS

Who knows Steve it's an electronic device, could last one day, one decade or one century because it dies. Leave it switched on for some time and see if it settles down.

Steve,
My Magellan Trailblazer quit a couple of months ago at age 10 years. Magellan in Perth were giving 25% off on many new models because they no supported it. Try calling them - Next Destination - or emailing them for help. Kevan there is extremely helpful.

Warren

Steve
sorry to hear about your GPS packin it in , Go get your self a Garmin Quest mate ,Johnny Appleseed has the at a good price at the moment, I have the first model out and i love it for what it can do, brilliant
www.ja-gps.com.au/garmin_quest_1.html

Steve, my first 310 was great but I kerstuffled it accidently. So I bought another s/h one. Feeds the lappy with Oziexplorer etc. Its been in action now for around 3 years with no problems.
Did you re initialize it when you put new batteries in ?

Hello Old Scaley ..........
In another life I used to sell and demonstrate GPS' [albeit Marine] .....
These tools are quite amazing and really are quite sensitive little beasties but they do eventually pack up. Generally speaking, it is either age or inadvertant treatment that causes them grief ............. IMHO iffen you get anything over say 7 - 8 years then you are well in front. They have a tiny inner battery which retains all your settings, keeps time, etc .... if this runs out [shelf life of 10 years from DATE OF MANUFACTURE not purchase date] generally it becomes RS 'cause it is usually filled with gas [nitrogen?] to make it waterproof ........ which then means it is almost impossible to repair as no facilities exist to re-gas them.... at least it was so in my other life !

The most common problem is that of voltage spikes ........... if they are hooked up to your cigarette lighter for power and you start your engine, with the unit switched on, then it receives a spike/surge/whatever and really being a mini-computer, after a few of these, it just takes it's ball and goes home.

In the marine world you can imagine what an outboard motor jolt does to them.
The normal solution was to wire them direct to the battery .... like really direct to the battery ..... no busbars, switch panels, spurs off, no nothin' but direct!

Of all the units that came back with problems .... direct wiring solved 90% of the troubles. Not saying that this is the case here, just food for thought.

Then there is the problem of corrosion in the power lead .......... check the black cabling of the power lead ........... iffen the actual wire has gone black with corrosion then the cancer of corrosion has begun .... next to impossible to stop ...... a change of power lead might be all you need, but test with a mates lead first, before you buy another one.

Hope this helps ..............

PS
My own unit is a Lowrance GlobalMap 100 ..... still goin' strong after about 8 years!

I believe a common problem is that GPS units are often left for a time with flat batteries or no batteries.
Which then puts a load on the internal battery, which then goes flat.
Then the unit has to initialise itself each time its turned on.

Solution; keep fresh batteries in the unit every few months even if your not using it.

Contact Next destination osborne Pk WA the Import & repair magellon GPS.

NEXT DESTINATION PTY LTD
18 Baden St Osborne Park 6017 (08) 9444 0233
OR... (08) 9443 2598
FREECALL 1800 644 033
Email info@nextdestination.com.au
Internet www.nextdestination.com.au