My Garmin 296 had an unwelcome failure yesterday - it couldn't
acquire satellites. I was about to send it back for repair today but
Garmin UK tech support gave me a simple diagnosis and fix for what
they said is a known failure mode. Since this is likely to be
experienced by other users I thought I'd pass on the details. I
expect this also applies to 495 and 496 units, possibly also the 196
(I never saw it on my 295, however).
Typically, they said, the unit doesn=92t acquire satellites on the
second flight after long period of non-use (anything over 6 weeks) .
Diagnosis was that unit hadn=92t and wasn=92t able to rebuild its
almanac
table - presumably it had been struggling with an incomplete/
corrupted table during the first flight and then went on strike the
next time it was powered up. Said to be a known problem. The fix is:
=B7 Switch off
=B7 Press and hold down =93zoom out=94 button
=B7 Switch on
=B7 Wait until =93I agree=94 dialog window comes up and press
=93enter=94
in the usual way
=B7 Then release the =93zoom out=94 button (the above process
wipes
the almanac table so the unit can restart from scratch)
=B7 Unit goes into autolocate mode ' leave it powered up in the
same location for half an hour with a clear view of the sky to
rebuild its almanac table (even if it locates and displays the map
much sooner).
That's it. It worked for me. Seems to be a bit of a Control/Alt/
Delete trick.
Willie Harrison
G-BZNY - now getting some serious wind in its feathers again...
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