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New Garmin GTN-650xi, touchscreen works intermitently

SteveR

Active Member
New Garmin GTN-650xi, touchscreen works intermittently

Anyone ever experienced this? I just finished the addition of a 650xi and GMA-245 to my G3X system. Updated the software to the latest version, and the touchscreen only works intermittently. About 10% of the time it is fine. The other 90%, it is non-responsive to touch, but on some screens one or two buttons will work. The physical knobs and buttons work normally, so the unit isn't locking up, just the touchscreen. Sometimes if I wait several minutes it will start working again.
 
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I experiences this for the first time this past Sunday. I upgraded to a GTN650xi in late October. Everything was performing as expected until I hit some mild/severe turbulence and the screen would not react to my touch. Buttons did work as expected.

I chocked it up to the screen being dirty - I cleaned it off when I got back to the hangar. I think I saw a small flake of aluminum on the screen (maybe kicked up from the turbulence?) that may have been interfering with the touch capability? Maybe I will add some screen cleaner to my cockpit bag of tricks...
 
GTN Software Update

Anyone ever experienced this? I just finished the addition of a 650xi and GMA-245 to my G3X system. Updated the software to the latest version, and the touchscreen only works intermittently. About 10% of the time it is fine. The other 90%, it is non-responsive to touch, but on some screens one or two buttons will work. The physical knobs and buttons work normally, so the unit isn't locking up, just the touchscreen. Sometimes if I wait several minutes it will start working again.

Had you used your GTN prior to the update, or did you update the software immediately upon installation?

I am curious if you had experienced any amount of normal operation pos-installation.

Thanks,

Justin
 
Similar issue

During flight the touch functionality on the 650xi went TU. Only the button functionality and remote operation via G3X touch (and RS232, ARINC) worked.

Power cycling recovered normal operation.

Logs sent to G3xpert/garmin and no smoking gun was found. Suggestion was to fly without the SD card installed (…uh, yeah…)

Flying normally since then, but apprehensive about getting into a high workload situation and having to adopt/revert to alternate procedures.
 
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I used it for a few minutes prior to updating the software. Maybe 10 minutes, and it worked fine. I uploaded the latest software this morning with no improvement. It works fine for a few minutes, then the screen stops responding to touch. On some creens one button will work, but nothing else responds, so it appears to be a software issue rather than hardware. I will try reverting to a prior version of the software, where can I download those?

Had you used your GTN prior to the update, or did you update the software immediately upon installation?

I am curious if you had experienced any amount of normal operation pos-installation.

Thanks,

Justin
 
I made an hour flight today, the radio works fine, but buttons are still mostly locked out after the unit has been on a few minutes. Very odd behavior, as some buttons usually work, like the frequency buttons, however the back button and many other option buttons never work once the unit stops. After loading the software this morning everything worked fine for a few minutes, but then it goes back to the selective behavior where most of the screen is not responsive, but a select few buttons are. It will also do this on the configuration screen, configuration is incomplete because I cannot access the configuration menus after starting the unit. Sometimes they work, but usually not.
 
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Same problem

Hi Steve,
I came across your thread, as I have a new GTN650xi that was having the same symptoms as your own. We, (my wife and I) noticed that the touch screen would become inactive - partially or fully - periodically during the flight, but that the knobs and hard buttons remained unaffected. We have the latest software, and keep our databases up to date. During a recent flight, I found that when the touch capability went out, if I were to rest my thumb on the lower bezel during use, the touch function would return. This led me to investigate the surrounding components (we have an audio panel above and a second nav/comm below). Both of the units above and below were putting significant pressure on the frame of our GTN650. Secondly, the Garmin unit was locked in place with what I consider to be a needlessly tight retention bolt (I’m referring to the small Allen bolt at the bottom left corner that operates the locking pin on the bottom of the unit). When I reinstalled the Garmin, I made sure to secure it, but with far less torque on that system. Since addressing the pressures placed on the frame of the garmin unit, we have had no further problems with the touch screen. It may be worth your time to see if the mounting frame is skewed or torqued in any way, or if your device is simply mounted too tightly at the retaining pin system. Hope my own experience with the matter can help.

Stephen
 
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Update to previous response

Steve,
I don’t know if you ever had your touchscreen issues resolved, but wanted to let you know that since my last reply in February, by GTN650xi continues to work without a problem (probably has been about 30 hours of time since we remounted the unit with a lower torque on the retaining bolt). Hope you found a solution for yours!
 
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