Garmin 300XL Black screen o death

Gents, bad day at the office. Thought I would spend an hour pokin holes in the sky, but when I powered up my (factory reman) Garmin 300xl would not cycle into nav mode and stayed black. After calls to Garmin it was determined that it was broke! 30 hrs on the box and out of warranty. Although not set up with IFR approach switches, it never allowed me to access GPS approaches and I wonder if this too was a symptom of a bad unit. Garmin charges $450 flat rate and the authorized dealers cannot repair. Only upside is it comes back to me with an updated card.

Any similar stories out there with this unit?

Don't be to sure about the updated card. I had to have my -250XL repaired last year. They called it "Factory Refurbished". My understanding is all they did was replace a circuit board and the front face of the unit. I was very disappointed to find out that "Factory Refurbished" didn't include an updated database. I argued with them several times and they finally sent me a new card just to get me to shut up.

The flat rate repair is such a scam. Garmin is the "big boy" now so they can really take advantage of us. I would have serious second thoughts before buying another Garmin... I just don't know what else I would buy.

Karl

My 300XL got soaked in a pop-up thunderstorm when I was tied down in MS a couple of years ago. The charge was $300 then and it did come with a new update. If I recall correctly, they mentioned the update when I inquired about their (high) price.

Mark

Are you handy with a ohm meter and a soldering iron? If so, here is little trick that will make the 250xl and 300xl come back to life leaving Garmin out in the cold. If you remove the cover you will find the power switch/volume control inside. Soldered to the side of this is a ribbon connector that plugs into a locking connector on a circuit board. This ribbon fails! With some small wire, you can jumper from the contacts where the ribbon solders to the switch to the board on the other side of the locking connector. If you understand how to use the meter you should be able to easily figure out where to solder the other end of the wires. (Note, this is pretty delicate soldering. No guns or big tips on irons!) At this point, take the $400 or so and put it into your gas tank.

Best,

Ouch!

Garmin charges $450 flat rate and the authorized dealers cannot repair. Only upside is it comes back to me with an updated card.

Any similar stories out there with this unit? [/QUOTE]
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My big mistake was my "factory refurbished" 300XL sat in my office until it was out of warranty. When first powered up the IFR installation had a "memory battery low" message which keeps message light on in CDI. Dealer changed the $10 internal battery and with labour etc. charged $190 Cdn. and reported all is well. Had same message on next power up and unit was sent back to factory. Ouch if it is going to cost $450 USD.

Turn around at the factory is slow, over a week and not shipped out yet and if cost is a big rip off this and the GTX 327 will be my first and last Garmin products.

Just got my 300XL back from Garmin and so far I'm very happy with the unit and the work they did, knock on wood

Gary Bricker

This seems to be a trend. I took a air speed ind. to Feild Tech in Ft. Worth, TX over 3 months ago and have not heard from them. I went by a couple times and they said could not get parts but the bench charge was $150. Why pick it up. I am buying a new one.

Garmin ouch

I too let the unit sit on my bench until late last year. It's out of warranty but I plan on presenting my story and see what Garmin may consider. In retrospect there have been several anomoly's with this unit which leads me to believe it was damaged goods before I purchased. I will let you know how they handle my cries for mercy. At a min I am asking that they ship directly back to me so I don't have to pay my dealers margin on the shipping cost.