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Momentary blackout

kaweeka

Well Known Member
I've been flying with my G3x and GTN 625 for almost 2 years and enjoying the many features and benefits provided. I keep everything up to date with respect to software and charts. Something interesting happened yesterday after a few practice approaches. While taxiing in, the G3x went black momentarily then re-booted with all frequencies and screens as they were prior to the event. This happened once before exactly as described. Just goes black and immediately reboots back as it was. I never could find a reason and I am stumped still. I checked all connections carefully to be sure. I would hate to be driving an approach to mins and have this happen again. Anyone have a similar experience? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
David
 
Call Garmin

...the G3x went black momentarily then re-booted with all frequencies and screens as they were prior to the event. ... Any suggestions?
David, strong suggestion is to contact Garmin - if it reboots due to a crash, could be HW, could be SW. Make sure that you are on the latest and greatest software, and ensure that the power to your system is reliable. I'm sure that they will walk you through to get it fixed, but I would not recommend flying it in anger until you're sure it's fixed.
 
A friend at my airport had the same thing happen last week, twice. Once in flight, in VMC fortunately, and once again while taxiing in. Just as you described with the G3X touch and GTN 650. Connectors were fine and power/grounds were checked. Bus power was fine during the event. No explanation.
 
Thanks for the reply. I promise not to fly in anger.:)

David, strong suggestion is to contact Garmin - if it reboots due to a crash, could be HW, could be SW. Make sure that you are on the latest and greatest software, and ensure that the power to your system is reliable. I'm sure that they will walk you through to get it fixed, but I would not recommend flying it in anger until you're sure it's fixed.
 
Happened to me 2x right after the last database update. The G3xperts gave me a set of commands to use to download a file with the error to an SD card but I have not been to the hangar in 5 days to do that.
**update** After sending the error file it looks like I was not on the latest firmware of 6.3, hopefully that was the issue and all goes back to normal.
 
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TeamX needs to hear about these events and they will likely want to see you logs and a special shutdown error file.
 
Yep

It has happened to me a few times. Always the left side. I wish I could say it was in VMC. I swapped the two screens and it still happens on the left side only. That leads me to think it may be power or ground related, at least in my case.

I have been working with G3Expert you will need to send a shutdown log as follows:

Procedure for collecting shutdown log on G3X Touch:
1. Insert an 8Gbyte or smaller SD card
2. Restart the PFD display in Diagnostic mode by holding down the NRST button during power up
3. Use Menu, Menu, Tools, Diagnostics to get to the diagnostics page.
4. Select Shutdown Log and then use the menu button to Save to SD card.
5. Email us the GarminError.xml file in the \debug folder on the SD card.
 
Thanks. I will do that this morning. Seems to be a common issue that needs to be addressed en masse by the G3xperts rather than one on one, as there are likely many more pilots with the same event experience.
 
Power issue

In my case, because it only happens on one side even when I swap the screens; it seems more likely the issue is within my wiring. With that said the G3X team has been very very helpful.
 
I've had the G3X Touch reboot once during the ADHRS calibration. Latest version, GAD27 installed. Happened on first flight after map updates. Hasn't happened since.
 
Once

I've had this happen to me once on my 4th flight after the panel upgrade. I've upgraded to a different firmware version since then and have not had a repeat. This was about 5 months ago. Curious what version you all are running and if this is a widespread issue we should be watching out for?
 
data

These big $ units all certainly data log and keep full records of all flights, data stream and faults/power flow etc no? Would think they could find the issue in no time with a call and upload to garmin.
Sure they would want this fixed as much as you. Good luck.
 
I received an email from the G3x team this evening. I sent my log to them. First consideration is that I am on v6.2, thinking I was up to date. I will immediately update to v6.3 and then see what happens. I really thought I was up to date with all my instruments. Glad for this forum and for the help.
David
 
I had the same situation on my Dynon D180...several times in the last few weeks.
Dynon support asked me to send it back to them.
Turns out that the LCD board was going bad, not an uncommon problem according to them. They said that all LCD screens, no matter what brand or application are subject to this problem.
The bottom line is that they confirmed the problem, replaced the faulty board, and it should arrive tomorrow.
Their suggestion is that if you are going to fly IFR, don't do it with just a single system or display.
Luckily, my IFLY 740 was in split screen mode with the PFD giving me everything that I needed.
 
Are you sure it is rebooting? I had a problem with the backlight dimmer control having a intermittent short (my wiring), That caused the backlight to go to full dim (off). This causes it to look like it is off, but when the backlight comes back on then it is still where I left it.
 
I had a similar issue with a different manufacturer's system a few years ago. I was testing a navigator for one company, and have an EFIS by another company When flying a particular ILS approach at my home airport (thankfully in VMC) both of my EFIS screens would reboot as soon as I activated an approach with an IAF of DUDLE. It had nothing to do with the navigator, but was instead due to the Feds not being consistent with how they delimit data in the databases. They switched delimiters in the database for the waypoint DUDLE. This caused my EFIS to try and navigate to a point directly across the globe. It was an interesting problem for folks to sort out and re-affirmed my decision to never go to a single company for all avionics.

Be aware that I was running Beta software for both companies and that this is why they test. The idea is to find the issues in testing instead of on an approach in IMC.
 
G5 is worth having

Yup, it happened to me once in vmc. That's why I have a G5!

;) CJ

I've had my issues with Garmin, to say the least. But I have to give them credit for the G5 with battery. It's a terrific backup system, as I discovered when I had a panel failure at night. Highly recommended.
 
G3X Crapping Out

I have an early G3X two screen system (non-touch) with a GSU-73. I've had the GDU-375 (MFD) turn off in flight about 5 times in 250 hours. It has never rebooted itself, I have to cycle my avionics master and it comes back online. Originally thought it was related to heat but I'm not sure. The most recent time it happened was flying to Oshkosh but this time all my default settings were screwed up. Software has always been up to date and appears to be unrelated. It looks like Garmin has stopped supporting the non-touch system with software updates. Garmin support has been poor on this issue and didn't even reply back to me after reporting the most recent issue. I guess they got tired of me complaining about it.

Dave
RV-8A
 
Garmin support has been poor on this issue and didn't even reply back to me after reporting the most recent issue. I guess they got tired of me complaining about it.

Dave
RV-8A

Did you call them? Emails can get lost or sent to spam or other so to assume they are ignoring you could lead to frustration on both ends of this story.

TeamX is very responsive so if you have not heard back from them, something is wrong, I would call them. Not likely that they are ignoring you.
 
Hello,

We have been working with David (the original poster on this thread), and have discovered that his software is out-of-date by many months.

Since the current G3X Touch software (V6.30) contains improvements that addressed a previously discovered and fixed issue that could lead to display resets, we have asked him to upgrade his software and then let us know if this issue repeats.

In most instances, a display reset is the result of display internal diagnostics determining that something non-normal has occurred, and the display should be reset to prevent the display from ever becoming frozen and potentially misleading.

In almost all cases, a display reset is accompanied by the internal logging of diagnostic data that our team can use to reproduce and understand what lead to this reset.

In every new software release we make it a priority to address any issues that either our test team or customers have reported in the previous software version.

It is through this mechanism that we take advantage of not only our internal bench and flight testing, but also the flights made by all of our customers.

If you see an issue of this type with your software, first go to the G3X/G3X Touch Software web page to make sure your software is up-to-date, and if it is, please contact [email protected] and we will instruct you on collecting the diagnostic error log to assist us in researching your issue.

You may ask "why don't you care about software errors in previous versions?". We do, but it takes a lot of software engineering resources to take the error log and investigate each issue, and doing this with old software releases generally just points us to an issue that we have already addressed. Because of this, we always ask that you first update your software to the current release before sending us an error log to keep us from "spinning our wheels" investigating issues that have already been fixed.

Thanks,
Steve
 
I have an early G3X two screen system (non-touch) with a GSU-73. I've had the GDU-375 (MFD) turn off in flight about 5 times in 250 hours. It has never rebooted itself, I have to cycle my avionics master and it comes back online. Originally thought it was related to heat but I'm not sure. The most recent time it happened was flying to Oshkosh but this time all my default settings were screwed up. Software has always been up to date and appears to be unrelated. It looks like Garmin has stopped supporting the non-touch system with software updates. Garmin support has been poor on this issue and didn't even reply back to me after reporting the most recent issue. I guess they got tired of me complaining about it.

Dave
RV-8A

Hello Dave,

We investigated this, and indeed found your unanswered email from last August. We sincerely apologize for letting this slip through the cracks.

We certainly have not gotten tired of hearing from you, and will do everything possible to address any outstanding issues. Email sent today.

Once again, we apologize for missing your email.

Thanks,
Steve
 
G3x rebooting

Happen to us last weekend Jan 2019 while airborne and at least three times prior. We have swapped the two screens, checked all connections. As others have mentioned it only happens on the left side monitor.

G3X Touch
GTN 750




s!AvT3cTAlqpWXgotlvIy01BjX762Olg


Mike
RV-10
 
Happen to us last weekend Jan 2019 while airborne and at least three times prior. We have swapped the two screens, checked all connections. As others have mentioned it only happens on the left side monitor.

G3X Touch
GTN 750




s!AvT3cTAlqpWXgotlvIy01BjX762Olg


Mike
RV-10


Sounds like you need to update to 6.3 or newer and let us know what happens. I plan to do the same thing.
 
me too

Like Dave, I too have had this happen 3 or 4 times in flight. In my case, the left screen goes dark and then I see that is it rebooting with the Garmin logo. My system includes 2 GDU 370 screens.

At first I thought it was probably a power issue, but after I upgrading to v11.70, I have yet to see a re-occurrence.
 
I was trying to decide between a GTR-225 and a Trig TY96A, this and the fact that garmin have decided to make all the GX gps units boat anchors has finalized my decision. Trig.
I remember my father in law, a engineer at Grumman having to design a small part for a Grumman Goose that was decades out of production. Regardless of how old a Grumman product was their technical support was a given, forever.
 
Am I the only one who's first reaction was, after reading the thread title, someone pulled too many g's?:D
 
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