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Greg Reese

Active Member
After flying behind a G496 for two years without any problems, I went out today to have the 496 not able to locate a single satellite. My flt lead said he wasn't having any problems so I suspected an antenna failure of some sort. I checked connections, swithched ant. all to no avail. Called Garmin and they knew right off the bat. Corrupt data! So, hold the "out" button while turning on the unit. It goes into autolocate mode and recovered nicely. Anyone else ever have this happen??
 
Often, Greg........

.......until I installed version 3.5 (I think) and all is well.

Yeah, that old technique of holding zoom out works well.

Regards,
 
Greg Reese said:
After flying behind a G496 for two years without any problems, I went out today to have the 496 not able to locate a single satellite. My flt lead said he wasn't having any problems so I suspected an antenna failure of some sort. I checked connections, swithched ant. all to no avail. Called Garmin and they knew right off the bat. Corrupt data! So, hold the "out" button while turning on the unit. It goes into autolocate mode and recovered nicely. Anyone else ever have this happen??
Click to expand...
496 software 3.60 is the latest..
 
GPS

There are other threads on this problem previously posted. I'm just guessing the problem on your 496 is that your internal clock battery has "run down" ie: 1 volt vs. 3 volts. Search for a post on how to replace the internal battery with a commonly used watch battery. It was slightly complicated and a non electronically oriented "geek" might not want to try it.

What I do with my almost 4 year old "clock battery voltage challenged" 396, is to turn it on. When the "searching for satellites" screen comes on, press "menu", scroll down to the bottom where it says "new location", press "enter", then press "automatic". 15 to 45 seconds you should have several satellites in view.

Sure beats sending $300+ bucks to Garmin or ripping the thing apart for a new battery.:)

Hope this helps someone.
 
Its the battery - might be under warranty

As others have already said, its probably the internal battery. Mine is about 2 yrs and 4 months old. Last summer it started doing it and I started just pressing and holding "out" while powering up (at least until the "I Agree" menu comes up. Then in autolocate mode it would lock on in 15 to 30 seconds.

I finally got tired of it and called Garmin. They are replacing the unit with a new one under warranty. Good service, call them.

On another note, that leads me to believe I need to change how I use the unit. I have left it in the plane all this time and I suspect it does not get enough charging time to deeply charge that battery. I intend with the new one (when I get it) to take it out and charge it overnight every couple of months and see if that helps the life of the battery. I'm thinking that to many short flights is not allowing the battery to be deeply charged. I don't know, but am gonna try it.

Greg Reese said:
After flying behind a G496 for two years without any problems, I went out today to have the 496 not able to locate a single satellite. My flt lead said he wasn't having any problems so I suspected an antenna failure of some sort. I checked connections, swithched ant. all to no avail. Called Garmin and they knew right off the bat. Corrupt data! So, hold the "out" button while turning on the unit. It goes into autolocate mode and recovered nicely. Anyone else ever have this happen??
Click to expand...
 
Timely thread. This happens to my 496 all the time. Bought mine at OSH in 2006 and it has sat without much use since November 07 when I sold my -6.
Now that it is in my -8A and is only on for several minutes at a time (not flying yet...maybe Saturday!) it frequently does not acquire. The pwr/out button fixes the problem everytime. Will try the other suggestions too. Thanks for the info!
 
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