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Possible Garmin 305 issue

So my Forerunner 305 is about 3 years old. Only recently, putting it into the cradle it has required repeated re-seatting in order to download the data. The first few times it will look like it's downloading, then the final message says there is a communication error.

Today I had the same problem, but as soon as I re-seatted it- it crashed my computer!

On the plus side I have an external hard drive and all of my data was backed up a few hours before this happened. (learned that the hard way)

On the down side it did something to the Garmin and it logged another 2.5 hours of a run that I did not do- VERY WEIRD!

I download to Garmin Training Center because it just does (I don't care). That's when I could see that it had my run, but could not produce the map. All of my intervals were there, so all is good so far.

Download to WKO+ and my run is not there, just the 2.5 hr run that started at the time of the crash.

Has anyone had a similar problem with the FR305?

This is the first problem I've had in all these years.

Comments

  • When the contacts get corroded or dirty strange things happen--bad downloads, Blue Screen of Death crashes, corruption of files. You might first try cleaning the contacts on the Garmin and cradle. Could be lots of other things but this is a simple possibility. --DRM

  • Almost 3 years to the day after I bought my 305, it started acting weird, and then finally it became obvious the bettery was gone. I've heard others having the same experience at about 3 years. Like an iPod, the battery is not accessible, and must be replaced "at the factory". Or, you could just buy a new one for about $150. That's what I eventually did last year. But there are other options. Here's a page which outlines them.

  • Give Garmin customer support a call, they were very helpful (swapped mine out for a factory refurb.) when I had battery issues with my edge 305 that was out of warranty.

  • Thanks all. I'll be contacting Garmin. I followed the web search solutions for similar problems, but it's hard to tell if it's fixed until I use it again. But I was wondering about it being an "age" thing. Sounds like it might well be. But I'll still clean those contact points. I always wipe the wrist set down before putting it in the cradle, but I never touch that cradle.
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