Furious about Garmin GPS 48 (non)Memory

[Dean Abramson]

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D



dabramson@mainephoto.com

[Bill]

Hi Dean

It is my understanding that the lithium battery is for data protection only and that once the AAs are depleted, they should be replaced. The lithium battery would protect the stored data in the short run awaiting replacement of the AAs. I dont know if that is stated in the manual or not.

I can not speak to the issue of trusting the unit now that the lithium battery has been so deeply discharged.

Bill

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

cd25d@rhapsodysails.com

[Warren Kaplan]

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

Dean,
I'm not an expert with this but it sounds like the problem is with the lithium battery. Remember you said it worked okay the first year but I think the lithium battery quit on you this winter. It hardly surprises me. I have a love/hate relationship with lithium batteries. Mostly hate! When they work as advertised, they're great. But I don't think that "reliable longevity" is their long suit. I had a battery operated alarm system installed in my house about 10 years ago. Quite elaborate. It used standard batteries but with so many stations, we were always changing batteries somewhere. The company said that if I invested in lithium batteries, they'd last for 5 years. I figured it would be worth the price. So I did it. We had 15 stations on my alarm system and half the lithium batteries were dead by 1.5 years. No better than ordinary batteries. These were not "outdated" old lithium batteries either. I've had lithium batteries quit "early" in cameras, computers and in the memory of my business telephone system so when we get a power outage, all my speed dial and stored phone numbers are gone. Fun, Fun, Fun! So, I feel your pain (as someone once said) but unless you can change the lithium batteries ahead of time, without losing the memory just doing that procedure, I think that you and I, and all of us are at the mercy of having one of these conk out and putting us back to, as you sadly said, square one. The more we depend on technology the greater the "inconvenience" to us when it fails!

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, NY



Setsail728@aol.com

[Mario]

I seem to remember that lithium batteries tend to fail suddenly when they reach the end of their working lives, so they may test fine one day and within a few days be completely dead.

Probably best to change the lithium battery once a year and keep fresh AAs in the unit during the off season.

Mario

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

capedory252NOSPAM@aol.com

[Bill Goldsmith]

the Garmin 48 has the ability to upload and download waypoints to a PC. All you need to buy is the data cable and have a PC. You can download shareware called Waypoint Plus, and then upload and download your waypoints to a PC. This is worthwhile even if only used to save your work. You can also key waypoints in on the desktop and upload to the GPS. It's also helpful because you can upload the waypoints to a different GPS if you decide to change units. And if you decide to get fancy with desktop navigation software, you can upload and download from the unit to and from the software.

I know this doesn't help you recover your lost waypoints, but after you re-key your waypoints into the 48 (or a new unit) you may wish to save a copy to your desktop to prevent future frustration.

Test the unit by putting in fresh AAs, keying in a few important waypoints and after a day to two, remove the batteries for a few hours and see if the memory was retained. If so, keep the unit (it is a pretty good unit), don't rely on the lithium battery for long periods in the future, and remember to save you waypoints.

My 48 is 4 years old and the backup battery is still functioning. I have generally left batteries in all the time, even during the off season. No one told me to do that, though, and it's not in the instructions. I pull batteries out as soon as the indicator shows anything less than full power, and give them to my kids for their Gameboys.

Bill Goldsmith
CD27#173
Second Chance

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

goldy@bestweb.net

[Bob Marsh]

An alternative approach, since you need this waypoint data to be safe,might be to save the data in your computer. I use Maptech's Offshore navagator (mostly as a videogame)and It is easy to maintain backups for all the data in the GPS units and reload them at any time. Just a thought.

Bob Marsh
Aquanell
CD27#51
Dunedin FL

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

bobcmarsh@earthlink.net

[Ken Coit]

Dean,

This won't bring back those waypoints, but is it possible that the Lithium battery is replaceable? Some PCs I have owned had hard-wired batteries to back up the clock, but even they could be replaced fairly easily. Maybe the Lithium back up battery in the GPS 48 can be replaced as well.


Keep on sailing,

Ken Coit
CD/14 #538
CD/36 #84 Parfait
Hailing Port: Raleigh, NC
Sailing from: Beaufort, NC

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

parfait@nc.rr.com

[John R.]

I agree with the others that waypoint data should definitely be backed up on a PC, but not just on the hard drive. I recommend backing up to a Zip disc or some other dependable *shell protected* media. I no longer back up to CD's, sometimes they become unreadable and the film side of the discs scratch or damage to easily. I even have two CDRW's that became unreadable and they have no physical damage at all. I have never had a problem with Zip discs in comparison. That sure doesn't mean they can't have problems but I think the chance is far less.

Sorry to read about your data loss, it's horrible when that sort of thing happens. I know I've been there. High tech sure has its pit falls at times. What a price we pay sometimes in time and frustration.

Good luck with whatever method you employ to protect your data. I wouldn't blame the Garmin, they seem to be very good units and have an excellent track record overall.

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

[eghaley@twcny.rr.com]

By downloading new software into the Garmin 48, the new download is supposed to provide longer life for the batteries. It didn't mention if they were talking about the AA's or the Lithium batteries.

Ed Haley
s/v Mokita
CD330 #1
On the Erie



eghaleyNOSPAM@twcny.rr.com

[michael phillips]

Yes, it would be great if you could just "pop in a fresh lithium battery" but don't try it at home. The unit will loose it's waterseal if not done properly and resealed. That's why Garmin will refurbish onr for about $90 bucks, including return 2nd day shipping. They will also upgrade software to the latest available for the unit. My 48, according to Airborne, arrived at their facility at 0900 this morning! Should have it back mid week, in time for the Memorial Day Regatta!

-michael
s/v KAYLA
CD28 #318
Bluewater Bay, FL



michael@bbsc.com

[John Viera]

Waypoint+ is a nice little program. I use it along with G7toWin. Waypoint+ will not save icons that are added to your waypoints, but G7toWin does, so I download my waypoints to both programs.

You can find these both, along with many other great, free programs at the following location; http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/idx_garmin.html

John

the Garmin 48 has the ability to upload and download waypoints to a PC. All you need to buy is the data cable and have a PC. You can download shareware called Waypoint Plus, and then upload and download your waypoints to a PC. This is worthwhile even if only used to save your work. You can also key waypoints in on the desktop and upload to the GPS. It's also helpful because you can upload the waypoints to a different GPS if you decide to change units. And if you decide to get fancy with desktop navigation software, you can upload and download from the unit to and from the software.

I know this doesn't help you recover your lost waypoints, but after you re-key your waypoints into the 48 (or a new unit) you may wish to save a copy to your desktop to prevent future frustration.

Test the unit by putting in fresh AAs, keying in a few important waypoints and after a day to two, remove the batteries for a few hours and see if the memory was retained. If so, keep the unit (it is a pretty good unit), don't rely on the lithium battery for long periods in the future, and remember to save you waypoints.

My 48 is 4 years old and the backup battery is still functioning. I have generally left batteries in all the time, even during the off season. No one told me to do that, though, and it's not in the instructions. I pull batteries out as soon as the indicator shows anything less than full power, and give them to my kids for their Gameboys.

Bill Goldsmith
CD27#173
Second Chance

I always take batteries out of things like flashlights, etc., during the off-season, and did so with my Garmin GPS 48. The manual says that an internal lithium battery will maintain the memory. Well, I put the AAs in for the season, only to get a message which says that all of my data is lost! Over a hundred waypoints gathered over two seasons. The folks at West Marine, and the Garmin web site, now tell me that I have to keep AAs in in it, or at least put them in once a month for a few days, to keep the lithium battery charged. There is NOT ONE WORD in the owner's manual about this, and the West Marine folks said nothing when I bought it. Has anyone else had this problem? I am furious. It was a LOT of work to gather all those waypoints and them re-number them to match my Loran waypoints. Now I am back to Square One. I hope that other Garmin GPS owners can learn from my experience before it is too late. I did not have this problem after my first off-season (sans batteries) with this unit. It is only two years old. Am I going to be able to trust this thing in the future, or does the fact that the lithium battery got that low mean it is now suspect? Any input out there? Thanks.

Dean Abramson
"Mariah"
CD 25D

[Rick Thompson]

Where is the lithium battery in the Garmin 48? I've seen nothing in the manual and nothing on the Garmin web site. Mine says the backup battery needs replacing. It's about 3 years old.



eyedoctor1@earthlink.net