F*** Garmin

I was puzzled today when riding from New Brunswick to Quebec and Ontario that my GPS clock was off by an hour. Not a big deal but as I was negotiating heavy traffic in an unfamiliar city, my GPS suddenly went into night mode (20% brightness and reverse color) and became impossible to read. I managed to find a place to stop and was able to go from "auto" to daytime and changed back to 100% brightness.

Hard to figure out what happened but this was consistent with what would happen in the fall - earlier sunset and standard time instead of DST. Apparently, there is a bug affecting older GPS units where the date resets to 4 + months after the current date, but in 1999. This will happen if the battery is removed and cannot be reset, even with a full restore.

This has been around since April but only affects you if there is a complete power interruption. I read on a forum somewhere that there may be a patch but I am away and can't check.

The Zumo 665 does not display current date but today's triplogs were dated Oct 31, 1999. Everything up to last week was right but I had the battery out to change SD card. Beware! And don't take your battery out. Be prepared to override the auto setting for display. I will do some further investigation when I get back home a week from Tuesday.

+1

i have had my 595 do "Updates" and wiped out my routes before.

I still go to the 550 when the ride matters.

Thank you! I have a 550 - I keep looking at that GPS City sale thread thinking I should upgrade. Then I realize my 550 is just fine.

Joe

Here is the why and what -

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18255847/gps-week-rollover-issue-2019-garmin-tomtom-devices-affected

My 665 went into night mode and low brightness as well. I havent removed the battery in months.

Here is Garmins statement, it would seem no patch is forthcoming. (not correct, see Post 10)

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=zWQY6Z2kFiAuY9kDnDBgZ6

-Steve

In the short time I had to investigate this, I encountered both of those links. I can confirm that location accuracy is not affected. It seems to me that a firmware patch shouldn't be too difficult for Garmin but it wouldn't be in line with their policy of planned obsolescence.

Edit: I saw this thread but won't have a chance to follow up. Check out the last couple of posts from earlier this month.

https://zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=401#p2571

This also happened to me Memorial Day Weekend on my Garmin Zumo 660 and I didn't understand what had taken place so I just forced it back into daytime mode. There was a thread on ADV rider forum and Garmin does now have an update for the firmware on their website. I installed the update and now everything is fine.

BkerChuck said:

This also happened to me Memorial Day Weekend on my Garmin Zumo 660 and I didn't understand what had taken place so I just forced it back into daytime mode. There was a thread on ADV rider forum and Garmin does now have an update for the firmware on their website. I installed the update and now everything is fine.

Click to expand...

And this is the reason why this forum is so great.

Thanks, Chuck

As with the map "lifetime" subscriptions, Garmin (years ago) made it clear that support is for the lifetime of their product support for a given model (not the lifetime of the the device).

Sirius/XM has a class action lawsuit against them for changing the terms of their "lifetime subscription" unilaterally. They originally said it covered 4 transfers (new car/receiver/etc) then started denying xfers to new units and claiming it was for the lifetime of the unit or until the owner changed hands.

https://advrider.com/f/threads/list-of-gps-incompatible-with-2019-04-06-roll-over-bug.1377215/

Thread from ADV rider discussing the "rollover bug" and affected GPS units. I'm not sure if you'd need to log in over there to read it or not. Gist of it is that certain GPS units were affected beginning April 6th and our Zumo 660/665 models are on that list. Initially Garmin was NOT going to issue a patch for this but as the thread grew apparently enough customer pressure may have changed their minds. I noticed the issue Memorial Weekend when mine went into nighttime color mode way too early.I thought there was possibly some type of a sensor not getting enough light and that had triggered it. I didn't realize it was date/time oriented until later. I'm active on that forum lately and came across the thread. There is an explanation of how to check your GPS and see if you have the issue and I did. I downloaded and installed the updated firmware and it's been fine since. Hope this helps!

For Zumo 665

Currently installed firmware 3.10, used Garmin Express to install update titled "GPS Chipset M" took less than a minute.

All my trip logs since last Monday have been dated 1999. I presume this update will be the fix. Sunrise & set times are now correct. "Automatically" now available in Time setting. World Clock is now correct.

-Steve

Went for a short ride, Trip Log date is now correct.

All GPS units are affected by the GPS rollover. Even aviation GPS.

It's hard to pick a good motorcycle gps unit these days. I've had a few and they all have their issues. The TomTom was the most aggravating unit of the bunch. After the warranty expired, it wouldn't turn on. Called TomTom and they offered no available repair service since the unit was out of warranty. Unacceptable. And Garmins are overpriced under-performers...and as you are experiencing inconveniently unpredictable. What to do, what to do.

I found that there was supposed to be a patch - referenced the UK Zumo forum, above. I'm on the road right now without access to computer and Garmin Express so I could not download and test. Might get a chance tomorrow night. I set to daytime and 100% brightness. Didn't reverse colors at "sunset" but display went to 50% bright. Was able to adjust.

Well this thread got me off my ass.... was having issues with my 550, thinking about upgrading to the 595......
When I turned it on, it was searching for gps signal and then start asking me if I'm indoors, if the date was correct.... literally about every time I turned it on..

I decided to pull the unit from the bike and hook it up to the computer, and the garmin app updated my firmware to 5.0, and I loaded up all the new north america maps on my 8gb card........ seems to be playing nicely for the time being.....

Bought this thing almost new in box off Craigslist for $100, it has served me well as a backup to my phone, but I won't be without a dedicated GPS ever again.... I have been keeping my eye on the forum to see if EVER there are new units out on the market, and it just seems there is nothing.
Saves me some money at any rate....

I don't bluetooth to that unit just my phone for tunes and directions, so its a nice standalone...

Seems the title of the thread is pretty honest LOL

I hadn't encountered this, but wasn't sure I'd been using my units at a time of day where the hours would be that far off. I just checked, and both my ancient Streetpilots, a 2720 and a 2820, show the correct time. Maps might be a bit out of date...

My 665 doesn't display date but I knew it had to be off because it went to nighttime mode way too early. I found the actual date from the recent triplogs which have a date stamp.

a bit of wfooshee's post said this: Maps might be a bit out of date...

Click to expand...

Funny thing about roads? They don't move often. Ten-year-old maps are still pretty useful.

If you're also relying on their Points of Interest features -- which I don't -- you probably already know that gas stations and restaurants go out of business, especially in rural areas.

RossKean said:

My 665 doesn't display date but I knew it had to be off because it went to nighttime mode way too early. I found the actual date from the recent triplogs which have a date stamp.

Click to expand...

I guess I got lucky, or hit an update at the right time on my 665, as no issues are present.

Uncle Hud said:

a bit of wfooshee's post said this: Maps might be a bit out of date...

Click to expand...

Funny thing about roads? They don't move often. Ten-year-old maps are still pretty useful.

If you're also relying on their Points of Interest features -- which I don't -- you probably already know that gas stations and restaurants go out of business, especially in rural areas.

Click to expand...

Oddly enough, they seem to move around a lot down here!!!!

US 98 was re-routed from waterfront to about a mile inland to go behind a new development near Port St. Joe, southwest of here. US 331 was moved east about a mile where it intersects state road 20 (it used to dog-leg west on SR20 before turning to continue north, and now it continues straight across.) The current US98 bridge over St. Andrews Bay is anywhere from 150 to 200 feet north of where the old bridge was, depending on if you're going east or west. The intersection of US98 and Thomas Drive has been replaced with a flyover and interchange, and the intersection of US98 and 23rd Street is in the process of being replaced the same way. There are also a couple of bypasses that aren't in my maps at all!

I should say that my 2720 maps are 2011, and my 2820 are even older, 2008!