Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Garmin Not Turning On or Having Issues Powering On? Replace the Battery



I am not a big fan of Garmin car GPS units. They are a valuable tool, especially when I can't use Google Maps or Waze on my cell phone -- but the company has chosen to put out their car GPS (nuvi) products with really crappy batteries.

I bought a Garmin 2599LMT unit about a year ago. In recent weeks, it started keeping a battery charge for fewer and fewer days. I'd charge it, and in two days, the battery would have discharged. I'd have to turn on the car and use the car charger, since plugging the unit with a USB cable in the house would make it think it was attached toa computer, and it would not charge (I've since learned that putting it on a USB charger that puts out at least 2 amps solves this problem).

A few times recently, the Garmin would not turn on, but once I connected it to the car charger while driving, it would start up. It was not there when I needed it, and it was dangerous fumbling with all the cords and the Garmin unit when I was driving.

Finally, a week ago, it died completely. I could not get it to turn on. I decided to see if replacing the battery would solve the problem, so I looked at videos on YouTube, then bought a battery for my Garmin unit on Ebay for $15.75. The battery came in yesterday, it was easy to install, and the Garmin unit worked immediately! am now a happy camper; the new battery seems to be holding a charge and the nuvi 2599LMT starts up right away.  (Update 6-14-18: installing this new battery has solved all the problems -- I can use the Garmin without the charger for about 30 minutes or more -- makes a huge difference in how useful the Garmin unit is). 

With any other electronic item, if the unit is plugged in, the unit will work, even with a dead battery. This seems to me to be a huge design flaw. Garmin surely can do better by fixing this flaw and supplying its products with better, longer-lasting, higher-quality batteries!