My XT is freezing and acting up... Any clues?

[Rofor]

Have you read my post above?

If the battery is really empty, the only way to get it back to life is in the motorcycle mount, connected to a bike or car battery - try it!

[theswede]

Have you read my post above?

If the battery is really empty, the only way to get it back to life is in the motorcycle mount, connected to a bike or car battery - try it!

Yes, as i wrote, overnight in the mount. No difference.

[Rofor]

Ah, ok! Did misunderstood that, sorry...

That really doesn't sound good - one last try: Normally, if you do a really long (30 sek.) press on the Power button, the unit performs a reset, you can try this while it is connected to a power source! Maybe this could give a 'startup help'...

Sadly if that also don't work, i'm finished with my tips!

[theswede]

Sadly if that also don't work, i'm finished with my tips!

I am thankful for all the advice and tips. It still remains dead, and i will try to return also this zumo, and make a third try.
The battery life future doesnt look good for this device if the battery is so discharged out of the box...

[Rofor]

As i said - my 5 cents to this are, that that after the functional tests in the factory they are NOT shutting down the unit completely!

I'm a 'first hour' user of the Zumo XT and in the first one-and-a-half years you didn't hear such a thing (dead batteries) at all - starting from the second year of it's lifespan, there where more and more posts in ADVriders, Naviboard and so on forums from units with a completely dead battery on arrival.

For me there's some logic behind this - in the first time the Zumo XT sales so very well, that there are no units lying around in shops, warehouses, stores and so on - all available units where sold very fast. Then the market was saturated and the units tend to be longer in shops, warehouses and son on - the batteries of the unit had more time to discharge, and there is a discharge, when it's not completely shut down!

I don't believe that the Zumo XTs battery is bad - had mine since the sales start and the battery is already in good shape! In the winter months sometimes i don't turn the unit on for two or three months and had never a problem with it. I always shut it down completely and had it in the beginning only for testing a while only in standby mode - for me it last's nearly two weeks in standby. It had than about 10-15% battery...

[jfheath]

Get them to take it out of the box before you accept it. There should be at least a little power in the battery for it to work - but bear in mind @Peobody's comment above.


Phone Garmin before you go. Ask them if these batteries die if the XT has been left uncharged for a long time. Is there any way of knowing how old the unit is - and therefore how long it has been sitting uncharged. The installed maps might give you a clue. If the warehouse argue this point - that if it is been opened it is no longer new, just point out that if it is opened and the battery is OK, then you'll be walking away with it. If it isn't Ok, you'll be bringing it back anyway !!

The date on the files on my installed (European) maps are:

2025.10 - 11 March 2024
2024.20 - 10 Oct 2023
2024.10 - 5 May 2023
2023.20 - 03 Feb 2023
2023.10 - 22 May 2022
2022.20 - 18 Nov 2021

I usually wait a couple of weeks before installing newly released maps.

So I suppose that it is reasonable for a new unit to have 2024.2 installed, but if it had 2024.10 installed it cold have been sitting around for 6 months to a year. Trouble is, if the battery is flat, I don't know how you would find this out in the shop.

nb - I let mine go flat the other day - which it did while I was using it and it was plugged into a charger via the USB cable ! It clearly draws more power then the charger was supplying. It doesn't do this on the bike - so perhaps the bike cradle puts more current into it ?? Guessing. I don't know.

[danham]

Li-ion batteries can be fussy. Their preferred long term storage state is 80% charge. A fast way to kill them is to run them down until they shut down (usually around 10-20%, at which point they try to prevent damage by not allowing further drain) and then let them sit for weeks, at which time they will not revive because all li-ion batteries self discharge at a rate somewhere around 1% per day and they reach zero and die forever.

So best practice is to give them some "exercise" once in a while and not put them away for weeks with less than say 50% charge. The XT is not by any means unique in this behavior, other than its ability to fool you into thinking it is off when it is merely sleeping.

-dan

[Peobody]

nb - I let mine go flat the other day - which it did while I was using it and it was plugged into a charger via the USB cable ! It clearly draws more power then the charger was supplying. It doesn't do this on the bike - so perhaps the bike cradle puts more current into it ?? Guessing. I don't know.

I have seen the same behavior when trying to power the XT from a USB port in the car and on the bike. Surprisingly, changing the cable to a 'power only' cable solved the problem in the car. I never tested it again on the bike.