Garmin GPS - Incorrect Date

[PaulRainbow]

There is already a thread about this problem here ; http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?511351-GPS-Time-Signal-Error

Several threads on other forums, but as far as i know, none mention Garmin GPS/plotters, so i'll post this as a separate thread, in case any Garmin owners are searching the issue.

I have a friend with a GPSMAP 551s, much the same as the Navico users report, the date suddenly changed to 1999. The plotter still works fine, but the tidal features won't work unless you manually change the date, bit of a pain as it has to be done every time the plotter is turned off.

I did update the plotter firmware from version 4.50 to 4.70, this strangely changed the date to October 2018 so perhaps an attempt had previously been made to correct the issue ?

I contacted Garmin who said

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.
This is an issue that we have become aware of and are currently working towards a resolution.

The issue is with the GPS receiver built into your device, and the changing of the GPS week, this has caused the unit to default to APR 99.

The tide system can still be used by entering the Date manually, and while I appreciate this can be an inconvenience the date does not affect the GPS positioning for the unit.

A software update to resolve this should be released shortly.

 

[paulajayne]

IIRC

The GPS week number reached 999 and had not been allocated in the programing a 4 digit field. So when 999 needed to roll it could not and reverted to build week one (April 1999).

An example of the Y2K problem.

 

[snowbird30ds]

My garmin 557xs has a thing about losing an hour but only in the thames estuary, it goes back to being right as soon as I clear the area with no help, very strange indeed.
Never had a problem anywhere else.

 

[stevie69p]

Paul,

thanks for posting this information. I had not had my boat out for nearly 8 weeks until the weekend just gone. I noticed when I went into the tidal data (on my Garmin GPSMap 451S) that the data didn't correspond with what I was physically seeing. I then noticed the date was showing as April 1999. Thankfully tidal data wasn't really necessary for anything I was doing at the time!

 

[Supine Being]

I have exactly the same problem on my old Furuno GPS. I thought they had been uniquely short-sighted, but it seems not.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Just received the following email from Garmin, a pretty good response time, IMO.

Garmin has just released a new version of software that fixes the issue of the date being incorrect. You will need to download the software update program onto your Windows computer, then run that program and it will put the information on an SD card. The SD card should have a capacity of no more than 32GB, but if your software is older than 4.00 you will need a 1 or 2 GB SD card. Here is a link to the location of the update.

 

[seadog30]

Just received the following email from Garmin, a pretty good response time, IMO.

Thanks Paul
I assumed that as both my units were more than a year old that I would have to pay for updates.

Regards and Seasons greetings to all

Seadog

 

[Appledore]

My Magellan GPS 2000XL is now showing 08 May 99 (Was Apr 99). OK, so it's old but I still use it and suppose I'm stuck with the wrong date unless I re-set everything daily?

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks Paul
I assumed that as both my units were more than a year old that I would have to pay for updates.

Regards and Seasons greetings to all

Seadog

Garmin will keep the software updated for several years, the charts are usually updated for a year.

 

[stevie69p]

Just received the following email from Garmin, a pretty good response time, IMO.

Have just updated my plotter with this update. Date issue now resolved. Thanks again for posting.