Garmin GPSmap not acquiring satellites

[picardy]

I have a Garmin GPSmap 6 years old that after being turned on for the first time in a year will not acquire satellites.

I have done a factory reset which has made no difference.

Would a software update cure it and if so why?

Thanks in advance

 

[Baddox]

If the instrument is powering up and showing signs of life, then I suspect your problem is with either the “mushroom” antenna or the wire to it. Is the antenna outside where water could have penetrated the casing? Can you connect the unit to another antenna?

 

[picardy]

Unit apparently has an internal antenna so no external antenna is connected. Unit is powering up fine and being used outside.

 

[elton]

How long did you allow it to "acquire" satellites?

It can take an hour or more to get a lock after losing the almanac.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

How long did you allow it to "acquire" satellites?

It can take an hour or more to get a lock after losing the almanac.

^^^^^^^Seconded.

Just leave it with a clear view of the sky.

 

[ffiill]

My experience is that a hand held that's been switched off for some time can take sometimes several hours to catch up even if you input approx current postion.Also depending on how old the receiver is it can run out of satellite data needed to do the positional maths.Remember the SATs are no more than stars or the sun which ID themselves and give out a time signal leaving the receiver to do the maths.

 

[PilotWolf]

Some also have an option for you to tell it roughly where it is - like UK/USA/France/etc to speed up it finding itself. Also many have a signal strength page - does it show any satellites found on there if you have one?

W.

 

[lw395]

It's worth leaving it on for a few days if possible.
Some of these things, the frequency reference drifts over time, give it a good signal for a long period it may recalibrate itself.

Equally, some of these things corrode inside and never work again.

 

[picardy]

Its worked thank you all very much for persuading me to be more patent. After about an hour it picked up 7 satellites with an error of 8 ft.

Perfect thank you all.

 

[Ripster]

I used to have a small HH lowrance that was kept on the boat for emergencies. That used to take about an hour to acquire Sats when I did the annual test on it.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Anyone know if EPIRBS and PLBS periodically update themselves when inactive?