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Etrex Touch 35t screen unresponsive


Bertrum

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Upgraded from an Etrex 20 to an Etrex Touch 35t which is brilliant however I notice that after a while I find some if not all the screen becomes unresponsive. Don't think it is because my hands are getting cold as a quick restart of the device restores full access.

 

Don't see any other comments about this new GPSr (or the 25) so guess its just another bug for Garmin to squash.

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Just guessing here, but perhaps double-tap the screen to wake it up? I don't this unit but thinking it may be similar to other units.

 

The device is awake as you can access the menu options via the power button however if I try and touch the screen it sometimes (not always) becomes unresponsive.

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Does everything freeze? Or will everything on the screen display as normal? Do the buttons work? The oregons have a bug which causes them to lock up from time to time and the only way to fix it is to remove a battery. I'm wondering if this is a similar problem.

 

There is only 1 button on the Etrex Touch and it works as normal. Yesterday only the right hand side of the screen was unresponsive where the left hand side was working ok. Reboot made the whole screen act as normal.

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eh, that sounds like a potentially faulty screen. I would contact Garmin about it. They might just replace the unit for you.

 

But why would a reboot clear the issue if it was a hardware fault ? Looks like a software issue to me.

 

My Apple touch pad sometimes goes haywire on me, thinking it's being touched when it's not. Thinking it's being touched with two fingers when I'm only using one... etc. At one point, half the touch pad was unresponsive. But then for some days/weeks/months, it's fine with no issues. That touch pad, like the capacitive touch screens on phones and the new touch screen GPSs from Garmin rely on electromagnetic signals rather than straight up pressure to work. It's not out of the question that a fault in the construction of the screen could cause these signals to malfunction, but not regularly, and that restarting the device can reset any electronic charge that could be the root of the problem (if it is indeed the root of the problem). Point is, there are ways for hardware to fail that simply turning it off and back on can relieve the problem, even if it is temporary. If it's solely a software glitch, perhaps we'd hear about this from more users. So for now, I think the best thing is to see if Garmin will just replace the unit under warranty.

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The trouble with returning it to Garmin is that I didn't buy it from Garmin. My next door neighbour works for Garmin Europe based in the UK and I used her discount :D .

 

As I think this is a software bug and Garmin are known to produce buggy software on their new models I was hoping to hear from any other Etrex touch 25/35 owners to see if they have the same issue.

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Howdy! I'm a proud, if somewhat frustrated owner of a touch 25, and I too experience an unresponsive screen at times. This is my second unit, bought from REI, and it still happens intermittantly. Another bug which drives me "CRAZY" happens when going from map mode to geocaching menu (description, logs, hint, etc) and back again. After looking at the logs and hint of the geocache I'm navigating to, I try to return to map mode by selecting the circular arrow in the bottom left corner. Sometimes it works, but then sometimes it returns to the geocaching menu. In that case, the only way to get to the map screen again is to recycle the power. These two quirks happened in both the units I bought, so I'm pretty sure it's a software bug issue. I've reported both bugs to Garmin, but I'm sure it will take a while to see an update fix. It's a great little caching machine, so I'm going to wait for more updates to the software.

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Howdy! I'm a proud, if somewhat frustrated owner of a touch 25, and I too experience an unresponsive screen at times. This is my second unit, bought from REI, and it still happens intermittantly. Another bug which drives me "CRAZY" happens when going from map mode to geocaching menu (description, logs, hint, etc) and back again. After looking at the logs and hint of the geocache I'm navigating to, I try to return to map mode by selecting the circular arrow in the bottom left corner. Sometimes it works, but then sometimes it returns to the geocaching menu. In that case, the only way to get to the map screen again is to recycle the power. These two quirks happened in both the units I bought, so I'm pretty sure it's a software bug issue. I've reported both bugs to Garmin, but I'm sure it will take a while to see an update fix. It's a great little caching machine, so I'm going to wait for more updates to the software.

 

Kind of glad to hear that you are having similar issues as well. I find that sometimes the left and right swiping to change screens also doesn't work. Will report my bugs to Garmin and hope they fix it soon.

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Having the same problem with my eTrex Touch 25. I found 10 caches today and in between every single one I had to turn the unit off and on again to get the screen to respond. Too frustrating to bother with, so I switched to using my phone. I wanted to return it to Amazon, but unfortunately the window for returning has closed, so I'm going to contact Garmin next.

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Thanks goodness I'm not alone regarding the eTrex Touch software bugs.

I also have the geocaching screen issue with my eTrex Touch 35.

 

Also, the only way I can selected a geocache without crashing the unit is via the map screen.

If I select any geocache from a geocache list screen, the unit goes to clear screen and goes unresponsive. I have to power-cycle to get it working again.

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Thanks goodness I'm not alone regarding the eTrex Touch software bugs.

I also have the geocaching screen issue with my eTrex Touch 35.

 

Also, the only way I can selected a geocache without crashing the unit is via the map screen.

If I select any geocache from a geocache list screen, the unit goes to clear screen and goes unresponsive. I have to power-cycle to get it working again.

I keep running into both of these issues all the time while geocaching on hikes. I think the crash has been introduced by latest firmware (2.90) - there is other thread about it. It does not happen just with geocaches, but often with other POIs as well. Add to it that any such crash will mess up track statistics (total elevation climbed will usually start counting from 0 after crash) and I have multiple crashes per hour and unit is basically unusable for simultaneous geocaching and track recording.

 

The geocaching screen issue on the other hand I believe has been around for a while, as well as quirks with responsiveness (basically, the screen "thinks" part of it is pressed and reacts to that). I've seen it on different then geocaching screens as well though it's most easily replicated with geocaching screen. The only solution is power cycle.

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I received an e-trex touch 35t for Christmas, and have had constant problems with the touch screen becoming unresponsive.

The problem, as near as I can tell, only happens after I've had the device in my pocket for a few minutes.

There's been plenty of back and forth with Garmin; updating firmware, re-installing firmware, rolling back firmware, indicting GSAK, etc.

They sent me a replacement unit, which exhibited the same issues right out of the box, before I ever even loaded any caches.

Even after updating the firmware to v3.0, the issues still persist.

I deem the unit unusable, which is really unfortunate, since it seems that it would otherwise be ideally suited for caching.

At this point, I'm looking for suggestions from other cachers on what model to trade it for.

Based on some of the other posts in this thread, it looks like I might just as well rule out any touch-screen units.

I've been using an e-trex 30 for the past 2 years, and it's an OK unit, but I would like to have the exponentially larger cache capacity that the touch 35t has.

It would be nice to be able to load the caches for an entire region, so that I don't have to keep loading new caches as I travel along on vacation.

A faster processor would also be nice.

Suggestions anyone?

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Well, if you're really keen on the touch screen, go for the Oregon 600.

 

Otherwise, hold on to your eTrex 35t a while longer and I'm sure the problem will be addressed and fixed at some point.

 

Did you try: setup > accessibility > touch sensitivity > high; might help

 

I did try that. That didn't help either. It's definitely a bug. The touch sensitivity setting is fine when it's not acting buggy.

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I did try that. That didn't help either. It's definitely a bug. The touch sensitivity setting is fine when it's not acting buggy.

 

Any update, gettinlate? I'm curious to see if you found a fix or ended up returning it.

 

Thanks!

~~KJ

 

Hi there

 

Also received an Etrex 35 for Christmas and have been battling with the machine. Not been out much since then but increasingly getting frustrated by all the same problems listed above. Will contact garmin and hope for the best. Also found that it hadn't saved all the caches I downloaded ahead of a trip abroad. Bit frustrating when we got here to find limited caches downloaded. Anyone else had similar problems to this.

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I am considering upgrading to this device from my Dakota 20 - have the freezing issues been resolved with the newer firmware?

 

Its no better or worse than it was before, the latest 3.10 update hasn't broken anything that I can see and the unresponsive screen generally only occurs, for me, when I am outside when my hands or the screen are cold.

 

Would still recommend it as a good device that does most things very well.

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Issues still exist with my 35t. I would not recommend this unit for Geocaching yet. The refusal to move to map screen from geocache screen happens frequently, roughly 1 in 3 geocaches viewed. It is infuriating. It can be caught by hitting the map scroll icon as soon as the map appears and then returning to the geocache map view. Mine also loses sensitivity occasionally, requiring a reboot. I also have an Oregon 450 and Gpsmap 63. The Gpsmap is by far the best unit.

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I've had all the same issues, and one that doesn't seem to be mentioned, my device doesn't always start.. I'm on my second unit since December, the first having been replaced by Garmin when I reported screen response issues. This 2nd unit is still displaying the same issue out the box with occasionally none responsive screen, or not being able to get from geocaching menu to map view. But the most frustrating issue for me is just getting the device to turn on. It starts to boot up, but gets on the 'Garmin copyright' screen, I've tested to see if it just takes a long time, but gave up after leaving it sitting for 20 minutes. It's now almost everytime I try using the device, its basically hit or miss if I can get life out of it. I've tried changing batteries, and battery types, no change, so it doesn't seem to be related to that. Back to speaking with Garmin again. Really disappointing as this was my first step into GPSrs, and I really liked the touchscreen idea, and geocache profile, but may have to go back to researching a different unit or different make for me if they can't get this fixed anytime soon.

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I've had all the same issues, and one that doesn't seem to be mentioned, my device doesn't always start.. I'm on my second unit since December, the first having been replaced by Garmin when I reported screen response issues. This 2nd unit is still displaying the same issue out the box with occasionally none responsive screen, or not being able to get from geocaching menu to map view. But the most frustrating issue for me is just getting the device to turn on. It starts to boot up, but gets on the 'Garmin copyright' screen, I've tested to see if it just takes a long time, but gave up after leaving it sitting for 20 minutes. It's now almost everytime I try using the device, its basically hit or miss if I can get life out of it. I've tried changing batteries, and battery types, no change, so it doesn't seem to be related to that. Back to speaking with Garmin again. Really disappointing as this was my first step into GPSrs, and I really liked the touchscreen idea, and geocache profile, but may have to go back to researching a different unit or different make for me if they can't get this fixed anytime soon.

 

You may have a corrupt gpx/ggz file on the unit stopping it from starting up properly. If you have a flash card in it try removing it and seeing if it boots up ok. Track files could also be corrupt. My etrex 20 used to take ages to boot up until I removed a load of track files.

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Hi,

I am owner of Etrex Touch 35t almost a year.

I have also experienced same problems as described here - freezing of screen during normal geocaching usage.

Firmware update didn't helped, even with latest version (3.40) I had problems.

 

Last thing I tried was to delete preloaded geocaches (manually) and delete all tracks/waypoints...

It seems that I have solved the problem.

First of all, device boots much faster than before.

And I haven't had freezing so far.

 

Hope this could help.

Greetings from Croatia

Igor

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15 hours ago, lilla07 said:

It’s not that my screen is unresponsive but I am unable to download caches to my new eTrex Touch 35t. Have tried to download the file to send caches to my gps but is not happening. Please, any info would be great. lilla07

1. Since your problem is unrelated to the topic of this thread, it's better to just start a new thread if you want to maximise your response.
2. Can you be more specific about what you've tried already? What do you mean by "send caches to your gps?" What kind of file have you downloaded? Is it the GPX file from an individual cache page? A Pocket Query file? Are you trying to use the "Send to Garmin" function with a bookmark list? The more specific you are, the better and faster we can help you.

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