Garmin 188c screen freezing up - The Hull Truth

capt_ben · 06-26-2006, 10:52 PM

I recieved a Garmin 188c from a friend about 2 years ago, he pulled it off of his boat when he sold it. He said it worked perfectly. The unit is flush mounted on my boat. The screen will freeze up and the only way to gain it back is turn the power off. Sometimes the screen will go completely black once again needing to be re-powered to gain it back. I left the unit turned off for about 30 minues and it seemed to do fine for about 15 minutes when we reached the dock.

The sonar also will not pick up the bottom once it goes past 60 feet, no matter what adjustment i set it to. What could be causing my problems? Could it be over heating? Could it be old and deteriorating? I am clueless.

Capt_Ben

LongDock · 06-26-2006, 11:14 PM

http://www.thehulltruth.com/forums/t...07945&posts=13

Try this thread, helped me...

capt_ben · 06-26-2006, 11:38 PM

Long,
The transducer works fine at slow speeds and fast, as long as the water is not more than 60ft. deep, thnaks for the fast reply though.
Capt_Ben

Grandmaster · 06-27-2006, 12:00 AM

Capt_Ben,

Do you know what firmware version you are running. Garmin has put out some updates that resolved some shutdown issues. Here is a link to all the firmwares they have released and what issues they resolved. http://www.garmin.com/support/downlo...ils.jsp?id=245
As far as the depth issue...I know you said you messed with some of the settings, and I am sure you checked, but I have to ask was the range setting one of them. I have a 188 and the only time I had a similar issue was when I had the range set manually. For example I had it set at 60, but once I went deeper than 60, the depth read 65, but I lost the bottom. DOH! I finally realized that I set the range to 60, so once I increased the range or set it to auto bam it was back...I had not realized I had set the range manually so I was pulling my hair out for a bit before I realized what was going on.

hope this helps!

Louis

capt_ben · 06-27-2006, 12:12 AM

Louis,
I will check first ting in the morning about the firmware version. I tryed to set the depth mode for auto, and all other ranges manually, but it act as if it is stuck on 60'. It will scroll to the other ranges, but when you hit enter, and scroll back, it has automatically reset itself back to 60'. Thank you for the reply, and the link.

Capt_Ben

Grandmaster · 06-27-2006, 12:54 AM

Capt_Ben,

When you select the range, rather than scrolling back, try hitting quit after you hit enter...I do not have mine in front of me, it is down at the coast, but for some reason I want to say there was something quirky about it and it only seemed to take a change after I hit quit. I am planning on fishing this weekend...if I remember I will take a look at mine.

Louis