How does a Garmin die? (Read 169 times)

My Forerunner 305 which I have used faithfully since 2009 now refuses to upload runs or rides. I have had issues with Windows 8 and various browsers but now it has stopped on all browsers and at Garminconnect and RunningAhead. Does that mean it is time for a replacement?

If the watch hasn't suffered some sort of abnormal trauma, the answer could be the breakdown of the gate oxide on the IC in the Garmin. Oxide thickness is typically scaled with the gate length to try to achieve a theoretical lifetime of 20 years but in real life it is quite common to see failure before that. There is some arguement as to whether the breakdown is current induced or field induced (and it may actually be a function of both but with current and field effects swapping dominace at a certain oxide thickness) but in general, the more the transistor is cycled the higher the probability that it will fail.

I perfer to think that the death of a Garmin is not related to the cycling of the chip however. I like to think that runners get pissed at their Garmins when the watch says that they are on pace to hit a race goal only to find out that the Garmin measures long...this is how I picture Garmins dying:

If your real question is: "Is my Garmin dead?" rather than "How does a Garmin die?" then listen to MrFinn instead of me.

To A Garmin Dying Young

The time we saw you late at night

Paid the runningwarehouse site

The runner geek stood cheering by

And home we brought you, wristwatch high

Today the road all runners come

Wristwatch high we bring you home

And set you at your cradle down

Pacer of a stiller town

Smart watch, to slip betimes away

From settings where glory does not stay

And early though the heart rate grows

It withers quicker than the rose

Display the contact tabs have shut

Cannot see the sync chord cut

And silence sounds no worse than beeps

Once batteries’ acid slowly seeps

Now you will not be reviewed

By DC rainmaker or blogs more crude

Screen displays reveal a splotch

The GPS died, a fancy watch

So set, before the beeps do fade

The sleek device on sill of shade

And hold to the low LED’s flame

The still defended Forunner’s fame

And round that early laureled face

Will flock to gaze the average pace

And find unwithered on its strap

A garmin, briefer than a lap

MTA: started it, might as well finish it

technocide

Clean the contacts on the back with an eraser.

 

Or the unit may be dead from sweat, the contacts corrode internally.

 

Death of a Garmin 305.

That's exactly how my 205 died after about 3 years.  I still have it in case we discover new repair technology.  Kind of like those folks who freeze themselves after they die.

It's still showing some runs as un-uploadable but it's charging and appears to be functioning okay apart from the "new browser and operating system incompatabilities (sp)".

Thanks all (especially the poem).