Forerunner 305 Death Process (Read 1979 times)

Anecdotes are fun, though not science, but based on what I keep seeing, yes, quality control seems to be a big issue w/ garmin.

This may work to my benefit since my 310 (as reported, in the death spiral) has been sort of lemon-ic (and demonic, sometimes) since I got it.  Perhaps that means my replacement will be the mack daddy.

Maybe it's like cars...there's some statistic floating around (probably urban legend) that cars assembled on certain days of the week tend to be more reliable than cars assembled on other days.

I had a 1970 Mustang (bought used with lotsa miles) that I loved and miss to this day.  It was either the first car off the line on Monday morning, or the last car off the line on Friday afternoon.  Most parts I bought had to go back and be exchanged, and the part guy would swear it was the right part, then say "oh, wait, there's an asterisk..."

After a while, "The Asterisk" was its nickname.

Ha, my previous car (Ford Escort) was the best. car. ever.  Boring as hell, but that thing never gave us any trouble or spent time in the shop for anything other than normal wear-and-tear stuff like new brakes and tires (and, man, that thing had bomb-proof brakes and tires).  Cheapest ownership costs of any car we've ever owned.  Thus far my '06 Mazda 3 is turning out to be the quirkiest car we've ever owned.  It's never had any major problems, but all those little things increase the irritation factor enough that we will probably go back to Ford or Honda for our next vehicle.  My first car was an '87 Mazda 626 and that was quirky, too, but I always chalked it up to being a used car with 120k miles when I bought it.  Now I think it was quirky because of the make.  It's still fun as hell to drive, so we're able to look the other way on a lot of its issues.

I had the opposite Ford Escort.  It was a piece of shit that stranded me sooooo many times.  Including once in the middle of the middle of nowhere (in the days before cell phones).  It had a laundry list of issues, my favorite being a requirement for a new battery every 6-9 months.  I... and smart people... never could figure out what was sucking the battery teat.

Anyway, that car helped swear me off American-designed/built*** cars for 26 years+++.

*** (I am being purposefully vague because I realize that some 'foreign' cars are actually built right here.)

+++ (my next car buying process will involve a close look at Ford products again.  I've been very happy with the fords I've been renting lately.)

Speaker on my 305 gave up today; it's not even 3 months old.  Grr.

My 301 lasted forever until it got smashed and all the buttons broke off.  It actually still works if I have a long enough pinkie nail to reach the start contact.

My first 205 lasted just about a year.  i went running in the snow one day and it shorted out.  My second one is about a year old now and still living but I am keeping it happy by not running.

For any of you who have had a Forerunner 305 die, I need to ask: just how did it die?

 

My 305, just a few months old, is not consistently connecting to the charging cradle. I have to balance the sucker a certain way so that it stays connected long enough to charge and to sync. I did get it to charge a bit last evening, and uploaded a workout to the watch too.

 

But then this morning the sucker wouldn't turn on, and I couldn't get it to charge or to even be detected by my computer. It was completely unresponsive, even to the reset buttons. I ran with my $20 Timex (that felt strange), but then later was able to get my 305 to charge again. I'm guessing that my watch got drained of batteries ... which seems strange, though, since I went to bed last light with my 305 turned off and charging. I actually haven't turned it on yet since all this happened.

 

I'm wondering if I'm seeing early signs of 305 death, or if perhaps I have a bad cradle, or just some bad luck.

 

Thanks, all!

My 305 died just like this. At first it was really sneaky, and I thought "oh I must have not had it seated all the way on the cradle" when it would still be dead after all night charging. Then it would work ok for a week and all of a sudden wouldn't turn on at all. The next day it would work again. Sometimes it would die in the middle of a run, and I wouldn't notice it for half a mile or so, then it may or may not turn back on. It was infuriating.  It did that for probably a month then died completely. Actually that's not true. It never completely died on its own. One day when I was about to head out for a run and it wouldn't turn on I killed it and bought a new one on Amazon.  That first one lasted me over 2 years though. I've had the replacement for almost 2 years with no troubles at all so far. 

My 305 just died. The sound was deteriorating and then about 2 months ago stopped altogether.  Now today right at the end of my run it shut off and I thought, "that was odd, I could have sworn there was enough charge"  Get home and it won't stay on more then 3 seconds and when I hook it up to the charger it says 'charge complete'.   I'll probably call garmin and see what they say, but it looks like I'm ordering a new one today.  I guess I can't be too upset since I figured out very roughly that I got about 3 1/2 cents per mile out of it.