Garmin has identified a bug in some new Forerunner and Edge units (205 and 305) that cause them to lock up after a full charge. Here's a temporary fix until the next software update:
"To power the unit back on, press the "Mode" and "Reset" buttons at the same time. Let go of those two buttons, press the power button, and the unit will turn back on."
Renate,
I just had the exact same problem and I have had to reset mine before, the mode/reset fix had always worked. I just found on another forum someone said to try holding down the power, mode and reset button at the same time. Don't know the exact sequence but mine finally came back to life...YAY!! Try that, hopefully it will work.
Posted by: Cyclism | June 04, 2007 at 03:55 PM
I have the same problem with my Forerunner 205. Nothing appear on the screen. Tried every suggestions on this site without any success.
Anybody else has any other suggestion?
Posted by: Binh | June 08, 2007 at 11:20 PM
@Cyclism: It didn't work.
@Binh: Is you Forerunner already back to life?
Posted by: Renate | June 14, 2007 at 07:54 AM
I am afraid not. Worse still, the power button does not even have the clicking feel to it anymore. Which means I may have damaged the unit even more after trying the button combination suggested by Garmin, as well as from this and other websites. It is now on its way back to Garmin. Let's see what they can do.
Posted by: Binh | June 16, 2007 at 12:33 AM
@Binh: You killed it? ;-)
I bought the Garmin in the USA but I live in The Netherlands. Support here is not very supportive. They don't accept the serial no. So I probably will kill my Garmin also and bring in back to the States.
Posted by: Renate | June 19, 2007 at 04:02 AM
Hi folks,
My forerunner 205 just died on me after a full reset as well, I initially tried (countlessly) the sequence:
MODE+Power, release, Power
and it did not work.. I saw the post on:
reset+MODE+Power, release, Power
That actually worked.
I'm a little worried about this. Is there something going on with the battery? Has anyone ever changed the battery themselves?
Posted by: spaceshiptrip | July 14, 2007 at 10:44 PM
Renate,
Yes, my Forerunner was completely dead. Sent it back to Garmin for repair about 5wks ago. Just got back from my trip today to find a brand new 205. From now on I have to be very careful about these buttons...
Posted by: Binh | July 20, 2007 at 06:07 AM
Hi,
When charging unit says "Charging Complete" but it refuses to power on when the usb cable is detached. I'm on the latest 2.70 firmware.
So with USB cable still attached, resorted to pressing POWER, LAP and MODE simultaneously and release LAP only. Unit powers on and asks "Do you really want to rease all user data?" I clicked YES and went through the menu.
After that reset, i detached the unit and it still wont power up. Connecting it back to the cradle will see it saying "Charging Complete."
So back to square one. Should i send it off to Garmin now?
Posted by: busternuck | September 22, 2007 at 10:12 PM
Thanks for having this page. I purchased a Forerunner 305 last August (2006) and for the first time today, the unit would not power on or recharge when put back on the cradle. I followed the advice here and held down the reset and mode buttons then powerd on. It worked!
Posted by: B Hadaway | September 27, 2007 at 03:24 PM
I also followed your advice after my Forerunenr 305 didn't want to power on after I fully charged yesterday.
It's now back to normal, although the battery was drained.
Thanks!
Posted by: Jose - Caracas | October 01, 2007 at 07:52 PM
My 305 locked up during a 66 mile ride 10 mile out from the end. none of the buttons responded. i held down the power button and it' powered off and back on, but i lost all my ride information, except the total mileage. but i only have 10 miles of data that uploaded. what happened and has this happened to anyone else?
Posted by: cyclistlmt | October 06, 2007 at 03:40 PM
My 305 locked up during a 66 mile ride 10 mile out from the end. none of the buttons responded. i held down the power button and it' powered off and back on, but i lost all my ride information, except the total mileage. but i only have 10 miles of data that uploaded. what happened and has this happened to anyone else?
Posted by: cyclistlmt | October 06, 2007 at 09:56 PM
This is my 3rd garmin. I have the 205 and the display won't come up. It powers on and I can hear the beeps as it responds to the buttons, but nothing on the screen. I've tried EVERY combination of buttons. Now what?
Posted by: Janet | December 05, 2007 at 06:12 PM
The workarounds listed for a locked up 305 have not solved my problem. Is there anything else that I can try?
Posted by: Josh | December 08, 2007 at 01:15 PM
My Garmin Forerunner 205 will not start. When I press the power button, the splash screen appears for a couple seconds, and then the unit shuts down. I tried the Mode/Reset-Power button sequence, but it didn't work. I also used Mode/Power to get the prompt "Do you really want to erase all data?" However, at that point the arrow keys didn't work, so I could not choose Yes. When I "charge the unit" the screen doesn't show anything, so I'm not sure a charge is being applied. Ideas?
Posted by: schrader | December 15, 2007 at 02:53 PM
The mode button on my new Forerunner 305 does not work - this does not allow me to reset as suggested on previous posts - any ideas ?
Posted by: Pips | January 19, 2008 at 01:08 PM
After using Edge 305 on the trainer all winter, I finally went for an outdoor ride. I came back to my PC excited to see if indoor training has helped me. MY PROBLEM: Edge 305 did not record my ride! It went back to my old ride that I previously had in 2007, what the *&^? Do I need to delete my history everytime I spend a day on the trainer?
Posted by: Edward | March 26, 2008 at 04:07 PM
Hi Edward,
Yes, any indoor/non-GPS activities will interfere with uploads at this time. You will need to delete these activities in order to upload your GPS-enabled activities.
kk
Posted by: Kathryn Krieger | March 26, 2008 at 04:18 PM
My Edge 305 is about a year old. Not a mis-step nor complaint - till recently. During a long road ride w/HR and Cadence the unit
decided to just shut itself off. Dead battery? I came across a few entries about weakend battery springs - battery loses contact - unit shuts down. This was on my road bike. Never had a problem on my MTB. The shut-down resulted in no data for the
road ride that I was about a mile from finishing. To overcome the weak battery spring issue, I bought a Kensington Portable Power Pack - Item number 38021. It's slightly bigger than the 305 itself. I have a pouch on my handlebars - it rides along nicely in there. I shortned up the power cable too - works great. I figure if the battery isolates itself from powering the unit, the external power pack seamlessly takes over. Since I've started using the power pack - no more problems.
Till today.
Today's issue? After a successful recording of my road ride, manual power down, and power pack disconnect after getting the "Charge Complete" message - the unit refused to turn back on or accept external power.
Drawing upon all my years of electronics education and pratical application - I resorted to the only thing I could think of. (This was after trying the Mode-Reset Power up solution which did not work.)
I turned the unit on its face and gently slammed in on my mouse pad. BINGO - the old-school solution of handling an uncooperative unit - physical abuse (field alignment) worked like a charm. The data from my bike ride was still intact and transfered perfectly.
Posted by: Joe Genovese | June 27, 2008 at 08:47 PM
My Edge 305 powers up fine but a few miles into a ride it shuts down. Could the batery in the wheel unit be dead after only 4 months?
Posted by: Lee | July 11, 2008 at 08:39 AM
hi all
i am having a little problem with my 1.5year old forerunner305.
until now everything great but now the audible alert has stopped working (in settings tones is set for key and message),anyone else had this prob or any solutions, thank you
Posted by: brian | August 05, 2008 at 04:35 AM
My Forerunner 305 first started to flicker during a workout, displaying all possible settings for fractions of a section. I then updated the software (from 2.40 to 2.80) but it locked up. Tried all the usual unlocking tricks, won't work. I then tried another update, then another, then another ... It doesn't seem to update properly because each time it says that it still has the 2.40 software on it. Although at the end of each update process it does say that it's been updated to version 2.80, that does not seem to be the case. Any suggestions? And yes, I am using the latest updater.
Posted by: Rupert | October 08, 2008 at 04:54 AM
I have a 305 that I bought when my 205 start/stop button was sticking. Both of them are giving me this same problem.
When I "Reset" the device using the steps above, and then power it up, the device turns off immediately when I press the mode button.
I haven't given it a chance to show me the battery bar... perhaps the battery is 'drained' as commented above.
I'll check that theory but welcome any other thoughts / suggestions. Thank you!
Posted by: Nick | February 01, 2009 at 04:38 AM
The Garmin 305 is a piece of shit. It will inevitably fail after a year or so of use. My first one, warrantied for a year, failed exactly 13 months after purchase - the on/off switch quit working! I called Garmin, complained (in a very respectful manner) and they sent me a replacement - kudos to Garmin Customer Service. However the one they sent me failed again - after a year and a half - this time the failure mode was that it started to take an anomalously long time to turn on after the on/off button was pressed. Then, it would no longer upload data to my computer. I would get a message like "Your data was successfully transferred from your device. There was a problem with the transfer". WTF??? Come on Garmin, how hard can it be? For a company that was able to waltz in to the extremely conservative, competitive General Aviation avionics market and achieve total dominance, the 305 is a pathetic product.
Posted by: pissed_off_305_sucker | October 16, 2009 at 04:33 PM