7212 Plotter

[rheimb1]

I just put my boat in the water after having some annual work done on it and upon starting up and turning on all electrical switches. I then turned the on the plotter which came up normal for a split second and then failed to continue to load the Lake Vu map. I tried a shut down, pulled the card cleaned the contacts and turned it on again. Same thing. After the plotter fires up and begins to load the map, I see the blue water of the lake for a split second then goes yellow just like the preloaded map shows, which is basically nothing inland! It worked fine last fall. All batteries were pulled last fall as usual and maintained. Any thoughts?

 

[SJI Sailor]

I would call Garmin. Recently had a very similar issue with contours, etc, not displaying. Called them and they said to use Garmin Express to re-download the charts onto a new and higher-speed SD card. That seems to have solved it for us (in fact, I'll post more about that sometime soon if it stays stable).

So one guess is that it may be the card. They could advise about that, and if so, how to replace and/or update. Note that it was over an hour wait for them but they had a "leave your number" option that worked perfectly and estimated the call back wait time very precisely.

 

[knotflying]

If it is the card. pull it out and see if it boots up. That will confirm that it is a card issue.

 

[YukonRon]

Those SD cards can get corrupted, just like the USB sticks, floppy disks, etc. can. Especially if you're using the cheapo no-name brands. When you do get things working again, it's a good idea to make backup copies. I keep spare backup copies on SD cards on the boat for a quick swap if they ever do go bad. Luckily, I've never needed them under way. The highest chance of corrupting one is while updating, rewriting, or popping them in and out.

 

[rheimb1]

I would call Garmin. Recently had a very similar issue with contours, etc, not displaying. Called them and they said to use Garmin Express to re-download the charts onto a new and higher-speed SD card. That seems to have solved it for us (in fact, I'll post more about that sometime soon if it stays stable).

So one guess is that it may be the card. They could advise about that, and if so, how to replace and/or update. Note that it was over an hour wait for them but they had a "leave your number" option that worked perfectly and estimated the call back wait time very precisely.

All good info in fact I was already in the process of reloading the data on the same card, but I think using a new card is a better idea. My boat is 85 miles away so it's a two trip process. I wish Garmin would come up with a way to format the card without putting it into the Plotter first. Or Garmin Express has changed that for us.