Garmin zumo keeps shutting down

John ZRX

Active Member
#1
Anyone else had this issue with Garmin Zumo? I've just been on the Dambusters so a lot of motorway miles. I have a Zumo 396 less than a year old, mounted on Garmin supplied mount with direct wired power ( with the two little pins) held by a Ram ball mount. I don't use sound at present just keep half an eye on the screen. After several hours and having got into Germany the Zumo showed a message " lost power supply will shut down in ....seconds " The first time that's what it did and I had to find somewhere to stop. I took the device out of the mount and put it back and it fired up again. It kept doing this for the rest of the ride probably every couple of hours. Sometimes I managed to touch "Cancel" the shut down in time and it kept it's display, I assume on internal battery. Not a good practice on the move at speed. I'm also pretty sure I missed an important turn when the screen went blank and I ended up on Bochum southern ring road instead of staying on the E40 motorway.
So before I start discussions with Garmin I thought I'd ask if this is a common problem and any fixes out there. Thanks
John
 

Ahamay

The Joker
IBA Member
#2
Are all the contacts between the mount and the sat nav clean?
Does the sat nav latch into the mount with no movement there could be vibration affecting the power supply when on the move.
 

Robert

IBR Finisher
Premier Member
#3
This is typical for bad contact/pin problems. Try to strap the Zumo firmly to the mount with some tape: does the problem still persist?
 

John ZRX

Active Member
#4
Are all the contacts between the mount and the sat nav clean?
Does the sat nav latch into the mount with no movement there could be vibration affecting the power supply when on the move.
Thanks, John and Robert. Yes I think the issue most likely is in that area, but both pins on the mount appear clean and intact and the contact spots on the device are also nice and shiney. I always attach the device as instructions describe and make sure there is a definite click before checking it is fixed firmly (read some reviews where the device fell off on the move) and I can't detect any obvious looseness. There was no rain or mist at the times it lost power and as far as I remember over the weekend of 1500+ miles the fault re-occurred during different road speeds. I only bought it last autumn. I may try a little contact gease. I have fitted a second Garmin brand mount on my other bike so will have to keep experimenting. As with all intermittent electrical faults, diagnosis is frustrating if not impossible but it is bloody annoying when I should be concentrating on riding. I'm doing the South West Peninsular Rally in a couple of weeks so the damn thing may well get launched over a Devon hedge.
 
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saphena

IBAUK Webmaster
Staff member
Premier Member
IBA Member
#5
My Zumo 395 did that to me not long after I bought it, during our Russia trip. I cleaned the contacts and tightened everything up. That held it for a while then it happened again. When I got home I considered whingeing at Garmin but intermittent faults are what they are and I decided to watch it for a while until I could identify hard fault. I've had no trouble with it ever since - two years so far.
 

GSears

Dambuster... Bouncing panniers...
Premier Member
IBA Member
#6
I found a squirt of WD40 and gentle agitation of the pins solved the problems with my 550.

Never go anywhere without a poundstretcher £1 tin of WD40
 

John ZRX

Active Member
#7
I found a squirt of WD40 and gentle agitation of the pins solved the problems with my 550.

Never go anywhere without a poundstretcher £1 tin of WD40
Thanks, will give it a try. Shouldn't add too much weight to all the other junk I carry "just in case". The connection pins are quite exposed when the device is off the bike and although I do use the stupid rubber cap thingy it isn't a very good fit and a bit fiddly
 

John ZRX

Active Member
#10
Get yourself a tube of Dielectric grease does the trick for me already for more than 10 years.It happened to me couple of times long ago ever since I started using this on a sort of regular basis they never failed me....
Obrigado, Michiel, I'm very grateful for your and all other helpful responses. Good to know it seems an easy fix.
Até logo.
John
 
#11
i have a tom tom that does the same definitely losing power from dirty connection or broken supply if cleaning connectors doesn't cure try re fitting new connectors as it could be the wire to bullet that is the problem
 

Peter Perfect

Well-Known Member
#12
I've had a similar problem with using my TomTom on my Moto Guzzi California Special. I've been using the unit without a problem on my BMW K75 RT through the winter, including the Dambusters Ride.

At a rally, a fellow Moto Guzzi owner told me to squirt some WD40 into the mount (as the contacts can get dirty and arc across). I did that yesterday and the TomTom ran faultlessly.
 
#13
good and bad news ... a weekend of unplugging and plugging back in the old tom tom seems to have cured the random shutting down issues so dodgy connection / dirty pins all along as assumed. just to keep me interested the dam thing has developed some interesting new traits. the on off button now has stopped working completely so you have to turn it on and off by connecting and disconnecting power , also it has lost the ability to tell the time no matter how many times you reset the clock it just reads 0:00 but it still tells you you're 16 mins from your destination just seems to have lost the plot when it comes to what the actual time will be.
as i say interesting new issues i'm just getting the feeling it will pack in completely one day soon.
 

cacomly

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#14
Check the pins on the mount. I had a similar issue and the pins were getting stuck so they were not making good contact with the terminals. I used electrical contact cleaner to try to loosen the pins up.
 

Peter Perfect

Well-Known Member
#15
good and bad news ... a weekend of unplugging and plugging back in the old tom tom seems to have cured the random shutting down issues so dodgy connection / dirty pins all along as assumed. just to keep me interested the dam thing has developed some interesting new traits. the on off button now has stopped working completely so you have to turn it on and off by connecting and disconnecting power , also it has lost the ability to tell the time no matter how many times you reset the clock it just reads 0:00 but it still tells you you're 16 mins from your destination just seems to have lost the plot when it comes to what the actual time will be.
as i say interesting new issues i'm just getting the feeling it will pack in completely one day soon.
Have you tried a soft reset? I don't know what model you have but TomTom have a useful page for Faultfinding. I googled my model number and the fault and looked at the TomTom pages that came up in the search.
 

Stephen!

Flivver Flyer
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#16
also it has lost the ability to tell the time no matter how many times you reset the clock it just reads 0:00 but it still tells you you're 16 mins from your destination just seems to have lost the plot when it comes to what the actual time will be.

It probably is suffering from the inability to handle the epoch rollover. You can check to see if it's a known victim here:

https://www.tomtom.com/en_us/updates/