Well, that's just great. No sooner than I declare the Garmin StreetPilot c550 my current Editor's Choice and the LCD display goes and craps out on me. On exactly day 30 of ownership, I turned on my StreetPilot c550 only to discover there was something wrong with the display. The unit was able to navigate fine, and it gave audio prompts, but the screen was barely visible. I took a photo of it (above), and had to do some Photoshop work to get anything visible at all. Tilting the unit at an angle made things visible enough to tap around and see if it was merely a brightness/contrast setting issue, but alas it was a more serious problem. I tried doing a hard reset and that also had no effect.
Luckily, I had kept the original box and receipt. I looked carefully at the exchange policy on the receipt, only to discover I could only return a defective item within 30 days -- yikes! I headed out to Circuit City right away, and an hour later I had a new StreetPilot c550.
If anyone else is having issues with the Garmin c550 display, I'd like to hear about it and gauge how widespread an issue this is.
I saw one like this at Circuit City last week but it was a Streetpilot C530. Same screen I guess. I thought it was because of the heat of being under some bright lights for so long - the screen was red hot, so I dismissed it as "demo unit trouble".
Interesting...My unit failed during one of the hotter days of the summer. Sounds like we may have a heat-vulnerable LCD on our hands. I'm going to call Garmin today and see if they have any comment. Will keep you all posted.
--Fletch
Just to let you all know, LCD's DO INDEED do this IF it is exposed to high temperatures for a period of time. My cell phone's screen does the same thing if I leave it in the car on hot days, but then typically the screen goes back to normal. Because it is a Liquid Crystal Display, heat causes an LCD to fade out. I would assume though, that because GPS devices aren't designed for super hot temperatures, this kind of problem will occur, worse yet, if the LCD is in direct view of the hot sun, your display will fade out faster and is more likely to cause more damage than just to the LCD. Garmin has indicated that the temperature it can withstand, like most of the units, is between 32 degrees to 140 degress farenhight. LCD's will do this if you are not careful, so it's best to remove the unit from the car when you leave as a car can get hot quickly, and also when driving in the car, make sure air is moving througout the vehicle.
Great.. We all C550 owners hope that this wont happend to us.. When I did buy my unit (Finland) they told that it has two years warranty. Its good thing anyway. Manual also says that you shuldnt left it to hot temperatures like car can be. Thanks for warning.. I wont.. I try not to.. Hmm.. What if you get to beach.. do you want it get cooked up or stolen from your bag.. Good question.. ;)
The thing is, it is a sunlight/heat issue, not a device issue. If you simply leave a device with an LCD in a hot environment for a prolonged period of time, the LCD will "cook" and fade out. It sometimes can take awhile for the display to come back once it is cooled down, and sometimes it wont.
What Fletch is describing in his report really sounds like an external heat issue. He said he reset the device and it still operated, the display was just very faded, but could still be visable. This is a heat issue, not a device issue. That's why you see warnings about not letting the device stay in hot temperature, otherwise it may damage it.
That all makes sense, except that I have had many LCD'based GPS devices over the years and have never had this happen before. Moreover, the car may have been hot on the day the unit failed, but it was in the shade and was not exposed to direct sunlight. I brought the unit inside for several hours and the display did not return to normal. It does feel like an LCD heat issue, I've just never had one fail so quickly and with so little exposure to the sun/heat.
--Fletch
Hey Fletch, I guess some LCD's are more sensative than others. As for not having it in direct sunlight, but in a hot car, the heat can still get to it. Just the heat alone can cause it to fail. Interesting that the LCD would fail so quickly, I mean it did happen on the 30th day according to you, but everything worked fine. When you adjust the brightness, it adjusts the lamp inside the unit, so if you lower the brightness the LCD will be lower lit. So if the screen looked all white, yet the menu and all was hardly visable, faded, then the issue isn't the lamp. The liquid crystal could have very well been affected and therefore made the screen look "generic" when the liquid crystal was washed out of the screen panel. It is a heat issue, kinda of an odd heat issue, but one that I don't think is a major deal. If so, Garmin would announce it as a "big issue".
When car sits all day at sun, inside temperature can be 60c.. Its like sauna. You know when you get inside and burn yourself to leather and metal parts.
The screen on my C550 failed after about 10days. It wasn't a temerature issue happened at night - screen started flashing then recovered then over the next few days flashed then worked OK for a few hours, then eventually died...also had a problem with Bluetooth, incoming callers just heard a "howling" sound
I bought my C550 on ebay for a fair price about a week ago. I have the same issue now, my screen has faded out and it is impossible to see anything, I called garmin and they said if I bought it on a online auction there is no warranty for it, now Iam stuck, any suggestions???
got a new mp3 and 30 days later the screen is slowly fading away. it stilll works and can function it but I can barley see the screen. i cant take it back and there is nothing i can do.
Even worse I have discovered that even short exposure (30 min.) to cold temperatures around 40F will kill the battery. So far Garmin has replaced two units for a dead battery due to exposure to cold.
The screen on my first Garmin StreetPilot c550 suddenly faded after a couple of months, never to return. I 'never' buy store warranties but decided to this time; thus I was able to get a new unit. But the same thing just happened, this time after three months.
It definitely is not heat related since it is winter and I have not parked in direct sunlight long enough for high interior temperatures. Also, I do not mount it on the windshield, and I store the unit in a compartment when not in use, so it has not received direct sunlight.
My wife is convinced that the problem is moisture, but that seems unlikely to me since the unit hasn't been exposed to anything other than usual humidity.
But let's suppose that the culprit is either heat or humidity. Why is this LCD going out with regularity and I've never had a similar problem with any other LCD device I've owned?! Isn't this thing designed to be used in automobiles?! Sounds defective to me.
Well, back to the store again!
I bought Garmin Nuvi 350 from Best Buy on Sunday. The LCD was working fine when I plug the adapter to charge. When I came back to see my GPS, the LCD screen became gray color with white vertical lines (fading). I went back to Best Buy after 3hrs of purchased and exchanged it to the new one. The second unit worked fine for 1 day. The next day I tested from office to my home. When I was 15 minutes driving on the freeway (with the GPS on), the LCD display faded again with lines. I went back to Best Buys the next day & returned the product. Garmin is very popular GPS, but I don't think I will get this brand anymore. I don't have any GPS now.
Is there a way to keep my garmin cool in the car? I am not able to take it with me each time I get out of the car during the day to do the kind of job I do which has me outside for various periods of the day for different lengths of time.
Thanks for your help
I have a two year old Nuvi 350 and its display is starting to fade when in daylight mode. I don't notice it so much at night, but, then I always have the display dimmed quite a bit. I was about to upgrade the maps in my unit but may wait to see if the display dims further....
I have a two year old Nuvi 350 and its display is starting to fade when in daylight mode. I don't notice it so much at night, but, then I always have the display dimmed quite a bit. I was about to upgrade the maps in my unit but may wait to see if the display dims further....