Garmin 620 not charging off a wall plug

So this week, my Garmin 620 battery’s life dropped to nearly zero. As every runner does, I attached it to its cradle and plugged in the wall plug. It immediately displays that it was 100%. That’s strange. 10 minutes ago, it displayed a battery life of nearly 0%.

Ok, it’s new. May be that’s the way it works.

Two hours later, I checked it again. It still says 100%. Ok, maybe it charges really quickly? Only recently did I switch to this Garmin, and I didn’t pay much attention when I recharged it the last time.

So I took it off the cradle. Within the 30 seconds, it died. I put it back on the cradle. Yep, it says that it is fully charged.

So what gives?

A few Google searches later; I learned the following.

There is a bug in the firmware of the 620. Sometimes it will display 100% charged when plugged into the wall – even when it doesn’t have a charge. In fact, it will not charge at all from a wall plug. To charge it, I had to attach it to my computer. Then, it showed a 10% charge and started charging.  Two hours later, the display showed 100% charge. (Crossing fingers this is correct).

To correct, this charging issue, Garmin recommends two things: 1) do a hard reset by holding the power by 20 seconds or until it powers off. 2) turn it back on and charge it to 100%. They are also recommended updating the firmware.

To learn about the hard reset, click here.

 This seems to have cleared up my issue.

Oh, and by the way, I also learned that if you leave your Garmin attached to your computer when you turn it off, the power will flow back in to the computer’s battery and drain your Garmin to zero. Whoever thought up this design was an absolute genius. Not!

 

The Cool Down Runner