Zumo 550 croaked

Ken Valkyrie

Ken Valkyrie

Joined
Mar 25, 2010
Messages
246
Age
82
Location
MA
Bike
09 ST1300A
My Garmin zumo 550 that I've had for 7 years plus just went dead the other day. My wife & I are in AZ for the month and I always take it with us for the rental car use.
It was plugged into the car cig. lighter hole and had been working fine here in AZ, turning on & off automatically when the car was started or turned off.
Now it won't turn on manually, plugged in or on battery.

Any ideas ???

I'll have to wait til I get home to get on my MyGarmin site, cause I don't have my password with me.
 
did you take the battery out? That sometimes will get you past this type of issue.
 
What Joe said, it always worked for me. Just unscrew the allen screw in the back of the unit and pull the battery away from the contacts and replace it and tighten the allen screw.
 
In the event it wont work, call the Garmin tech support they are no longer supported so they will give you 20% off any one you want.
I bought the zumo 390LM.
 
+1 on removing the battery. If it comes back, make sure you update it with the latest software update online. I found that fixed mine from dying.
 
+1 on the battery... then charge it to ensure it's charged. Try to boot up on battery power, failing that try your M/C cradle (unknown at this point if car cradle is OK).

If it still won't boot up, try a hard reset by pressing the bottom right of the screen, then press/hold the power button. A screen will appear prompting you that you will lose all user data (preferences will be reset to factory defaults). You will not lose anything on the SD card, but remove it prior anyway for faster boot-up. Let us know how it turns out.
 
Last edited:
To get on myGarmin can you not go down the 'forgot password' route so you can reset it while you're away?


Regards

Trevor

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
There's a hard reboot you can try before taking the battery out. It works for me. Only remove the battery if the following doesn't work. +1 on updates solving most of this.

From the Manual
If your Zumo freezes up, press and hold the start button and press and hold the "+" button.

PS -- Calibrating the screen:
Turn the unit off. Press and hold the start button for about 1 minute until calibration screen appears. Follow the on-screen instructions.
 
Thanks guys for all your help. Removing & replacing the battery did not make it go. Then (as i sit in Skyharbor airport) I just tried what Reginald suggested above "pressing start button and press and hold the + button" - so far she's a no-go.
Later gentlemen
 
Ken Valkyrie said:
Thanks guys for all your help. Removing & replacing the battery did not make it go. Then (as i sit in Skyharbor airport) I just tried what Reginald suggested above "pressing start button and press and hold the + button" - so far she's a no-go.
Later gentlemen
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if Garmin is still refurbing the 550 or not, but I believe that will be the next step.
 
Hmmmm, Ken, it is still possible the battery is dead and the car cradle failed to charge it... or, indeed that the GPS is dead. Jes sayin' give it a go on the bike cradle as the last straw, as I've been fooled by a dead battery before.
The Start and + is a soft reboot, but chances are if it didn't work the hard reboot may not.
 
RaYzerman said:
Hmmmm, Ken, it is still possible the battery is dead and the car cradle failed to charge it
Click to expand...

+1 on checking this. I recently had a cradle go bad on my MC. Its possible the cradle went bad and then ran itself dead.
 
Plug in a powered USB cable and if it comes on then your battery is dead and you need a new bike cradle (or the fuze is blown!)
 
Whooopie - it's working again.

1st - Thanks a lot guys for all your help.

Now I'm home again, so this morning I dug out in my garage for the "original 550" battery I had replaced in June 0f 2013.
My 550 was new in June 0f 2008, and it seemed that back in 2013 it would discharge quicker than when it was new when I ran just on battery power, so I replaced the battery (from Garmin).
This morning I put in the old battery and was shocked when it turned on, plus it showed a full charge by the bars. It was on the garage shelf for 2 years. I'm wicked surprised. You can see that at almost 73 (next month) it doesn't take much to excite me. :D

The battery may have died or shorted because I left my Zumo in the car, in the real hot AZ sun.

Take care all - shiny side up :)
 
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