Getting more and more irritated with Garmin S1

[cliveb]

I've had a Garmin S1 watch for a while. At first it seemed to work just fine, although I was a little disappointed how long it took to lock on to satellites. But it seems to be just taking longer and longer to find satellites (it feels like at least 5 mins). It regularly gives up and I have to tell it to try again. I often end up having to reboot it before it will find satellites. On *very* rare occasions it finds them in a few seconds. Once it has eventually found them, it generally works fine. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the antenna is degrading in some way. Is that feasible? Anyone else have the same problem?

It's getting to the point where I'm wondering whether to try a different make. But then again, maybe all watches might have the same problem - perhaps there just isn't enough room for a decent antenna in a watch?

(PS. This is the second S1 I've had. The first one died and was replaced under warranty, but of course the replacement is now out of warranty).

 

[DaveyG]

Mines an S3 and now you have mentioned it yeah it does seem to take a while to load but it's no real problem... Just search as you are getting out of the car... The battery isn't an issue and would easily last over 6 hours.

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I've had my S1 for probably 19/20 months and its never missed a beat - sometimes can take a minute or so to find a satellite but nothing you describe. Maybe turn it on when you're putting your bag on your trolley rather than waiting until you're standing at the tee..... seems crazy to buy a new watch.

 

[davemc1]

Yeah mine also takes a while to load up, has done from new, but I've never thought that as a problem. my concern is sometimes it skips holes, so giving false readings. I have to be careful at an away course! I used to leave the watch in the bag when finished and it suffered from condensation, I'm thinking this is the cause.

 

[cliveb]

I've had my S1 for probably 19/20 months and its never missed a beat - sometimes can take a minute or so to find a satellite but nothing you describe. Maybe turn it on when you're putting your bag on your trolley rather than waiting until you're standing at the tee..... seems crazy to buy a new watch.

I do set it searching as soon as I've got my shoes on and am out of the locker room. (As you know, it doesn't work indoors). It'll be at least 5 mins before I'm on the tee, and it still won't have found satellites in that time, often after several attempts. I might even have spent a while on the practice putting area while it searches, all to no avail.

I wonder if the fact I wear watches on the inside of my wrist could have any bearing on this. I will try putting it in the conventional position during initial lock-on to see if it makes a difference.

 

[la_lucha]

I do set it searching as soon as I've got my shoes on and am out of the locker room. (As you know, it doesn't work indoors). It'll be at least 5 mins before I'm on the tee, and it still won't have found satellites in that time, often after several attempts. I might even have spent a while on the practice putting area while it searches, all to no avail.

I wonder if the fact I wear watches on the inside of my wrist could have any bearing on this. I will try putting it in the conventional position during initial lock-on to see if it makes a difference.

Surely at your home course you know the distance to the middle of the fairway up the first? If it's locked on by the time you come to play the second surely the jobs a good un?

 

[Rooter]

I blame the russians for sending more and more stuff up to space causing congestion.

 

[woody69]

First things first, do you have the most up to date firmware on the watch. Plug it in to your PC and then go to the Garmin site and check.

Wearing the watch incorrectly will almost definitely affect the satellite location process as will moving, although it should still find it

 

[cliveb]

First things first, do you have the most up to date firmware on the watch. Plug it in to your PC and then go to the Garmin site and check.

If only it were that simple. I tried installing Garmin Express on my XP SP3 machine and it failed. So I installed it on my work-supplied Win7 machine, but that machine is locked down to prevent writing data to external devices via USB.
<sigh>Why is life sometimes so difficult?</sigh>
So it's still on the original firmware.

Wearing the watch incorrectly will almost definitely affect the satellite location process as will moving, although it should still find it

OK, I tried it just now in the back garden, leaving it sitting on a bench rather than on my wrist. It found the satellites in about 90 secs. I will try something similar when I play tomorrow.

 

[woody69]

If only it were that simple. I tried installing Garmin Express on my XP SP3 machine and it failed. So I installed it on my work-supplied Win7 machine, but that machine is locked down to prevent writing data to external devices via USB.
<sigh>Why is life sometimes so difficult?</sigh>
So it's still on the original firmware.


OK, I tried it just now in the back garden, leaving it sitting on a bench rather than on my wrist. It found the satellites in about 90 secs. I will try something similar when I play tomorrow.

It should work on XP. What was the error you got?

 

[cliveb]

It should work on XP. What was the error you got?

Well, first it insisted on installing the .NET runtime, then it decided to update .NET to version 4.02. It was taking an age, so I went away to do something else. When I returned, there was an error saying that it could not start up as a service, and to check that I had the permissions to do so. (I was logged in as Administrator). After this, attempting to re-run the Garmin Express installer just popped up an empty error box, and the only option was to quit. I then looked to see if I could uninstall Garmin Express in order to try again, but Add/Remove Programs didn't list it, nor was there a Garmin folder in Program Files.

So all in all, a thoroughly unsatisfactory software installation experience. But what else woud you expect from a program that uses .NET (runtime system from hell that it is)?

 

[el marko]

Turns out my course has been terribly mapped by Garmin or whoever they buy their data off. The yardage is off by about 7-10 yards more than it should be.

Only found this out a couple of days ago as we had new yardage markers put in showing front middle and back - which all were different to what i was seeing on the watch. I know the yardage markers are correct because ive measured them with the measure shot feature!

 

[DaveyG]

I am glad this thread was started as I have bothered to update mine tonight...

Level par round tomorrow!

 

[SAPCOR1]

No issues with mine, thankfully

 

[Davey247]

I have the S2. its great. normally start tracking the satellites once i get out of the car. by the time my kit is ready, the gps has sorted itself out.

 

[bignev]

Interesting thread. As a new user of the S1 how often should I up date the soft wear as a rule of thumb.
Mine is only a few months old and works great love it.

 

[duncan mackie]

I wonder if the fact I wear watches on the inside of my wrist could have any bearing on this.

it will make a huge difference

effectively you will be reducing the available satellites dramatically which will be further compromised by your surroundings ie worn inside a moving wrist in a completely open area (large links area!) may be fine but add the odd building etc and it's initial location lock will be seriously compromised. once it has this lock it's significantly less sensitive to multiple satellite contacts and will do it's best with some signal from a pair.

I wouldn't be surprised if the instructions highlight wearing on the outside of the wrist ?

 

[cliveb]

Quick follow-up. This morning I took it off before setting it searching for satellites and just held it in my hand. It certainly locked on much quicker than usual - about a minute, I'd guess. Once it was locked on, I put it back on in the usual place (inside of wrist) and it worked fine during the round. So in future I'll operate it this way.

 

[Piece]

Mine takes anywhere between 1-5mins to acquire enough sats. Wearing under your wrist severely limits the ability of the device to lock to some sats, meaning it will take longer or give up.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Funny enough we had two guys in the roll up this morning complaining about losing the signal on the way round and I thought my Sky Caddy SGX took an age to load for the first time ever. Lots of mist and low cloud but surely that wouldn't cause a problem would it