Garmin Drive™ 61 Has Insufficient Charging Capability

[gremlinkurst]

Every now and then I am forced to remove the device from my truck and charge it inside my house; the device consumes more power than the internal charger can replace while being used. It can operate without any Low Battery warning for quite some time, but eventually I begin to get that Low Battery message when I engage the ignition. It works just fine for a good amount of time after that starts happening, but then it gets stuck on the GARMIN logo screen, not having enough power to do more than that. Then it gets uplugged and charged in the house again, to begin the irritating "dance" all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat, ad nauseum.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

If the internal battery is faulty this can happen, the power fed from the truck is used to supply the running unit and charge the internal battery, however if the battery is faulty it can draw too much current leaving insufficient power to supply the satnav, a faulty battery won't run the Drive61 for very long so you can get some idea of it's condition by charging the unit in the house and then timing how long it can run the satnav before it turns off, the unit should run for an hour or so on battery alone, if it only runs a few minutes the internal battery is faulty

NOTE When running on batteries the display will auto time out after a few minutes, so to test battery life you would need to set :- Settings >> Display >> Display Timeout = Never