Magellan 3250 NA touchscreen replacement & other repairs

Hello, I am posting this because I feel there are others out there with touchscreen problems and are having a very hard time finding someone to repair them.

I want to share my experience with all on the replacement of my Magellan 3250 NA GPS touchscreen.

Our Magellan started having issues about a year ago with low battery life and an occasional shift of the touchscreen's position.

One day the touchscreen shifted 1/2 inch high. We could not get to the calibration screen because the buttons needed were on the bottom and each touch was too high.

Since the battery was getting old, we thought it may be heat (it was summer) or a faulty battery creating heat and resistance. After seeing a video on 3250 battery replacement we replaced the battery feeling afterwards it was fixed. Sure enough it seemed to not give any more troubles.

This shifting of touch placement happened again months later. Totally letting the Magellan go dead and repeated attempts to restart to assure it was dead was done. We then plugged in the Magellan to charge and afterwards it was OK.

Again a few months after that, now about a year after battery replacement, the screen went off 1/2 inch again. This time no trick used would correct it. We then decided to replace the touchscreen.

We found a used Magellan online that looked visually good, and appeared to have little use (no scratches) and bought that for parts. The battery replacement video mentioned before showed how to open the GPS. Remembering that we used small fine "Watch Screwdriver Set", thin plastic pry tool, or fingernail, and gently opened the Magellan. The screen is right there and the ribbon cable is taped to the back plate to prevent it from slipping out.

CAREFULLY peel back the sticky tape away from the back plate and the connector. Once done you see a black connector and white "seat" it appears to be in. Here is the trick. The connector does NOT come out. The two white ends (tabs), or what looks like the "seat" of the plug moves upward and downwards 1/16th an inch. These two white tabs compress the copper ribbon inside the black plastic "plug". By moving the white tabs down it released the compression on the copper ribbon and it comes out. We took the screen from the parts Magellan we purchased and replace the whole screen assembly into the old Magellan we had been using for years, pushed the white tabs back "closed" and pressed the tape against the back plate and reassembled the unit.

It worked! Now our old trusty Magellan 3250 is working again.

I wanted to post this for anyone contemplating repairing a GPS touchscreen, particularly the Magellan 3250.

I hope people find this useful.