DeLorme PN-40 question

[Uncle Wayne]

I'm having a weird thing happen with my PN-40 and wondered if any of you have had this problem.  For no reason at all it will just shutdown, turn itself off.  I've had this happen with fresh batteries as well as almost discharged batteries.  After about a 2 or 3 hour hike Saturday, with the unit inside my shirt pocket while hiking, I checked the unit to see if I was on the right track to my destination I had logged in earlier.   The unit still had a 3-D fix and the route we had hiked was fully displayed. 

However when I started to pan the screen to see more of our route, it died.  I thought after the 3 hours maybe my batteries had discharged so I put in a fresh set.  Everything booted back up, acquired a 3_D fix and in less than two minutes shut down again.  Turned it back on immediately and it never did it again all the rest of the day, some 4 or more hours of hiking.  I have the latest firmware, 2.6 I believe, installed and was not using the color maps at all.  Any ideas before I called Tech Support?

[Jackalope]

I have a PN-30 and have had a similar problem with it.

Every time I would zoom to a certain level it would shut down. It would restart just fine and record my tracks but it just would not zoom in to a level that was helpful at all without crashing. It took me three calls to Tech Support to get the bottom of it but they finally got the problem fixed.

Turns out it was a corrupt map file. Since I had no way of telling which file was corrupt, they had me restore my GPS back to factory new and delete all the map files on my computer. Then I had to re-download all the map files I had downloaded from them before and transfer them along with all my other "draw" files back to the GPS. It was a pain but I haven't had a problem with it since.

I recommend you call Tech Support. They were very friendly and seemed to really want to solve my problem. Do make sure they listen to your problem clearly so they don't go down the wrong path to start with. The fact that it crashes when you pan is the key here. Does it crash when you zoom too?

[Uncle Wayne]

The fact that it crashes when you pan is the key here. Does it crash when you zoom too?

Yes it does.  I believe you've help me find the solution. Thanks and yeah, I dread downloading all those files again! 

[Joshua Szulecki]

What type of map is this occurring on? Is it the vector topo map from the CD?

If it wasn't the maps from the CD... You may not have to download all the maps again like Jackalope did, but you may have to re-cut them in TOPO USA. If that still fails THEN you would have to re-install them.

But... I'd probably just call tech support if you can. I generally cannot, since they shut down at 4PM central.

[Uncle Wayne]

Update: I deleted all my map files and started over, just in case.  The DeLorme tech walked me through several tweaks to the unit but nothing worked.  Still random power downs between varying lengths of "on" time.  He advised me to turn the power on and just lay the unit down energized until the battery completely drained.  That seemed to help.  All seemed well after that for a trip or two and then, without any input or reason, the Pn-40 would just power down.  It would restart and get a fix quickly enough but very randomly, power itself down again.  Sometimes I could get a full 4 or 5 hours and other times only a few minutes.

After fighting this and trying home made remedys based on web site forums, I called tech support again.  This guy suggested something no one else had: Take the batteries out, hold the power button down for 90 seconds, reinstall the batteries and power up again but this time hold the power button, page and menu buttons all at the same time.  This brings up a warning screen advising you to not go any further unless your talking with tech support.

This allows you to perform several test on the unit to isolate / repair the problem.  Nothing worked with my unit so i was given a RMA # and have shipped the unit back for them to check out.

The lady working for Uncle Sam told me it would be there Monday and the tech guy said they usually had a 3 or 4 day turn around after receiving the unit.  I'll let you know what I find out.

[Joshua Szulecki]

Must've gotten a bum unit or had a really weird software issue. DeLorme has had some issues with the PN-series and random shutdowns, but it seems to be isolated to a few really unlucky folks.

I spent most of Sunday trying to sort out a software issue with my TomTom auto gps. Drove me nuts. Eventually solved it when tech support sent me the files that got corrupted. At least DeLorme doesn't put the SYSTEM files in a place Windows can get at... Windows 7 "fixed" my TomTom's internal storage.

[ednotmilkman]

I had problems like that when I first got my pn-40 and sent it back. That was almost a year ago. No problem at all since they sent it back to me. Except that my lanyard broke while I was trying to pull it out of my lap pocket while seated.  I'm assuming they will send me another, just have not asked them yet. It may have originally been the lanyard on my older pn-20 anyway. I still have not tried to sell it.

[Uncle Wayne]

Received my PN-40 back late last Friday and while I haven't been to the forest yet, around the house it did not randomly shut off as previous.  Don't know what they done, all the info they sent back said was" replaced back plastic" whatever that means.

I plan on calling Tech Support today and ask a few questions.  But so far, so much better than before.

[Joshua Szulecki]

My bet is the issue was with the battery contacts then. They are attached to the "back plastic" in a way.

[Uncle Wayne]

Received my PN-40 back late last Friday and while I haven't been to the forest yet, around the house it did not randomly shut off as previous.  Don't know what they done, all the info they sent back said was" replaced back plastic" whatever that means.

I plan on calling Tech Support today and ask a few questions.  But so far, so much better than before.

Not much help from Tech support today.  The guy who did the repair was off today.  All he included in their notes was what he included in the return," replaced back plastic" and no one I talked with knew what he meant.  But it's still working and hasn't randomly shut off so I guess I should be thankful for that (and I am) but I would like to know what "replace back plastic" exactly means.  You may be right Joshua.  I'll call back again tomorrow.