Best Buy has a few left for $55. I noticed that when I took my second one back. I was getting so frustrated with it, I said to myself it's not worth it.
Every time I tried to upload my rides I had to go through unplugging it 3 or 4 times. Soft reset, hard reset, reinstalling it on my computer and having it work for, maybe a week. Yes I took all the updates and it didn't change anything. I charged the battery after every ride, if it's 1 hour or 4. Today I jumped on my bike and I got a reading, that my battery was just about dead. I charged it the night before. I wouldn't own another one if I got it for nothing.

Anyhow, I'm going back to using my heart rate monitor and Cat eye computer. I know some of you really like them and swear by them, but I got tired swearing at mine. Good luck with yours.

rechargable batteries have a finite life,they lose capacity after a while,,, might check em.
Bud..

I've got about 8000 miles on mine. A few occasional glitches, but no real problems.

Hi,

I guess this is one of those YMMV stories. I used mine for about 2-1/2 years (Feb 2006 to Oct 2008) with very few problems. It did fall victim to the circuit board contact issue but I got a tremendous amount of use out of it and it was a very valuable training tool.

I now own an Edge 705 and an Edge 500 and both work very well. Most of the few problems that I've had were operator induced.

The 305 has some design trouble, especially the turning-off-when-going-over-bumps problem that Cleave addresses. The 500 is far better made.

I guess you are talking about the Edge 305. My Forerunner 305 has been pretty reliable other than the altimeter being completely useless. The correction on the Garmin Connect site seems to be pretty good, though. I have had a couple of rides where the tracking mysteriously stopped during the ride, but I'm not sure it wasn't operator error.

My 705 works great and fell off my track bike at 25 mph and hit the cement (my fault). It survived and works great. YMMV.

As I recall, some of the very early Garmin had problems. Maybe that is why they are $55.

There is a fella in Ca that for a pretty small fee will fix the contact issue on the Garmin 305 and will also install a battery with a much longer life for another small fee. It sounds like the OP's might be a different issue but for anyone else I can probably get his contact information if it's needed. He fixed a friend of mine's 305.

I have both the 305 and 705 and very happy with both-although I stopped uploading rides a couple years ago!

I've been using an Edge 500 for a few months and am very happy with it. My only beef is that it can only be moved between three bikes.

They sold for about $350 when they first came out. That $55 unit was probably manufactured 4 years ago. The battery is gone. You'll have to send it to Garmine and get a new battery put in. Sometimes even a $300 discount is not a good deal. On the other hand if it's "new", that is you've purchased it recently, they might give you a good price for the battery job. Even if they don't, it will still be a good buy compared to having bought it at my price which was around $250 I think for the wrist version.

I've heard that they charge under a $100 fr a battery/refurb. You likely don't need a refurb.

It's a great unit. Never fails, good manual and the automatic data dump of charts and graphics to the PC is first class.

I have had great luck for a number of years. It's a good idea to do a little research with Google before buying stuff.

Al

I agree that's it's a nice gadget, when it works. When I try to upload my ride, it freezes at different points in the upload. I don't know how I could fix this, other than unplugging the unit. If anybody can tell me, please tell me and I'll go back to the store and get. It's the Garmin 305 forerunner. The first one I had was freezing up all the time. I called Garmin and they said they had a bad batch that came out in August. That's when I took it back and got a newer model. It worked great for about 2 weeks and the freezing up started again.When I tried using it yesterday it indicated that the battery needed charging. I just charged it the night before. The screen said it was completely charged. The unit with the battery issue is a month old. I was over on the Garmin forum and it seems like a lot of people are having the same problems. If anybody can give me some hints on how to rectify these issues, I'm all ears. Thanks.

Hi jppe, do you use your Garmins just to see what you've done on your daily ride. Maybe like you would use a regular computer like a Cat eye for. I just thought maybe, you use it for the elevation as well, with all the climbing you do. I guess you don't keep track of all your rides. I have been, but I'm thinking about dumping that as well.

I can't believe they are still making new ones nor that new ones would sell for $55.00. They would be deliberately undercutting sales of their newer replacement units like the 405. I've indicated on this site before that I distrust Garmin and found their tech support folks ignorant and misleading if not out right dishonest.

The warrenty is like for a year or two. Send it back ad get Garmin to fix it free.

Al

When I spoke to a Garmin rep, they said they would send me a refurbished one. I told him that the unit is only a month old and I wanted a new one. He said they couldn't do that. I really think I'm going to go with the regular Polar, or Timex HRM and my Cat eye.

Do it yourself!-- https://www.jimcarson.com/2009/replac...rmin-edge-305/

I have replaced my battery and used the advise here about the contacts issue and everything works great.

Two words: smart phone

I wouldn't have a problem with a refurbished especially if I had paid $55 originally. It's a bargain compared to what I paid years ago. It's a great way to get a great unit cheap with some bother of course. I would think any refurbishment they might do would not degrade the reliability significantly from new. After all, the processing is done in a chip which is not repairable. They would have to do some soldering and possibly replace button contacts. All easy to do reliably with the right equipment.

I had a hard drive fail on one of my early Dells. They sent me a refurb. I didn't like that, but it ran for many years until I junked the computer. Many warranties these days only provide for refurbed parts.

Al

https://forums.garmin.com/

iPhone mounts on your bike & works great. Although I use my cat eye most of the time.

George,

I have an old forerunner unit, no HRM but gives me stats on the ride. Since it tracks the course I can load the data into my computer and get the elevations and speeds over the course that way. However like jppe I have not uploaded since Last Sept. I pretty much know how I am doing since I have ridden these same routes year after year. Since I don't have any other instruments on my Tarmac I still use it all the time.

Hope that at least helps in some of your usage questions.

I just got back from Best Buy and they are out of the 305s now. They have one in another store for $75 so I ordered it. I wont see it for 2 weeks they said. Good service huh. Anyhow maybe I'll get Lucky with this one that's coming. If not, maybe I'll do as Al said and just send it to Garmin and have them change out the chip. I was told that Best Buy doe's not sell refurbished anything.

George, I had the exact same issues! When you get it completely resolved, please post the resolution. Mine is collecting dust right now.

Oops, maybe I shouldn't have ordered another one. We'll see. I'll probably take the extended warranty again, so I have an out.


How's the eye doing? Fine I hope.

Vision is returning. I'll know more after the check-up this coming Wednesday. Thanks for asking.

George has a Forerunner 305. I feel badly because he bought it after he saw mine. I really liked mine. I upgraded to an Edge 800 because I wanted a touch screen and maps. I wasn't having problems with mine. I had no issues with battery life. I just needed to make sure I change the data logging for longer durations when I rode longer distances.

My wife still uses hers mostly for walking and on the stationary bike.