[valkeire]

Thank goodness for internet forums! The week before last I was on my way from Hamburg to Malmo for a Valk rally, when my trusty Zumo 550 started behaving strangely. Freezing display, jittery icon and generally having a mind of its own.

Did all the usual, removed the battery, cleaned the edges of the screen etc. but no avail. It worked occasionally to get me to my new address near Orebro in Sweden.

It looked like an expensive repair and Zumo 550's are still expensive on eBay (even used ones)

Checked on the Zumo forum, and was delighted to see it was a known problem. It turns out the "Digitizer screen" which is in front of the LCD screen fails and give the problems above.

These screen are on sale on eBay for $20, and a new one is winging its way to me.

Fitting instruction are on the Zumo forum, and looks like a simple job.

Replacing this will also give me a new scratch free screen. Also, it turns out a new digitizer and LCD screen is available for small money.

Search for this on eBay; Touch Screen Digitizer GARMIN ZUMO 550

For info in case anyone here comes across the same problem,

Will let ye know how the screen fitting works out when it arrives,

Valkeire

[frodi]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't had this problem, yet!

[eamon]

Mine had a completely different problem. Whenever it rained it would start displaying an "Invalid USB accessory message". It turned out the water was getting into the USB socked on the cradle. I kept it working for about two years by regularly spraying wd40 into the USB socket.

The cradle and power lead had to be replaced last year because of water damage to the power cord where it joined the cradle. Water had got in past the rubber seal where the power cord attached to the cradle and the terminals were badly corroded. I got a replacement power lead and cradle from Garmin and the first thing I did was to remove the rubber seal from over the USB socket and fill the socket with silicone sealant.

The 550 is meant to be resistant to submersion in 1m of water. It's a pity the cradle is not as well sealed.

[jamesobrady]

Ohhh good to know...my one is starting to take 2-3 presses of the screen before it will register sometimes.

[vstrom]

eamon, on 18 June 2011 - 10:07 AM, said:

Mine had a completely different problem. Whenever it rained it would start displaying an "Invalid USB accessory message". It turned out the water was getting into the USB socked on the cradle. I kept it working for about two years by regularly spraying wd40 into the USB socket.

The cradle and power lead had to be replaced last year because of water damage to the power cord where it joined the cradle. Water had got in past the rubber seal where the power cord attached to the cradle and the terminals were badly corroded. I got a replacement power lead and cradle from Garmin and the first thing I did was to remove the rubber seal from over the USB socket and fill the socket with silicone sealant.

The 550 is meant to be resistant to submersion in 1m of water. It's a pity the cradle is not as well sealed.

Eamon I have a Quest on the Strom for the last five years and no problems
Spray some mr sheen on a small paint brush and brush it into the connections works a treat never fails .

[eamon]

vstrom, on 18 June 2011 - 08:26 PM, said:

Eamon I have a Quest on the Strom for the last five years and no problems
Spray some mr sheen on a small paint brush and brush it into the connections works a treat never fails .

I've got the larger connector on my new cradle covered in ACF-50. The ones I'm not using I've already plugged with silicone. I'll keep the Mr Sheen in mind for the next time though. The wax would be a good water barrier. Thanks Christy.

[KildareMan]

My Street Pilot 2720 is still working. Only problem is the maps are getting bigger so now instead of the whole of Europe on it I can only get Ireland & UK on it. As an aside map 2012.10 is now available. Uploaded last week.