Etrex Legend WAAS incompatible

Vercingetorix · 03-11-2008, 8:15 AM

I'm a newbie here so pardon me if I unknowingly violate any local customs. I did a search on this topic and found nothing, thus my post.

I purchased an etrex Legend a few months ago. After using it a few times, I noticed that it would lock up after 15-30 minutes' usage and proffer nothing but a blank screen with a line through it.

According to tech support, the problem is a result of a change in the WAAS satellite protocol, which created an incompatibility with the etrex Legend's firmware. I was told to disable WAAS and the problem would go away. In the meantime, I was assured, Garmin was developing an upgrade which would be available "shortly."

As I said, this was a few months ago, and of course, Garmin has issued no such upgrade, and I'm pretty sure the company has no intention to. After all, the Legend is a product that is a little long in the tooth in this field.

Besides being ripping mad at being sold a load of horse manure, I am also wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem, and if there is perhaps a third-party fix? I would like WAAS accuracy if possible.

I can tell you one thing for sure -- I'll never touch another Garmin product again.

Thanks for your help.

Andy · 03-13-2008, 6:45 PM

First I've heard of it. Keep us posted if you find out any updates on this.

robertsmithe · 04-14-2008, 10:26 PM

I found the same problem when I tried waas today. I found your original post on this when I wanted to see if this was a problem related to only my unit.

When I looked at Garmin website under support:

Garmin: eTrex Legend Software Update Collection

It looks like the posted an update as of March 18, 2008 which fixes :

Changes made from version 3.70 to 3.90:

Updated WAAS.
Updated GEOID model.

hgebbia · 05-17-2008, 8:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

I'm a newbie here so pardon me if I unknowingly violate any local customs. I did a search on this topic and found nothing, thus my post.

I purchased an etrex Legend a few months ago. After using it a few times, I noticed that it would lock up after 15-30 minutes' usage and proffer nothing but a blank screen with a line through it.

According to tech support, the problem is a result of a change in the WAAS satellite protocol, which created an incompatibility with the etrex Legend's firmware. I was told to disable WAAS and the problem would go away. In the meantime, I was assured, Garmin was developing an upgrade which would be available "shortly."

As I said, this was a few months ago, and of course, Garmin has issued no such upgrade, and I'm pretty sure the company has no intention to. After all, the Legend is a product that is a little long in the tooth in this field.

Besides being ripping mad at being sold a load of horse manure, I am also wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem, and if there is perhaps a third-party fix? I would like WAAS accuracy if possible.

I can tell you one thing for sure -- I'll never touch another Garmin product again.

Thanks for your help.

I personally own a ETrex Legend and have had no issues with it at all. Garmin is a good company and puts out good products. My only complaint with Garmin is that they are very proprietary with their products and software. And until just of late their updates have been very expensive and did not seem to update that much. I wouldn't / don't bother to update mine more then once every two or three years, but then that's me. There are not many units out there any better, model for model. JMHOOC. ... Hank G.

P.S. Send it back and for a nominal fee, Garmin will make it as new again.