I've had a Montana 600 for about 18 months now - primarily mounted on my bike. I had a Garmin brand Lithium-ion battery. It worked exactly as advertised. When I plugged it into either a usb cable or mounted into the rugged mount, it would boot (if off), put the backlight on full and begin charging. This has been routine. About 2 weeks ago, I noticed the backlight was off while the unit while in the rugged mount. I first thought it was a fuse - which it wasn't. Then I thought maybe the mount connections. However, when I plugged a usb cable into the unit, it still would not charge. The unit also no longer turns on when plugged into either a usb or powered mount. Other than not charging, the unit worked fine - that is until the battery ran out. Then I tried charging the battery in an external charger for Li-ion batteries. It wouldn't take a charge so I figured it was the battery that was the culprit. I bought a replacement non-Garmin battery (X-Longer #CS-GRM600XL) and charged it in the external battery charger and put it in the unit. Again, the unit works fine, but does not charge nor boot when plugged into a power source. I have the latest software loaded (v 6.5). At this point I believe it could be one of two things. 1) Garmin hardware doesn't recognize 3rd party batteries enough to charge them (and something very funky happened to the original Garmin battery rendering it useless). 2) There is something wrong with the hardware that handles external power in some way. I really want to avoid the wonking service charge if at all possible. I've already been there with a cracked screen. Any similar experience or suggestions?
You did not say if it will not work on both mount and USB with new battery? Voltmeter is your friend, check voltage at contacts at GPS on mount.
I do love my voltmeter but I didn't check the voltage directly as I've tried both the Auto mount, the Amps Rugged mount and a USB cable - all of which worked previously but don't now - even with the new battery. Hard to believe all three have gone down at the same time. Much more likely (I say about 99.999%) that the issue is with the unit somehow. Odd thing is it recognizes it's in the auto mount (volume slide bar appears when inserted) even though it won't recognize the power. I think it's either a software glitch or a hardware issue inside the unit where the power from the USB and the mount contact points come together before they hit the charging circuitry. I can't do anything about the hardware other than to send it in for a Garmin repair/replace. Does anyone know how to wipe the unit clean and reinstall from the ground up? I've already tried hard resets and software updates to no avail.
Try cleaning the surface contacts on the Montana. Mine stopped charging a few weeks ago and I wiped them, and it's been fine since. There could be oils impeding the connection. Might even try using an eraser on the contacts. IE, a very light abrasive.
I've cleaned the external contacts and the battery contacts with fingernail, eraser and acetone. No luck. Thanks for the suggestion. Has anyone replaced the Garmin Li-ion battery with a third market battery and have success at charging? I know some laptops will not charge anything other than OEM batteries - that's not a physical limitation but one imposed by the BIOS software. Perhaps Garmin has setup a similar situation.
I just had same problem. Fixed it realigning the battery contacts in the unit. Apparently they were pushed down and were not making contact with the battery. Pulled them up a bit and now is working. Almost ordered a new battery. Good thing I did that.
I agree the internals are fried. It's not the AMPS pins, not the contacts, not the USB socket. Not sure why you'd want to wipe the hard drive and do a re-install. This sure seems to be a hardware problem. If you have a Mac, you could connect the 600 via USB to your Mac then run the DiskUtility app which can fix any disk errors it finds. I'd assume a Windows computer has a similar app onboard. You could also try the JaVaWa Device Manager to see if it sees anything wrong with the software. If you are not currently using JaVaWa Device Mgr and JaVaWa GMTK, you should -- unless you want the Montana to drive you crazy. If you remembered to save a clone of your Montana hard drive back when it was running OK, you can use JaVaWa to restore the software to the way it used to be.
On my Montana, I've always used the OEM battery so I can't comment. But since the unit won't power on even when you connect it to a power source via USB, that says it's internal, not the battery. But it's kinda weird that the unit won't turn on AND the old OEM battery won't take a charge in an external charger. Weird for both things to happen at the same time. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if Garmin Cust Service replaces the unit. Sometimes that's what they do just for the PR.
I have the same problem on mine, and it looks like the problem is the ground pin. It is slightly damaged, like pushed in... And I can head a little noise inside my Montana when I shuttle it... Don't know if it's repairable and if garmin will agree to do anything, the problem is that I have not much time before my next trip... I used only the normal Garmin mount
I own a Montana 600 since 2012, and bring it with me in all kind of adventure (salt water, sand, dust, bump, desert heat, winter cold, etc.). It stopped charging in the RAM rugged mount cradle few months ago, but the mini-usb port was still ok for charging. I clean the pins without success. I had to open it, unscrewing the 8 torx T6 screws. The rubber seal was fine, no corrosion detected inside. The very little connector with 4 wires (white, blue, black & red) was simply not clipped correctly. It worked just fine since then. Saved a lot of $$ and time. It takes 20 minutes to check and fix.
Most often, a charging failure is the rugged mount itself at fault. I've had 5 mounts and 2 eventually stopped charging.
Do you know what happens? Do the pins just get worn down? Or do you lose connectivity between the pin and the end of the wire?
Do you know if the one next to it is for the USB charging? About 2 years ago mine stopped charging on the USB. Every other USB function still works and it charges fine on the rugged mount. I have just lived with it, but if its simple I wonder if I should open mine up?
