Garmin Nuvi 350 repair

adrian44uk · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: Garmin Nuvi 350 repair

The power switch on my Nuvi 350 is intermittent; in fact it is a pain in the neck! I was at Garmin HQ in Southampton on Monday and they want £102 to repair it. They would supply me with a factory reconditioned unit with 12 months G/tee for that price, but not with the latest maps, another £60 for that. My best option is to buy an mew unit or can anyone tell me how to open up the 350 so that I can try and fix it myself?

Adrian

SHARCNET · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 05, 2008 Posts: 4

This is a common problem with the Nuvi series. The on/off switch is a surface mount switch that is mounted vertically off of the main PC board.

The problem is, that there is no support behind the switch, so when you press down the button, the solder leads of the switch are stressed and eventually break off the main PC board. This is a design flaw and could have been easily prevented by wedging a small piece of plastic between the rear of the switch and the SD card housing to give the switch support.

Also, the solder pads for the mechanical connections of the switch could have been made bigger, allowing for more surface area and more solder application.

I have repaired many of these before and the repairs I make prevent this from happening again.

If its under warranty, call Garmin and send it back. No need to worry about this if its under warranty.

If not, and you would like for me to reasonably repair your GPS, please email me at KS3R at sharc dot net.

- Jim

MaFt · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:18 pm Post subject:

it's a fair distance to Pittsburgh from plymouth (UK)! or a lot of postage ;)

any chance you could post a simple 'how to' guide so that, even if the OP can't manage themselves, they could take it somewhere for repair?

MaFt

adrian44uk · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:30 am Post subject: Garmin Nuvi 350 repair

Hi Jim,

MaFt's comment and sugestion of a written guide on "How to open the Nuvi etc." would be great. As he says Pittsburgh is a long long way from me in the UK. If you could post a guide that would be great and appreciated.

Cheers
Adrian

SHARCNET · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 05, 2008 Posts: 4

Adrian,

Did you get your Nuvi's power switch fixed? If not, please email me at:

ks3r at sharc dot net

- Jim

SHARCNET · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 05, 2008 Posts: 4

Adrian,

I responded to your mail. Did you receive it?

- Jim

mikealder · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject:

One of the site members (PhilHornby) created a guide to taking the 310 to bits, I guess your device should be very similar, you can have a read of the excellent article Here its the only guide to taking one to bits I have seen to date - Mike

RavingDave · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 14, 2006 Posts: 111

Having had the same conversations with Garmin about having to pay almost as much as the cost of a complete new Satnav to repair the power switch on my Nuvi 310 I thought I had nothing to lose by trying to do a quick repair. Didn't fancy trying to take the entire unit apart, so I started by levering up the plastic power switch to reveal the microswitch below. At this point the plastic switch cover is pretty much going to break off.

Once opened it is clear to see where the metal tags which hold the switch onto the PCB (circled in red) have broken, with the entire microswitch then bending downwards into the unit, stopping the plastic cover from actuating the switch. Now I don't think these tags actually carry the switch current, as it was still possible to activate the microswitch with the broken tags not making contact with the PCB - so perhaps these tags are purely to hold the switch in place, and there are other hidden wires inside which carry the switch current.

Anyway, I then pulled the switch back up to its proper position, and then very inelegantly soldered the tags back onto the board (you can also see the marks on the case where I missed and stuck the soldering iron into the plastic!)

Once soldered I put the plastic power switch cover that I had levered off back in place and covered it with a bit of insulation tape.

Not the tidiest of repairs, but so far it seems to have done the job, and sure beats paying £100 to Garmin. I'm definitely being more gentle now when pressing the button, but will let you know if the repair holds.

The Rudd · Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:30 am Post subject:

Way to go, I am impressed with that as a I wouldn't have had the courage. It seemed a very expensive quote for a repair considering the price of a new nav.

Jerry

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