Modern Garmin (GPSMAP 526s) with Date problem

[SoggyPaws]

Hi all,

I bought my GPSMAP 526s about 2 years ago, new. It is a small Garmin chartplotter capable of using the G2 Vision charts, and comes with a fishfinder. It has been perfect for our uses, and the G2 Vision charts for Philippines and Eastern Indonesia are so much more accurate than Navionics.

We are currently actively cruising, using our Garmin every day. About 2-3 days ago, all of a sudden, I noticed that the tide chart display was showing a date of 1-Mar-2038. I thought maybe I had done something, so did the usual recovery things... restarted the device, set to "factory default" settings, turned off, disconnected power and let it sit. All to no avail.

The device is not connected to a network and has an inbuilt GPS. The GPS signal display shows great satellite connectivity with 8 ft location accuracy. The location information is solid (ie no intermittant GPS issues).

I have emailed Garmin and gotten an acknowledgement email, but no answer (3 days now).

I am using firmware 4.40, which the unit came with--no need to upgrade unless something isn't working. I have not yet tried upgrading to the latest firmware (4.60, last updated for my unit sometime in 2015). Hoping to get confirmation from someone else with the same problem, that the firmware "upgrade" actually fixed this problem.

Anyone else have this problem--just in the last few days? (Check your tide, and/or the date/time stamp on a waypoint or trackpoint). Just looking for a support group...

[Kelkara]

There's probably a small internal battery that keeps the clock ticking when the unit is unplugged, which could have failed. If so it's probably not easily user serviceable, and may have to go back to Garmin for repair ... I'd wait and see what Garmin has to say.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by SoggyPaws

Hi all,

I bought my GPSMAP 526s about 2 years ago, new. It is a small Garmin chartplotter capable of using the G2 Vision charts, and comes with a fishfinder. It has been perfect for our uses, and the G2 Vision charts for Philippines and Eastern Indonesia are so much more accurate than Navionics.

We are currently actively cruising, using our Garmin every day. About 2-3 days ago, all of a sudden, I noticed that the tide chart display was showing a date of 1-Mar-2038. I thought maybe I had done something, so did the usual recovery things... restarted the device, set to "factory default" settings, turned off, disconnected power and let it sit. All to no avail.

The device is not connected to a network and has an inbuilt GPS. The GPS signal display shows great satellite connectivity with 8 ft location accuracy. The location information is solid (ie no intermittant GPS issues).

I have emailed Garmin and gotten an acknowledgement email, but no answer (3 days now).

I am using firmware 4.40, which the unit came with--no need to upgrade unless something isn't working. I have not yet tried upgrading to the latest firmware (4.60, last updated for my unit sometime in 2015). Hoping to get confirmation from someone else with the same problem, that the firmware "upgrade" actually fixed this problem.

Anyone else have this problem--just in the last few days? (Check your tide, and/or the date/time stamp on a waypoint or trackpoint). Just looking for a support group...

I just went through the same baloney with another Garmin Plotter that became convinced it was November 24, 1998. In fact, whenever you start the device it should collect an updated almanac (with date info) while it is logging the satellites which is why there is sometimes a delay in the unit determining its/your position. In our case, the date fix was to update the system software which, for your device, can be downloaded from Garmin at (click on) 526s Updates. Scroll down that page and you will see numerous changes/bug fixes to to the software. There are instructions for loading the up-date to your device on the page.

FWIW...

[SoggyPaws]

Yesterday, I updated my Garmin to 4.60 (the last update applicable to my unit). No change. The year continues to show 2038, with the date initially 1 Mar, now 05-Mar. The TIME is correct and continues to be correct.

Here are all the other things I have tried.

1. Power down, power up
2. Power down, turn off supply power, wait half hour, supply power back on, power up
3. “Return to Factory Defaults” from the settings menu (twice now)
4. Manually change date in the tide display page, change back to “current date” (result is 2038 date)
5. Manually change date in the celestial page (same result)
6. Change time zone from Auto to +8 (correct time zone)
7. Change time zone back to Auto
8. Change time zone to -7
9. Change time zone back to Auto
10. Remove garmin.xml and UserData from the map card and restart
11. Changed Serial Port 1 settings from Garmin to NMEA to Garmin HS, etc
12. Go into Simulator mode and fiddle with all date settings I can find, and then turn off simulator.
13. I did a “clear all user data” with “all” as the parameter.
14. I did a sudden power down (ie turned off the circuit breaker while the unit was on
15. I checked the Event Log and there are no events related to this issue (one “power down” over a month ago, and several shallow water alarms)
16. Finally, after all of the above, I did another “Factory Settings” reset.

QUITE FRANKLY, I AM OUT OF IDEAS!!!

Summary of Background Info:

1. I have been using Garmin devices on my boats since around 1993, starting with a Garmin 50 and currently own 4 Garmin handhelds, plus this 526s. I navigated through the Caribbean, across the Pacific ocean and into SE Asia with only a Garmin device as my GPS. I am the “geek” that all my friends call when they have GPS or Computer issues.
2. This Garmin was purchased new in the USA in December 2015 from a US seller, and has worked flawlessly over the last 2 ½ years, through 2 cruises through Indonesia and now the cruise through Philippines.
3. I am CURRENTLY cruising, using the device every day. It is working FINE. The GPS is working fine—there are no abnormalities in the GPS operation. Everything else is working fine. The GPS signal display shows all satellites in the green with a 9-10 ft error. Except the darned thing thinks the current date is in March 2038.
4. There are no errors in the error log except a very old (June) “Abnormal power down” and several shallow water alarms.
5. I first noticed this problem when I checked the tide a couple of days ago and noticed to my alarm that the date was showing 1 Mar 2038.
6. The date continues to increment on a daily basis. The TIME is correct. (This is not a battery issue)
7. There are no “enter date” fields on my unit (That I could find), EXCEPT on the Celestial Page and the Tide Page. The only user setting for date is the time zone, which has been set to Auto.
8. This GPSMAP 526s is working stand-alone. No network connections and no outputs. The only connection is the sounder unit which comes with it.
9. We have had a few “low battery” incidents in the last week (house batteries at 12.5 v and then running the big windlass, which draws the battery bank down to 11.5 momentarily). This is not an unusual situation (ie happens occasionally on our boat).
10. Since I don’t have any NMEA connections set up on this unit, it is difficult to see/record what the NMEA sentences are putting out (which might indicate something). I probably have the hardware aboard to set up a NMEA 183 connection, if that would be helpful (definitely no NMEA 2000 equipment aboard)

Here is a link that might shed some light on the problem. However, I would expect a widespread outcry if all Garmin units had this problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

Is there any set of power-up keystrokes on a 4xx/5xx Garmin that would clear all non-volatile memory? Any other thoughts or ideas?

After 4 days, I finally heard back from some Garmin support weenie with a form letter with instructions on how to update the unit. I've just sent all this info back to him. Will report back if I get anything useful from any source.

Meanwhile, thanks for your ideas.

[SoggyPaws]

Two more things tried with no success...

1. Turn on and off the Glossnas satellites (no change either way)
2. Start up the unit without any map card in it (to eliminate some setting on the card causing an issue).
3. Start the unit without map card, reset to factory settings, restart.

Still showing 05-Mar-2038, with correct local time.

[svHyLyte]

Jeeze SoggyPaws--

Very sorry to learn of your continuing difficulties. In our case the software up-date resolved the matter so I had hoped it would work for you. Unfortunately, I did not get any response from Garmin's "technical assistance" save a form note that my inquiry had been received (and nothing since) so I tried the up-date as an "I wonder if..." approach. Perhaps, the 526 being a somewhat newer unit, you'll get more help than we did. Let's hope, eh? If not, think B&G!

[Pete7]

SP, we have the older 555s version, but very similar. When we applied the 2105 update it seemed to work fine. Then first time out it showed the correct position but all speeds were doubled, never been so fast even against the tide.

Needed a factory reset which resolved the problem, but I see you have done that twice so not sure what to suggest.

Keep us informed because there may be other members with the same problem.

Pete

[Qayaq]

I think you may be living in an alternative reality time zone and that the date on your Garmin is correct. Just check outside your cockpit and see if people are using hoverboards instead of dinghies to get to and from their boats.
If they are please could you report back to us with the type of batteries they are using as I'm about to upgrade to lithium but don't want to spend all that money if something new is about to come on the market..

[SoggyPaws]

Searching for something else and came across this old post. This has been resolved. Another Garmin firmware update which included our 526s (in about 2019) resolved this issue. Still using our Garmin 526s in 2024 and dates/times are correct, but starting to have trouble finding charts that will work, because V3 Vision charts apparently do not work on older Garmins. No one is selling the V2 Charts anymore (not even the hackers on eBay).