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Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd)
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Anyone else having this problem? My Edge 800 is in its second full season. I've notice more and more lately that when connecting it to the USB the laptop will make the 'badonk' sound several times (you know, the sound windows makes when you connect/disconnect a USB device). Often times the Garmin will just turn on but not show the little image of the desktop on its screen so you know its docked, or will show its charging only but again with no image. I tried blowing air in the USB port on the Garmin, reminded me of the old Atari days, which would help but after this weekend I can't get it to connect at all. The Garmin will turn on/off, beep, reset etc... I tried doing a unit reset, with no luck, tried several different USB cables, with no luck, tried wiggling the cables with no luck, tried connecting the USB to different USB slots on the laptop, again with no luck. I also tried holding down the reset button while connecting it to the laptop to put it in storage mode, but again no luck.

I tried to be very careful to always make sure the rubber cap over the USB port on the unit was sealed good prior to each ride to keep sweat/rain out of it, but looking in with a flashlight I can see signs of corrosion on the contacts. I contacted Garmin support and their response was to send it back for repair at $99 since its beyond its warranty period. Before I try that though I was wondering if anyone else experienced this problem on units and/or if anyone was ever successful in cleaning the contacts (if that is in my case the problem,which I think it is...)


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Last edited by: baxnelly: Aug 2, 12 6:42
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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Definitely not only you, if you check out the Garmin forums, there are a good amount of people who are plagued with issues with Garmin's supposedly weather-proofed USB connection.

Per the manual, you need to ensure that the USB port is completely dry before docking it to avoid corrosion on the USB port. You can try to clean it out with some compressed air, or a toothbrush with some denatured alcohol, although Garmin might not recommend the latter solution.

Since the Edge 800 inexplicably does not support ANTFS (wireless ant+) file transfers, your safer bet is probably to pick up a cheap MicroSD card and change your settings to use the memory card instead of the internal storage. Using a card reader seems to be a far more reliable method of reading your data than depending on the USB connection.

With the temperatures as hot as they are this year, I have a feeling a lot of Garmin users are going to be encountering similar problems with these already finicky ports. Mine literally just died this week, but fortunately it had the good grace to die within its first year (kind of like my first 310xt), so processing the RMA as we speak.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [tgarson] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks, I may switch that. Does that mean though that I can't use my Maps Micro SD card? Not a big deal as I don't use the maps very often.

I'm going to try cleaning it and see what happens. But I am bummed because I have a couple good rides the last two-3 days I want to upload but I'm guessing they are lost if the cleaning does not work.

And yeah, I surfed the Garmin forums, defenitely an issue. I noticed you have to be very careful putting the rubber cap on the USB port. If you don't get it on JUST right it will come loose/open and let moisture in. Other than that issue, I've been pretty happy with my 800 for almost 2 years now.


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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I don’t have the maps card, but yeah, I’m almost positive you’d have to choose between using the SD card slot for maps or for storage. If you put a blank card in there, you’ll need to go the system settings and make sure you change the storage location from internal storage to memory card.

Hopefully cleaning works better for you, I was pretty bummed when mine went that I lost a few rides, including a monster ride that I’m almost positive was an PR for me across a number of fields… but gone now.

As for the little rubber cap, I could have sworn that when I read reviews on the 800 originally that it was basically pitched as “the USB port is completely weather proofed so don’t worry about a thing, but here’s a cap anyway”.

This seems to be in somewhat stark contrast to what seems the more accurate description which is more along the lines of you must carefully ensure that the rubber cap is always securely in place if you want the USB port to survive for any period of time.

I can deal with that, but I definitely think the weather proofing on the USB port was oversold, and I’m going to be a lot more paranoid about keeping it clean and dry in the future.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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I've been having the same problem more often too. I tried cleaning mine last night and tried resotoring factory settings w/ no luck. Still haven't gotten it to connect and it keeps telling me that I have the wrong USB connected.


John F. Ambrozic III
H & A Racing

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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [jfambrozic] [ In reply to ]
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I had lots of problems with the cable just being finicky, but eventually I'd get it to sync again. Once I started getting the "The USB cable is connected to the wrong adapter" message though, it never recovered. Tried compressed air, cleaning the port, letting it dry for a long time, plugging the cable in and out again, boot locks, both types of master resets, etc.


Nothing worked, at that point, at least for me, the USB port was dead and RMA was the only solution.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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Going to try to clean it now, see what happens.
99.99% sure mine is from being corroded/hardware related.

Guess I'm going to have to redo the couple rides I just did, bummer, since I was chasing KOM's on a couple Strava hills and now I will never know how I did...

When you did the RMA, how long was the turnaround?


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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Usually when you do an RMA with Garmin you get 2 options, you can have them put a hold on your credit card for the price of a new unit and they will ship one out right away and then remove the hold when they receive the one you mailed in. Otherwise, you mail it in, and once they receive and process it they will ship your new one, which they say takes 10-15 days.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [tgarson] [ In reply to ]
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Not sure what is up with mine. Now, when I connect the Garmin USB cable to my laptop (either through a USB hub or directly into the laptop) I get the message:

"USB Device not recognized.
One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it."


This is just hooking the cable up to the laptop, without even hooking up the 800 on the other end. I have tried re-installing the drivers and software, no luck. Cleaned the contacts, no luck. Later tonight I'm going to try to connect it to another computer and see if that helps.


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [tgarson] [ In reply to ]
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yeah I just got off phone w/ garmin and prob gonna have to get a new unit too.


John F. Ambrozic III
H & A Racing

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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. [jfambrozic] [ In reply to ]
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jfambrozic wrote:
yeah I just got off phone w/ garmin and prob gonna have to get a new unit too.

That sucks, assume I'm going to have to go through the same thing. Will have to use my Edge 205 for a while I guess....


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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Still no luck connecting to/uploading rides from the Garmin to the computer/laptop. After a couple e-mails back and forth with Garmin it seemed sending it in and waiting several weeks, along with paying $99 was the only option.

But here's what I've been doing the last couple weeks that has been working fine. Simply go into Settings>System>Data Recording and change the option from record to memory to record to storage card.

Then, and I learned this the hard way, make sure you have an SD card in the unit and after your ride hit reset and it will save the ride to the card. It does not save the ride to the card during the ride, and I did a fairly hard ride the first time I tried this and went after a couple of local hills for some Strava bragging rights, but I took the card out and then had hit reset on my unit and it saved the ride to the unit memory and now there is no way (that I know of) to get that ride to the card and it is lost for the ages.

So now I simply do a ride, hit reset, then turn the unit off and take the card out and put it in the laptop and it works fine.

Two things I have noticed however is that is I can't get the ride to upload to the Garmin site using IE Explorer but it works fine using Chrome. Also, when using Chrome or IE Explorer if you hit the Upload button while the card is in your laptop it will search for device(s) and go straight to your card and show the file path, but if you hit the upload button nothing happens. What you have to do, at least what I have to do, is hit the "Manual Upload" button on the bottom of the upload page and then browse to the storage card and then highlight the ride under the Activities folder on the card and then hit upload and it works fine. At least it does in Chrome, when I get to that point in IE Explorer and after highlighting the ride I hit "Upload" but nothing happens.

Sounds like a huge pain in the ass, but its not that bad and the rides actually upload a lot faster from the card vs when I was uploading them from the unit. Plus, I have done up to 4 hrs with no problems saving and have a couple rides on the card at a time without running our of memory AND the detailed maps on the card work fine.

So, to save $99 and several weeks without the unit and to summarize for all that are having this problem:

  1. Change data recording to record to a storage card (only need to do this once, then it stays on this setting after turning on then off)
  2. Hit reset with the card in the unit to save a ride to the card. Then turn unit off and remove card.
  3. Plug card into your laptop/computer and upload it to Garmin using Chrome and the manual upload where you browse to the ride.
  4. Delete the ride(s) from your card periodically to make sure you have enough memory.
This method works fine for Strava too, where you just hit upload, go to manual upload and specify the file using the browse feature. Strava works in both IE Explorer and Chrome for me.


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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As a long time Garmin Edge user I would have to say the 800 has caused me more grief than previous versions. I have like having some of the new power metrics available like TSS/NP/IF, but in some ways wished I had my 705 back. I had to return my original 800 in August because the touch screen stopped working and they sent me a refurbished unit that is difficult to connect to the desktop PC as noted on this thread. I do use the map feature when doing some group rides so as not to get lost out in the middle of nowhere so I am hesitant on pulling out the map card, but doing the method of using the microcard for ride storage makes sense.

I also have the Wahoo Fitness iphone adapter and app that works pretty good as a backup.
I am also tempted to get the Edge 500 to use on most of my training rides.

Has anyone had similar issues/connection failures with Edge 500 USB?
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [Felt_Rider] [ In reply to ]
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Never mind.....with some more web searching it looks like some Edge 500 users report the same USB connectivity issues as with the Edge 800.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [Felt_Rider] [ In reply to ]
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Felt_Rider wrote:
Never mind.....with some more web searching it looks like some Edge 500 users report the same USB connectivity issues as with the Edge 800.

To update my situation...I used the SD card for a few weeks after my initial inability to upload rides from the unit directly. It worked fine, the unit was still charging and I just was saving rides to the card. Then, after a couple weeks I noticed I was having difficulty getting the unit to charge unless the cord was 'just right'. It would take 2-3 minutes of wiggling the connector until it was working. Then it took 4-5 minutes...then a few days later almost 10 minutes of farting around with it until one day it just refused to connect/charge. I tried the hard reboot and then the unit was really off. Going through setup would not let me select height, listed me at 4,500 lbs in weight, would not let me pick between Km/Miles, and would not show any data on the display screens once I got it to that point even.

I went the $99 route to send my 800 back to garmin for refurbishing. When I called them for the return authorization they said they were 100% out of stock on the 800 and it would be several weeks. Ended up getting a new/refurbished unit in about 10 days. I think there was some sort of short (30-90 day) warranty on the refurbished unit. Since then I've had no issues with the new unit at all.

One thing, from reading the forums, that I'm watching carefully is that I am being sure to make sure that the plug is always all the way in when riding (I thought I was careful with this before but am doubly so now) and that I make sure the port is dry or open it and blow some air in to dry it after a ride in the rain. Also, I make sure its dry/clean before plugging the unit into the computer.

Seems that my problems would get worse after rides in bad weather with my old unit, so I'm just trying to avoid any contamination this time around by really watching the port on the 800.


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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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What is frustrating is seeing how this is a common problem with both the 800 and the 500 with no signs at all from Garmin that an improved unit is on the horizon. On the 705 you could do a wireless transfer of a course from one to another. It seems to me with this crappy little USB port cover that will not stay closed that they would go to wireless transfer (wifi, ANT+, bluetooth) on the next unit and take the USB port off the unit. That may be better than trying to find a weather proof silicone cover that protect the USB port. Now the cover on the SD card will not stay closed either. Argh!

I have typically had good fortune with Garmin Customer Support. I hope this gets resolved soon. Until then I guess I will use the iphone/wahoo adapter that allows wireless data transfer and never has an issue with the USB connection.

Lucky that the only thing I have lost so far was an indoor training session that I wanted to upload to WKO.
I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be for someone to lose their race data that they wanted to later analyze.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [Felt_Rider] [ In reply to ]
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I agree that this is a pretty ridiculous problem that shows now signs of really being addressed. Garmin's claims that the USB port is 'fully weatherproofed' are obviously BS, and this problem seems to occur far too commonly to be an isolated incident. Likewise, I don't believe there is any technical reason why the device is incapable of supporting wireless data transfers, they simply just don't.

Likewise, I historically have had pretty good experiences with Garmin customer service, but it is shocking to consider that I have a 100% failure rate in terms of every Garmin product that I have owned. I have owned a 405, a 310xt and now an Edge 800 and each unit has been RMA'd, in fact the 310xt was RMA'd at least twice.

The Edge 800 suffered the slow USB death cited earlier in this thread and was replaced with a refurb a few months back. Since then I have been recording all data to the SD card and simply using the USB cable for charging. That is fortunate, because despite being extra anal about ensuring the silicone USB plug is always securely in place and always ensuring that the USB port itself is dry prior to plugging it in, the 800 on my replacement unit already is never actually recognized to transfer data anymore. Fortunately it still charges, but I wonder how long that will last.

I have to say though, I wonder how high Garmin's RMA rate is for all of their 'Into Sports' products and how it is not glaringly obvious to them that this is a huge issue. If it is, they certainly have shown no signs of acknowledging it.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [baxnelly] [ In reply to ]
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I've had success with my 800 after plugging and unplugging the USB into the unit about 15 or 20 times to kind of scrape off whatever is interfering with the connection.
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Re: Garmin Edge 800 can't connect to laptop. (UPDATED August 2nd) [Friskynittles] [ In reply to ]
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I was having the "USB mass storage device not recognized" on TWO different laptops running XP and this is after a year or more of using them both ALL time to upload from my Edge 800. I worked and worked the problem installed the drivers again, rebooted a few times, ALMOST did setup on the unit! But thought I'd give Garmin support a call before I did the setup again.

Dan at Garmin nailed it! I explained the issue and how it was intermediate on two different laptops even thought use to work fine and nothing had changed. He asked a few questions then asked if I was using the Garmin supplied USB cable, I said I was. He asked if we could try a different cable. I found a different one and it worked perfect! Dan said the cables tend to go bad sometimes.

In hind sight I realized the cable I was using was older and was from my 705.

So try a different cable to connect. Truth be told I should have suspected hardware connect issues when I swapped PCs but still was focused on the unit not the cable. Good job Garmin!
Last edited by: GregM_Tx: Oct 14, 13 7:11
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