Thread: GPSMAPS 545S - Weather Service Lost

Hello,

I purchased a used GSPMAP 545S unit. The unit powers on fine, but after bootup, this "Weather Service Lost" error pops up on the screen, covering the whole screen. You press ENTER to clear it, but it immediately pops back up. No matter what I try this message comes immediately back up over and over again. Some troubleshooting I've done:

1. Factory reset - this booted and walked me through the initial setup screens fine, but once I got through those, the same "Weather Service Lost" error popped up again.
2. Place 5.60 firmware file on SD, pressed UP and powered on. (lock Boot or something?) It saying loading software for a moment, then loads up... and same Weather Service Lost error. Note: It was already at 5.60 firmware (latest) before I got it.

Called Garmin and they no longer service the units, so no luck on getting it repaired.

The Weather Service Lost is an error related to having an XM Weather antenna attached, which it's not. This unit has an internal GPS antenna, and I've tried with my external antenna attached. I can see that it gets coordinates, because I can quickly clear the Weather Service Lost screen, and for a split second see the page behind it.. but then again same message pops up, no way to clear the error screen and access the unit.

Garmin Tech Support seemed to think it could be something with the internal antenna (GPS?) on the unit going bad and seemed to suggest having a repair shop remove the internal antenna from the main board.

I'm wondering if I could somehow force install older firmware to try and repair the unit. I'm at a loss. Seems odd to me that EVERYTHING seems to work ok, LCD, power on, buttons, GPS antenna, and can walk through setup again, but this stupid "Weather Service Lost" screen prevents me from using the unit. Seems like a bug in the software to me and not hardware related...

Any clues?

Thanks
Josh