Garmin Forerunner 110 Reset - for frozen screen issue

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My Random Blog about the Garmin Forerunner 110 crash problem:

I'm hoping this might help others.

The problem:

I got my Garmin forerunner 100 watch with heart rate monitor from REI late summer of 2010.  After a few runs with it, it froze after an autolap activation.  Meaning the screen just got stuck - nothing moved - there was no changes in distance or heart rate.  The buttons would beep but that's all.  The screen wouldn't shift.  It's as if the computer crashed and the hardware was what was left that sometimes works (beeps).

The possible solution:  Hold light button down for about 10 seconds.

I found a solution after pressing bunches of buttons and holding it down.  I know that there are hard-reset combinations for other devices such as Apple I-Pods which I've had to use in the past. 

I found that if I hold the light button down for about 10 seconds, the Garmin Forerunner 110 watch screen goes blank.  Then a few seconds - about 6-10 seconds later the screen comes back.  Then I sync'd it with the computer.  Then the screen went blank again after that.  But after waiting a few more seconds, it did come back to life - whew.

Here are the steps in bullet format

• Hold the light button down (upper left button) for 10 seconds
• Wait for the screen to go blank
• Wait some 10 more seconds for the watch to come back to life. 
• If it doesn't come back to life on its own, plug it into a power source

It has frozen on me several times.  I have had the autolap set to 0.25 miles.  I think if I set it to 1 mile, the freezing/crashing problem would be less.  Sometimes it took for me to plug it into the recharger to get the blank screen to come back to life again.

I'm hoping the Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS watch won't keep freezing like this.  This would not be good during a race such as a marathon.  I guess if it happens to me in the future, I'll keep trying this hard reset and seeing what happens.  I think the data would be corrupted, but at least we could start over again with a new record.  I suspect that this "crashing" has something to do with the autolap feature of the watch, because it froze right after the Autolap feature beeped.

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Disclaimer:  I made this conclusion myself, and haven't verified it with others.  Use at your own risk.  And feel free to copy.  I'm not an expert with Garmin watches, software crashes, GPS, nor am I really an expert on running for that matter.  I have not tested out the newer Garmin 210 or 410 and do not know if the above works for crashes on those gps watches (or the Garmin 310xt, garmin 405, garmin 305 or other garmin watches).  Surgical Artistry is the inaugural title sponsor for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon, which was first held in 2010.

Other Running Links of Interest:

Running Speed pace chart - do you need conversion from MPH to Minutes per Mile?  This was helpful for me because I was mainly a treadmill runner first - before venturing outside.

Modesto Marathon - Sponsored by Surgical Artistry (Modesto Plastic Surgery).

Running belt reviews - Nathan speed 2 hydration belt

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