HDS 7 does not like the cold

OK, I am hoping for some thoughts.

I have been running my new HDS7 all year on the bow, with no problems whatsoever. I like it very much and was looking to get an 8 this off season to go with it.

This morning ( air temps about 32 – 33 ) I trailer to the launch, put the boat in and NOTHING. I get the flicker of light on the buttons and NOTHING. Tried a few things and gave up. Had to run the boat from the back unit ( x-15 comes through again)

Got back home and let the unit sit for about 30 minutes in the garage and it fired right up no problem…

I normally leave my electronics on for short trips to the boat launch. Should that make a difference ? I would not think so. I never had problems with my x-15’s.

I checked and my batteries were fully charged and ran my x-15, live well and bait will for 5 hours no problem.

If I am going to have these kind of cold weather issues I am very concerned, as I fish very late in the year and also very early.

Any thoughts ? Anyone else have these problems ? Thank you for your time…

Went to the big river one cold morning, and the bow mount

LCD wouldn’t work, but the dash mount did. My friend found out ‘the port’ for the certain hook up..

(i guess)..was older and when cold, it froze up.

And it didn’t work, until it was in the garage for a couple hours, kind of like yours did.

Hope this helps.

These units themselves don’t have any issues to cold weather. If there is a problem then it is there with or without the “cold” weather. You could have an issue with moisture in a connection that will freeze in cold weather. If this is the case then get some dialetric grease and fill all connections with the grease. This will displace the water/moisture and eliminate this issue. Or you could have a loose or corroded connection to your hot and ground connections that the cold weather will bring on. Check all connections to the power cable. If these have been connected for a year or more it sometimes is a good idea to cut an inch or so off the wire, install a new connector and re-connect the wires. Corrosion will develop inside the shield and interrupt the power or ground and cannot be seen from a visual inspection.

These are some of the things I would look at first because of the unit working fine when you arrived home. I would say that the power button and units operation are fine. If there is something wrong with the unit, it would be a problem later in the day also.

Been in the 20’s overnight here recently, including this morn. Mine never leaves the boat untill I store it an never been an issue….

Thanks Ken, I will give the grease a shot before redoing the connections. I kind of figured I was heading that way when the unit turned on once I was back in my garage.

Paulski

Out again with the same results after putting some grease in the plugs.

The unit works in my garage when it is warmer both front and back stations. Out on the water, just a flicker of light on the buttons. My other electronics work no problem on the same set ups.

Lowrance said to give a hot reboot a shot. I did that this afternoon and will see if that solves the issue tomorrow morning…

Similar prob, different unit. Have LMS 520 C, prob confounded by cold. GPS module not responding came up 2 or 3 time/outing early fall. GPS now (mid nov) goes down 10 to 15 minute after start-up. 2 or 3 reps and it won’t come back at all. Been bak & forth w/Lowrance and looks like I’ll be looking for new gps w/sonar at winter sport shows. Good luck w/yours. seems cold effects it.

My HDS 7 was back up and running this weekend. The solution make no sense to me though, a hot reboot

What exactly is a “hot” reboot?

The tech guy called it a hot reboot, but perhaps hard reboot is the correct term

“Shut unit off, press Zoom in, Zoom out, and the power key, hold keys until USA map appears. Unit will reset to factory defaults. You lose all data with this. “

Yeah, I know that one as a hard reboot. Maybe hot is a better term because when you have to set everything up again, you get pretty hot about it.

Thankfully I saved a word document with all my current settings, so I was able to get almost back to where I was pretty quickly. Only a couple more to figure out.