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Comment by Mark Maltais on June 14, 2015 at 9:23am

??? That's a pretty serious flaw in the firmware from Garmin... Should have never released a firmware with that kind of issue. Geez.

Comment by Dan Dempsey on June 13, 2015 at 9:37pm

I got a brand new battery for my Garmin 296, but it wouldn't charge.  Tinny writing on the packaging said it might report the battery status incorrectly unless the firmware is updated.  What they meant was it won't charge.  The battery out of the box only powered the unit for about 2 minutes before it shut itself off.  This was a predicament.  I couldn't update the firmware because the battery was dead.  The battery was dead because it needed a firmware update.  I made myself an in-house battery charger.  I bought a 5 dollar cigarette lighter plug and hooked it to an old HO train 12 volt power supply.  Now I can power the unit up in the house with a dead battery, making it possible to connect it to the computer.  The update didn't go well until I found out about another Garmin App called Web-Updater.  I also had to update my USB drivers.  The unit is charging now.. I have my fingers crossed.