Garmin Forerunner Dead? Read This!

Is your Garmin Forerunner dead? Read this before you give up!

My wife and I went for a six-mile walk with a friend last Saturday.

I was wearing my Forerunner 235, which I had connected to a charging cable on Friday evening.

It died at 1.40 miles into the walk.

I suspected that I had not connected it well for charging. So, I took extra care to reconnect it to the charging cable after I got home.

It jumped from 0% to 2% charge. But, it dropped to 1% charge when I walked it 50 feet across my home to a second USB power source.

Puzzled, I kept it connected to that second power source, but it soon dropped to 0% and then turned off. I could wake it by pressing the power button, but it would turn off again within seconds.

My wife then connected her Forerunner 35 to the same cable and power source, as her 35 needed a charge.

Not ready to replace my 235, I looked up how to replace the battery in it.

Good News:

• I found a replacement battery online for my Forerunner 235 for only $15.

Bad News:

• I learned that I needed a heat gun and special adhesive to replace the battery. After that, it might no longer be water-resistant.

More Bad News:

• I read of another Forerunner owner getting only 3.5 years out of his 235 before it died. This matched my experience almost to the month!

Having learned all this, I gave up on plans to fix my 235 and began to search Garmin’s site for a replacement.

I settled on and ordered a Forerunner 645 along with a Garmin Running Dynamics Pod. My wife gave me the 235 for Christmas of 2016, so I told her that the 645 + Pod would be her future birthday gift to me for 2020. 🙂

A few hours passed, and then my wife told me that her Forerunner 35 was not charging.

I guessed that the second power source was bad, given that it was part of a lighted mirror and not a dedicated source. So, I moved the Forerunner 35 and charging cable to the first USB power source.

A few more hours passed, and my wife told me that her 35 still was not charging.

Argh!

Then I realized that the cable might be bad.

Looking it over, I noticed that it had an odd, non-Garmin logo, and I remembered why.

I had bought it after losing track of one of our two official Garmin cables. I found the lost Garmin cable a few weeks after putting this third-party cable into service. At that point, I stuck one of the Garmin cables into our luggage for future travel. And, I tucked the other Garmin cable away. After all, my wife and I needed only the third-party cable to charge her 35 and my 235 every week.

Putting the non-Garmin cable aside, I connected one of our Garmin cables to my wife’s 35 and to a USB power source.

Sure enough, my wife’s Forerunner 35 went to full charge within a couple of hours.

I then moved the power clip from my wife’s 35 to my 235, which went to a 97% charge in two hours.

Conclusion:

• It was the cable, NOT the battery, that kept my Forerunner 235 from recharging!

Epilogue:

• My wife had me keep my order for the Forerunner 645 + Running Dynamics Pod in place.
  • Her 2020 birthday shopping for me is done. 😉
  • She appreciated how much time I spent finding them.
  • And, she saw my excitement about what the 645 + Pod could teach me.
• My 235 is back on my wrist.
• I will switch to the 645 + Pod when they arrive.
• I will keep the 235 as my trusty backup.
• I will use the 645 + Pod to help me with my running.
• And, I will consider the charging cable when any Garmin watch that I own will not charge!