Garmin gps 72

Our Garmin GPS 72 has been sitting in the drawer a while , and installing it to 12V or simply putting in batts does not bring it back to life.

My Guess? would be some sort of dead internal battery .

This is a low cost hand held , so of course Garmin no longer repairs them.

Has anyone opened the case to install a new internal batt?

Rather a $10. batt than a new $150 for the same unit.

I am not familiar with this device but many electronic devices have 2 batteries. Typically there is a small dime or quarter size lithium battery to maintain the firmware settings. When the lithium battery goes, nothing works. They used to last only 2-3 years on computers but nowadays last much longer. If you have the docs, you might check on that.

Donsan said:

I am not familiar with this device but many electronic devices have 2 batteries. Typically there is a small dime or quarter size lithium battery to maintain the firmware settings. When the lithium battery goes, nothing works. They used to last only 2-3 years on computers but nowadays last much longer. If you have the docs, you might check on that.

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You would probably have to take the device apart to see if it has a small lithium battery. Typically, the device will draw from the regular battery or 12v source to retain its firmware settings and the lithium battery goes unused. If the regular batteries are drawn down and it isn't connected to a live 12v source, then the lithium battery kicks in. They will last a long time but if you GPS has been sitting unpowered for several years, the lithium battery will be drawn down too.

Again, I am not familiar the device but that is what I would look for.

FF said:

Our Garmin GPS 72 has been sitting in the drawer a while , and installing it to 12V or simply putting in batts does not bring it back to life.

My Guess? would be some sort of dead internal battery .

This is a low cost hand held , so of course Garmin no longer repairs them.

Has anyone opened the case to install a new internal battery...

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I left the batteries in ours a little to long and one leaked. I bought a new back/battery holder on Ebay for $30. Here's what the guts look like.

To get to the lithium battery, remove the 8 screws on the back and separated the 2 sections. The outer gasket is part of the back. Remove the silver screw in the center of the larger board on the back (pic 2). Lift the board up, turn over and there's the battery.

New Back Part Case for Garmin GPSMAP 72 72H Spare Parts Battery Holder | eBay

GREAT INFO!

Thanks,

When you had it open did you notice the number of batts and their size number , so I can order a set?

FF

Larry, you are my kinda guy. Always keep a camera/ phone handy for teardown and sharing pics as needed!!


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

It will be a small single battery. From the pictures, it looks like a hearing aid battery. Just pop or pry it out and take it to your local Walgreens or CVS and they should have it. You shouldn't have to order one as they are not proprietary.

I doubt if the problem is just the memory battery. If it powered up, but had no waypoints or the date shown was from the 90's, then yes the lithium batt needs replacement.
If it does nothing, then I would suspect the main batts, the power button, or the display screen. Exercise the heck out of the power button and change the batteries.

It's looks like it is soldered, in what at looks like a small clip of some sort. The battery has no markings on it. The top, larger part of the battery is + and the bottom against the CB is the - .

High Wire said:

I doubt if the problem is just the memory battery. If it powered up, but had no waypoints or the date shown was from the 90's, then yes the lithium batt needs replacement.
If it does nothing, then I would suspect the main batts, the power button, or the display screen. Exercise the heck out of the power button and change the batteries.

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I agree. The lithium battery usually only holds the waypoints,dates and routes in memory.

Larry M said:

It's looks like it is soldered, in what at looks like a small clip of some sort. The battery has no markings on it. The top, larger part of the battery is + and the bottom against the CB is the - .

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Interesting. My memory isn't good but I recall one of the other marine electronics companies (Raymarine???) getting bashed for soldering the lithium battery to the motherboard and having to send the devices back to the factory for battery replacement. Not a good design practice IMHO. The pop out/pry out battery mounts I have seen are very secure.

Donsan said:

Interesting. My memory isn't good but I recall one of the other marine electronics companies

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You may be ready for a B/U battery too....

Brooksie said:

You may be ready for a B/U battery too....

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Been holding out for a repower and retrofit.

Geez I find this thread interesting a a bit strange that anyone would tear into a GPS that is not working in hopes of repairing it. A GPS is the kind of device that you place a lot of dependence on for safety. To me it would be like going into a heart pacemaker because it has stopped working. Oh well some people like cats and some people like dogs and some like both.

Agreed 1/10 of a boat buck simply to navigate with a new GPS seems cheap.

But planned death from a dollar part seems like another screw job to me.

To me its worth 10 min to crack it open and see if it can be repaired for a buck rather than replaced.

Most of our current travel is ICW and along shore so GPS is useful but hardly necessary.

It doesn't work, so why not give it a shot. The worst that can happen is more broken on an inexpensive unit. See what's in there.