I Fixed My Garmin Forerunner 305 Heart Rate Monitor

Thanks for writing these GPS-related posts! It’s funny, a runner just recently left comments on my blog, asking about the Garmin 305, & if they should buy it! Well, I told them to check out your blog & our Blog Catalog running discussion group for articles on the subject. Now there’s a feast of reading materials for their eyes!

Thanks for sharing your 305 troubleshooting tips! I’m sure many people will thank you for mentioning these resources. Glad to see you got the device working fully again!

You’re welcome. I’m glad I got it working again too. I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t pair with the wrist unit, but didn’t even think to check the battery contacts!

GPS is a wonderful training tool…

God I love the web. There is nothing you can’t find the answer too. Like do a google search on fixing garmin HR straps. Find this post from someone who struggled so I don’t have to. Tried bending the little gold contact – magic, up comes the heart rate (beating a little fast frankly). Steve thanks, you’ve improved my training and saved me the £39 I was going to spend today on a new HR monitor. Thanks! Andy

Glad it worked for you Andy! I would never have guessed the gold contact could have been the problem either – mine has been fine ever since.

Happy training!

–Steve

Hey Steve, you just saved me hours of frustration too!! My HRM stopped picking up just today. I thought it was a dead battery, but it didn’t do the trick. It turned out the metal contact was my problem as well. I had to do a google search to find you?? Small world.

Small world indeed! Glad it worked for you….

After my car break-in a couple of months ago, I’m still without a heart rate monitor. Thinking about a possible 405 upgrade though.

Yeah, I like the new ANT wireless download to your computer option and the smaller size. Good for the runners. I’m kind of holding out for one with biking functions though. It would also be nice if it would upload straight to motionbased or the new garmin connect site. We’ll see where it goes.

Thanks Steve.

My HRM stopped working a week ago and changing the battery didn’t do the trick. What did do the trick was to google “garmin 305 heart rate monitor not working” and getting your tip at the top of the results. Them gold contacts….dagnammit!!

Thanks again.

Excellent – my post was able to help someone else!

Hi
My HRM is “dead” i.e. wrist unit is not picking it up. I have tried everything – including the gold contact. One thing I have not tried is the reset to factory setting – how do you do it?
Pl help.
Many thanks!

Try this:

“The soft reset is simply performed by pressing the lap + mode buttons at the same time. This will cause your unit to power down if it is on/frozen (and often the unit appears off when frozen). No data will be lost using this reset. Press the power button to start up and most problems will be cleared.”

Good luck…

–Steve

Hi Steve,

I had the same problem as Ramesh, first the HR packed up and then 3 days later I couldn’t even turn the watch on, in the meantime I purchased a new strap. I have followed the soft reset that seems to have worked but still no HR with the either the new or old strap, bent the gold tab etc. If you buy a new strap as I have do you need match the strap with the watch? I need my watch working it’s as though I’ve lost a mate.

Someone please help me…..

Many thanks

Dan-O

Thanks for the pointers. Because of you I got my heart monitor working. I would add making sure the battery cover is on properly. I bent the little connector (like you), made sure the cover was on tight and lined up on the closed area, rewashed the connectors and it worked! Thanks

Hi Steve,
I have tried all method described above, but without success. I have changed battery twice, bent the gold tab. soft reset, etc. I was recomended by the support people from Garmin to do a hard reset, which is the only thing I havent done, mainly because the described method doesnt work (MODE+Power buttons at the same time= it just comes to the initial screen and stays there, frozen).
Any idea on what else to do?
I am in Chile, and the new strap is quite expensive.

Thansk in advance.
Regards.

Claudio

Thanks for the post. Nothing above worked for me worked until I rescanned my heart rate.

“2. It may be necessary to rescan for the heart rate monitor, especially if the unit has been reset at some point. To do this go into the accessories section of the setup menu and select restart scan.”

Here is the link to the Garmin page with the info, hopefully it will help others.

http://iqc.garmin.com/eCustomer/KODSelfService/request.do?session={1e55e6a0-6fb6-11dd-f60b-000000000000}&event=10&view()=c%7B7d0dc6c0-4ffc-11dc-4ec8-000000000000%7D&objectId=&eksObjectId=&objectType=Case&isJumpEnabled=false&isContentJumpEnabled=false&vendorKey=&versionId=105&objectScore=96&from=results

I’m from Brazil and after reading this post I’ve realized I’m not alone. I’ve tried everything to make my HRM work properly. I’m going to try to bend the little connector to see if it works. I was about to order a new strap from the US.

Thanks for the tip!
Raissa

Good luck Raissa!

Sorry to tell you but nothing worked in my case. I called many times to Garmin in US, and finally they send me a new one for free.
Good luck anyway!

Well, I´ve just got back from my run and my HRM didn´t work properly after I´ve bent the gold connector. I had 48 bpm readings when I was running hard! I´m ready to reset the whole thing.

I´ll let you guys know the result!

Raissa

Yay! Thankyou so much, its only been a week and I was hating not having heart rate. Just gone through all the stuff in comments and now it works!

Thanks…I have been having problems with my hreat rate moitor..i.e it would say my HR was 195…sitting still…o sometimes not pick it up at all. I did as you suggested (pulled out the 2 gold connetors a bit) and BAM! Everything is back to normal! Thanks

Great tip. You just saved by 305. I didn’t get any help at all from the Garmin site, and in desperation Googled “Garmin 305 heart rate monitor not working”. I got out my trusty swiss army penknife, opened the dull file and bent the gold contact inward. Voila! HRM is back from the dead. You just saved me a bunch of money, and being HRM less for the next 4 weeks while I’m away.

Hey Ward – glad it worked out for you!

Train smart,

–Steve

THANKS for creating this post, Steve. This helped me, too!

BTW, for those who tried everything recommended in this string without results sometimes the “obvious” can be the problem. Some suggestions: 1.) making sure you do the “Restart Scan” correctly. Example: don’t stop after reading page 46 the manual…also read to the end on page 47. 2.) Make sure the “+” side of your battery is turned “upward” toward the cap that screws it into place. Good luck all.

Thanks, Mine stopped working last night and the battery change did not help. Bending the side contact out worked.

[...] then headed out for a run. Does anyone else have a Garmin 305 Forerunner? The one that looks like this? A friend gave me hers a while back and I’ve been using the GPS for months but just recently [...]

Hey there, great thread, i’ve been having the same problems but not sorted just yet! There is a gold thing on the bottom of the circle where the battery goes, its kind of bent at the middle of it and pointed up, and then there is also a gold thing on the side of the circle that is pushed into the side of the circle, just confused which one i’m bending where! Any help or even a photo of what it should look like would be amazing!

Thanks,

Gavin

Thanks for the mail Steve, all sorted now, changed the battery and still dead, moved the side thingy and i had to rescan the sensor but now i’m back online and heading out the door!

Cool Gavin. Glad it worked out for you!

Happy heart rate training!

–Steve

HI,

FIrst thanks for sharing the infor on scraping the chargers. THis did work briefly. However, I have not been able to pick up HR at all not matter what resets I have done. In addition, I ordered a new strap. no difference. And now I attempt to charge it states battery chargeing and then turns machine on.

I am thinking of purchasing a new monitor but at these prices I wonder if anyone has tried a polar? Or a the new 405. My old Garmin 305 forerunner is not quite 2 years old. PRetty expensive too not last longer.

I would love any input thanks!

This is a great site. Placing it on my Favorites for sure. My HR unit stopped working after only a week but this site got me back up and running with the ‘rescan’ suggestion.

Thanks.

Thanks for listing all the things your tried. I had replaced my battery once already, but decided to do it again. Fixed the contacts, and updated my firmware. Don’t know which fixed it but it works again!!
I really LOVE running with it. Thank you so much!!

thanks for all the feeds on this blog…bending the contact back into shape did the trick for me. Now I can get back focusing on training. Thanks again!

Thanks, that was it! After reseating the battery my HRM has come back to life.

That’s funny, because I had the same problem with my foot pod a couple of months ago.

Something else to keep in mind… If you’re just sitting at home trying to get the heart rate monitor to work at rest you’ll have to get some sort of liquid between your body and the monitor for it to work. I found this on the Garmin support site. After trying 2 different batteries and resets, firmware, blah blah blah, what solved my problem was 2 drops of aloe vera gel. I had to sit back and have a good laugh after it started working. God, the time wasted and frustration over this

I’ve had the same issues with my HR Monitor. The trick for me was doing the rescan.

I was about to ask the wife for another HRM for xmas but thought I’d give my Garmin one more try… the battery upside down trick, the soft reset, the hard reset all valid efforts but no success. It was Eric’s “rescanning my heart rate” that made the thing work. However, it could have been a combination of methods, so I’d suggest try them all you might get lucky.
Thank you

How do you control the volume of the lap alert. I have not been able to locate that and my Forerunner 305 can barely be heard while my colleagues cuts through noice, conversation…etc. If you know, please share.

Cheers,
JS

i’m so glad i found those tips. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet since i’m not home right now, but can’t wait.
I’ve had my 305 for 3 years now and it’s only last Fall that the HRM went on strike. I’ll do the contact adjustments and the soft reset first.

On a side note,not having a monitor, it made me train by pace and time only and have made me wonder just how important the HR really is.

Has anyone run into the volune issue with the 305 Forerunner?
I can’t hear mine well but can’t adjust the volume. I know it is not my hearing (:)) because my colleagues sounds just fine.

Was having issues with my HR monitor as well. Solution was per Eric’s suggestion of: “It may be necessary to rescan for the heart rate monitor, especially if the unit has been reset at some point. To do this go into the accessories section of the setup menu and select restart scan.”
Works like a charm!

Muchas Gracias por tu sugerencia, estaba complicado ya que mi monitor no funcionaba. Excelente post. Saludos.