I Fixed My Garmin Forerunner 305 Heart Rate Monitor
If you'd like to be notified next time I write something, sign up for email alerts or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for reading!
Well, after several months of being without my heart rate monitor during training and races, I finally (with the help of the GarminF Yahoo! Group) got it to work again! Sometime over the summer (I’m not exactly sure when), my heart rate monitor strap stopped transmitting data to the Forerunner 305 receiver worn on my wrist.
I tried everything I could think of and every tip I could find online, but still the monitor wouldn’t pick up my beating heart.
- I changed the battery (twice)
- I cleaned the contacts on the strap
- I ensured contact with my chest was a good
- I rescanned for new accessories
- I updated firmware and made sure all other software was up to date
- I tried positioning the strap on my back
- I even spent 30 minutes online with a Garmin Tech Support guy who suggested a complete reset to factory settings
I actually gave up finding a fix and ordered a new heart rate monitor strap from Amazon.com. It was not long after this that I stumbled upon an old post on the GarminF Yahoo! Group from someone with a similar problem. I posted a quick message asking for help and received a reply stating there could be a problem with how the battery was seated in the chest strap.
In the battery compartment there’s a gold contact that touches the top of the battery (+ve) which was in a position that would never make contact with the battery. I bent it out slightly, made sure the battery was seated correctly (i.e. flat) and as if by magic my heart rate appeared on the large Garmin display!
So, if you’re having problems with your electronic gadgets (in the words of Winston Churchill) “Never, never, never give up!”
I guess I’ll either return the new strap to Amazon or sell it on eBay when it arrives….
Related Posts
Brisk Thursday Afternoon 4 MilerOh No! Garmin Announce The New Forerunner 405!
Did You Get Your Garmin Forerunner 405 Yet?
McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 1 Day 7
Comments
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.
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
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
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!