HDS 12 gen 2...All messed up. Need help.

[98 Elite203]

I bought a used hds 12 gen 2 from a member here a few months ago. It has worked great, including earlier this week..and then today when I hooked it up, and turned it on for my tournament, it wouldnt go past the loading screen regardless if you hit accept or not. I tried recalibrating it, and that didnt help, but one of the calibration points was tough to get it to accept. It still wouldnt go past the loading screen. I tried a soft reset, nothing. I tried a hard reset, same thing. I then tried recalibrating it again because in the past I have had gen 2 units not go past the loading page because the calibration was off even tho it was saying you hit accept...however now I cant even calibrate it. The first bullseye doesnt even register when you touch it...so basically my hds 12 is useless right now. Is there a software update I can try to do, even tho it had the latest update? or do I need to get past the loading screen to do that as well. Thank you for any help.

[Team Colibri]

Start by checking voltage in the plug. Low voltage is the mother off all evil… If that is OK (meaning 12,7V if you have a lead-based battery and nothing else running) do a hard reset. (That will wipe your waypoints, but hopefully you have those backed up.)

[98 Elite203]

Start by checking voltage in the plug. Low voltage is the mother off all evil… If that is OK (meaning 12,7V if you have a lead-based battery and nothing else running) do a hard reset. (That will wipe your waypoints, but hopefully you have those backed up.)

I have a new agm battery and also I was trying the unit also while my 4 bank charger was plugged in so it likely is not the battery. Also doing the hard reset still wont get me past that start up screen because the calibration isn’t working so I can’t hit accept

[Team Colibri]

I’m not saying it is the battery, I’m saying you need to check voltage at the power-connector. ;)

[98 Elite203]

I’m not saying it is the battery, I’m saying you need to check voltage at the power-connector. ;)

I have a brand new extra power cable that I hooked up to my truck battery and powered the unit on and it still didn’t make a difference. Also tried the unit on my 2 other console lowrance plugs, no difference. My hds 7 touch and hds 8 also work fine on all the plugs.

[CatFan]

I have a brand new extra power cable that I hooked up to my truck battery and powered the unit on and it still didn’t make a difference. Also tried the unit on my 2 other console lowrance plugs, no difference. My hds 7 touch and hds 8 also work fine on all the plugs.

If there are cards in the unit, remove them.

[98 Elite203]

If there are cards in the unit, remove them.

No cards in the unit.

[98 Elite203]

Does anyone know a company or someone that repairs units?

[CatFan]

Does anyone know a company or someone that repairs units?

These guys might, but don't get your hopes up. https://www.clearcastmarine.com/ Keep your eyes peeled for a unit like yours with a broken screen.

[98 Elite203]

These guys might, but don't get your hopes up. https://www.clearcastmarine.com/ Keep your eyes peeled for a unit like yours with a broken screen.

i tried calling them earlier, the voicemail said they aren’t accepting calls so to send a email… so I sent a email around 4.

would it likely be my screen that’s bad, or the hard drive inside?

[CatFan]

i tried calling them earlier, the voicemail said they aren’t accepting calls so to send a email… so I sent a email around 4.

would it likely be my screen that’s bad, or the hard drive inside?

Probably electronics inside. If you find one cheap with a bad screen you might be able to make one good one out of two bad ones.

[98 Elite203]

Probably electronics inside. If you find one cheap with a bad screen you might be able to make one good one out of two bad ones.

thats what I was thinking also. I spent the last hour or so looking. Nothing currently out there.

[Bill Reynolds]

Try disconnecting the power cable and all other cables connected to the unit. Now re connect only the power cable and see if it will boot.
You may have to Calibrate the screen again considering it did not complete the previous calibration.
If it does not complete the boot turn it off, insert an update card and power it up again. If it does not go through the update and boot, it is fried.

[98 Elite203]

Try disconnecting the power cable and all other cables connected to the unit. Now re connect only the power cable and see if it will boot.
You may have to Calibrate the screen again considering it did not complete the previous calibration.
If it does not complete the boot turn it off, insert an update card and power it up again. If it does not go through the update and boot, it is fried.

It does boot up fine. The issue is it needs to be calibrated and the calibration touch screen bullets aren’t reading my touch, so I can’t get any farther then the start up GPS accept screen.

[Marc Marcantonio]

Don't give up yet...I would download the latest update software from the Lowrance web site (even if you had the latest update) and reload the software. It just may fix your problem (maybe a file got corrupted in use).

[98 Elite203]

Don't give up yet...I would download the latest update software from the Lowrance web site (even if you had the latest update) and reload the software. It just may fix your problem (maybe a file got corrupted in use).

I tried to do that, however I have never done a update before so I’m not sure if I’m doing it correctly even tho I watched the YouTube video for gen 2/3. I downloaded the file to my SD card on my laptop, and then put it in the 12’s card slot, turned it on and it just powered up and went to the GPS accept page. Nothing about a update. As the unit boots up, shouldn’t it pick up the card and update and say it’s downloading the update? I’m not 100% sure I did it correctly so any help would be much appreciated. That’s literally the last step I can take at this point.

[Bill Reynolds]

Did you download the file to your laptop, unzip the file then load the unzipped file to the SD card?
If so the unit should recognize the file and load it on power up. This may only work for the latest file, which I believe is 6.0 but that should not be an issue since you downloaded from the website.
This is a long shot you might try the other card slot. The unit may only recognize one slot on power up.

[NoCAL]

If the file extension is .upd and your card is less than 32 GB, the update will load automatically. That should take care of your issues. It understanding the need to calibrate so much though. I’ve had Gen2, Gen3, Carbon, and Live. I’ve never screen calibrated one of them.

NoCAL

[98 Elite203]

Did you download the file to your laptop, unzip the file then load the unzipped file to the SD card?
If so the unit should recognize the file and load it on power up. This may only work for the latest file, which I believe is 6.0 but that should not be an issue since you downloaded from the website.
This is a long shot you might try the other card slot. The unit may only recognize one slot on power up.

i did download and unzip it to the card. Also it was the 6.0 I downloaded.

[98 Elite203]

If the file extension is .upd and your card is less than 32 GB, the update will load automatically. That should take care of your issues. It understanding the need to calibrate so much though. I’ve had Gen2, Gen3, Carbon, and Live. I’ve never screen calibrated one of them.

NoCAL

i just looked at my SD card. It’s 128GB. With it being that big, and you saying it needs to be 32 or smaller, is that why it didn’t recognize it when I powered it up with the card In and the update?