Nuvi 360 no longer seems to hold a charge

Call Garmin and they will more then likely either replace or repair your unit for free. They expect the battery to last 5-7 years.

Yes and if you leave the unit in the car all the time, "fried" might be a good description.

Do you have another charger.....like for house AC or via a computer USB port? If so, you might try charging it that way for 12 hours or so to see what happens before you call Garmin.

On some units, I believe it is possible to "reset" the battery monitor but I don't remember which models or how.

Anyone know how to perform this battery monitor reset?

same problem here with a Nuvi 250w

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/11120
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1212
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15117
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/11212
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2562

This has been discussed indepth at the above links, may want to scan thru them and they would probably have any answer you want about batteries. and yes if you have some mechanical/electrical knowege you can replace some of the batteries.

Jerry,

Thanks for the links

Unfortunately, after doing lots of reading, I am througholy confused as to what to do.

I welcome direct advice.

Thanks

The odds are very high that you need a new battery. Your choices;
-Contact Garmin and find out if they will replace your battery under warranty. They probably will. You may get a refurb back but it might have the latest maps even if yours didn't. If they don't cover it under warranty, you can get them to replace the battery at an exorbitant charge.
-Change the battery yourself. There are links at this site to very good instructions with pictures. Replacement batteries are available from several sources including Radio Shack.

A battery monitor usually learns how much capacity a battery has by measuring the charge that goes into and out of the battery. Resetting the software won't fix low capacity. The shut off is determined simply by measuring the voltage and that won't change.

Leaving a Lithium Ion powered device in a hot car and running the battery down to shut off frequently are common causes for an early demise.

I'm assuming we are talking about a 360 and not a 260

Have you been using a genuine Garmin charger?

Plugging a 'std' USB (ie 500mA) charger, into the cradle connector is a good way of getting the battery monitor out of line with reality. (The Nüvi tries to draw upto 1A from this socket, regardless of whether or not the input can supply it. It does not check for the presence of Garmin's personality resistor in the mini-usb). Presumably, the voltage drops and the charge monitoring declares the cycle complete (when it isn't).

Have a look at the battery diagnostics, to see if they shed any light.

1. Hold 'Time' (top right) for 7 seconds
2. Press NEXT 4 times.

There you can see current battery voltage, computed capacity, and current charge rate.

This is how the 3xx series comes apart:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/webspace8

From an earlier post:

Do you have another charger.....like for house AC or via a computer USB port? If so, you might try charging it that way for 12 hours or so to see what happens before you call Garmin.

So, there's some direct advice. If it fails to hold a charge after that, the odds are overwhelming that your battery has gone bad.

Good advice - with the caveat that such a charger would need to be plugged directly into the Nüvi and not via the mini-USB charging connector on the cradle.