nuvi 660 ribbon cable reconnection

Just curious, is your touch screen cable one with a white or maroon tail cap?

In any event, you most likely need to replace your LCD screen:

http://www.sharc.net/gps_LCD_repair.htm

Replacing the battery on a 660 is not an easy chore.
Working on the cables you removed (touchscreen and LCD screen) requires the fingers of a mosquito.

The two connectors have a very fine plastic locking tab that lifts up to unlock to slide the cable out.
Cable must be aligned properly and the locking tab pushed down to lock, very easy to break this locking tab or have it come out of position.

I supect you don't have the cables proprtly seated or the locking tab is not functioning properly.
Re-check your connections using a good light source making sure the GPS is off when doing so or you can short something out.

Garmin no longer repairs the 660 so you can't send it there for repairs. There is a good repair facility that can fix it but they haven't accepted new work in months.
UPDAtE-I just checked and at the moment you can get a quote.
Their policy is they won't work on units that have been tampered with, but perhaps they'll (Jim) make an exception.

Below is the link and you can learn a lot from their site. To get a price quote look at the left side menu and scroll down to "request quote", there you can apply for service. This is the only place I'm aware of that can fix a Nuvi 660.

To be quite frank with you I don't think you will be able to repair it I'm sorry to say. I can't answer your question on the sound levels.

http://www.sharc.net/gps_repair_prices.htm

not sure which tail cap i have (dont have it with me). Thanks for the link. may be worth having these guys repair it.

@CraigW
Sorry I was typing when you posted, thus the same link shown.

He can check which touchscreen is installed by merely looking at his units serial #. If it starts with 186 he has the good one (maroon), most likely it will start with 12P which can be troublesome.

I based my above post on an expensive experience, I ruined my 300.00 660 by changing the battery.
I bought a replacement on Ebay for 60.00 and was I ever so lucky. The replaced one began with the 186 serial #, the touchscreen is far more responsive, and the battery still hold a good charge for being over 4 years old. I was fortunate my stupity only cost me 60.00, but I now have a better unit and not a scratch on it.

If I had to pay a nickel each time my reply was a tad slower than another's, I'd be a poor man.

starts with 12P

I may take another stab at reconnecting the cable. If this doesnt work, I may follow your route to ebay or just get a new one. tks again

My original started with the 12P, and many being sold on ebay also started with 12P. I ask the seller to provide the first 3 seral #'s. This is how I got the good one with the 186 serial # that has the reliable touch screen (maroon cable).

Should you go the Ebay route ask lots of questions as to the functionality of touch screen, battery condition, appearence, original owner, and exactly what comes with it. Lots of crap out there so you need to be thorough with your questions. Some of them came off rental vehicle companies, steer clear from them. Check sellers feedback, I would stay away from sellers that concentrate on GPS sales, I like original owners that know the history of the unit.

Good luck, let us know if you had any success with reconnecting the cable. Changing batteries on newer units is far easier than the 660.

I dont even know if these quys exist-i cant even get a quote page to come up on their site as the only thing that keeps popping up is that their repair schedule is full. you would think with this much business, they would expand beyond 2 guys but like i mentioned earlier, i dont know if they even exist anymore and there is no way to contact them.

You can try contacting him through here
http://www.poi-factory.com/user/99265

Jim is a member here on The POI Factory. He does get very busy. Send him a message through his user profile contact tab, here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/user/99265/contact

We most certainly do exist.

To user "notwhidbey" - When I started this business, I had a full time Engineering job. Our technician did as well. Unfortunately, there is only just so many hours in the day. Plus, we are serving not just the US but customers all around the world.

There is much more to running a business than just doing the repairs. For myself, I'm involved with:

Email correspondence/quotes
Parts inventory/ordering
Actual repairs
Entering customer & unit information into our database
Customer repair reports with tracking information
Website creation/maintenance
Packing/shipping/printing shipping labels
Trips to the Post Office

When the post office raises their postage rates, we have to update all of our quote templates and website information. That's a days worth of work just there.

It may seem simple to just hire a bunch of people and expand the business but that is a big decision to make, especially when considering quitting a job you've been at for +28 years and you have bills to pay and a family to support and provide medical benefits for.

Personally, I am doing repairs full time now and we are now starting to work on units that have been opened by the customer. It's sometimes a tough thing to do and quote. In addition to the original problem, we often find missing or broken parts. What may normally take 30 minutes to fix can take 3-4 times that and requires additional correspondence with the customer. All of that takes time and slows us down.

If your having a volume problem, maybe your speaker isn't plugged in. We've seen people break the headphone jack connections when inserting the PCB back into the case. The speaker audio passes through an internal switch in the headphone jack. You might even have a blown speaker. We've seen a lot of those too, due to the fact that the audio output level from the audio amplifier can exceed the rating of the internal speaker when the volume is set to maximum. Installing a higher wattage speaker solves that problem.

If the locking latches are now missing for the touchscreen and LCD, then it makes perfect sense why the touchscreen no longer works and the picture is distorted. It is possible to replace those latches but it is a very delicate thing to do and requires extreme patience.

When changing a battery, it is not necessary to disconnect the LCD/touchscreen connections in order to change a battery. On newer units, the factory puts Kapton tape over these connectors to keep the cables secure in case the unit is dropped. The case can flex and rip the flex cables out of the connectors. We use the Kapton tape too.

- Jim

This post got my attention... (I have a 186 660)

So just for grins.... what is the difference between the 12P and 186 display in the 660????

Scroll down about 2/3 of the way for info and images:

http://www.sharc.net/gps_LCD_repair.htm

The "186..." serial numbered units are older and use a SHARP LQ043T1DG03 LCD/touchscreen combo.

The 12P, 14V & 143 use a SHARP LQ043T1DG03A LCD/touchscreen combo, although I have seen some of the older combos even in these units.

So what's the difference? The "DG03A" uses a different touchscreen and this is the one that is failing. I've been told that the revised touchscreen was supposed to be more sensitive. Personally, I'd rather have a touchscreen that requires a bit more pressure than one that fails a couple years later.

I've worked on the older units for other issues, which have the older touchscreens and they continue to work like new.

That is why I only use the older style in our repairs.

You can confirm a dead touchscreen by taking an ohmmeter and measuring the resistance across the 1st and third gold pins, and then the 2nd and 4th gold pins on the touchscreen tail. You should see a resistance of several hundred ohms on each pair for a working touchscreen. An infinite reading indicates a defective touchscreen.

One pair of pins represent the "x" axis and the remaining pair of pins represent the "y" axis.

- Jim

My 12p still working nicely after 4 yrs. AND a battery replacement!
Fingers crossed...

Trust me. They absolutely exist. I recently had two 660's repaired by them. One with the exact problem you have. Disconnected touch screen ribbon. They are the best in my opinion. Reasonable prices, great communication, and quality work. Jim even addressed a problem with one of the 660's that I didn't know existed.

They go the extra mile. Read the customer reviews on their web site.

Robert
Huntington Beach, California

OK... Bookmarked that site, and put it directly underneath POIFACTORY......

Thanks for the great info...