not charging855

charging the unit by plugging directly to the unit rather than through the cradle. I had the cradle connection fail for my 885.

Also, pull the battery and see if the unit will power up. It could be the battery is shorted and not allowing power to flow.

Will the unit operate in your vehicle while plugged in? But just not charging?

This unit has a cradle - Correct? You could have a bad cradle.

If you have a cradle, have you tried the micro port?
(I have both a micro and a mini USB port - Mini on the cradle and micro on the unit).

EDIT: If your cradle is bad, let me know. I have a cradle I don't need. Cradles are not all the same - different number of pins. Let me know and I will check mine.

I don't have to plug into the car 12 volt, I have a 110 volt to 12 volt 500 ma adapter.

I kinda tried your suggestion with a twist.

Removed the battery and plugged the GPS into the cradle then connected to the AC/DC adapter and it powered up. The Nuvi came up and loaded the system but did not show that it is charging.

Now I did what I normally would not do, but I HOT swapped the battery back in and lo and behold the darn charging icon came up.

It is now sitting there charging again!

BTW: There is NO mini-micro port on the cradle.
Only the mini USB Data port on the GPS.

@dferron

Unless I'm not understanding you correctly, cradles are not all the same. The cradle is the part that attaches around the Nuvi and then is placed in the ball on the mount (windshield, beanbag, etc.).

Some units have a USB port in the cradle, some do not, almost all of them are different sizes and shapes between different Nuvi models.

On the other hand the mount (the piece with the ball on it) is interchangeable from one model to another.

Thanks for the cradle offer, I did count the pins and there are 34 pins.
But as I mentioned in my reply to Boxcar, the only mini USB connector is on the Nuvi 855 itself. Nothing on the cradle other than the 34 pins across the bottom.

Right now it looks like I'm cooking with gas again, LOL! Though it still makes me wonder what could have happened?

Up to now the Nuvi 855LMT has been a rock and it was more reliable than my 3790LMT. On my long drives to and from Mexico I always take the 855 as a backup.
Especially since the 3790 crapped out on me when I was in an area totally unfamiliar to me and NO paper maps.

Thank you both for the comebacks, much appreciated.

The cradle on the nuvi 8xx series uses a 18 pin power connector from the power adapter. I believe it is called a Hirose connector. I think the only other nuvi's that used this type of power connector on the cradles were the 7xx series and the 5000. But the cradles are not interchangable even across those model series that use the hirose connector. So if you need to replace the cradle, you will need to find one from a 8x0 or 8x5 nuvi.

The cradle is the part that attaches to the GPS, has the female part for the ball and on my unit has a mini USB port which accepts the DC cable to power the unit. The cradle also allows you to remove only the GPS. Makes it easy to take the unit with you when you exit the vehicle.

Glad you are up and running again.

I know about the connectors. I have an 885 so I know there is no mini connector on the cradle but you didn't specify how you were connecting the unit. You stated you used both cables which implies you used a car adapter. Glad pulling the battery worked though. It's one of those quirks about that series. If it's fully depleted, it flat won't charge with the battery in place so you pop the battery, start it charging and plug the battery back in. Works every time.

When my cradle failed, it was the connector between the GPS and the cradle, not where the cable plugs in. Those exposed pins are fragile.

It could be that the AC adapter you are using is, or is growing marginal at supplying the proper current to the unit. 500mAh (.5 amp) is borderline at the minimum. Most of the higher amperage nuvis will draw more than that and I believe are supplied with 1000mAh (1 amp) power supplies (I'll have to verify this on my end). I do know that the Garmin branded external power supply (AC to mini-USB) supplies 1 amp.

Sounds like the conductors between the battery and the nuvi may have also been dirty. This along with the lower/inadequate current from the power supply may have created the condition you reported.

I would pull the battery again and thoroughly clean the connectors on the nuvi and the mating battery terminals. Since the 8x0/8x5 series has a removable battery, the terminals can very well get dirty/oxidized.

EDIT:
As a point of reference, I just checked my GTM-60 traffic receiver (used with a nuvi 3490) and it's output is rated at 2 amps.

Thanks again for your input and taking the time to try and assist with this problem.

Tried all suggestions and this morning, Sunday, I had a brainwave. Since the GPS was chrging via the mini USB port I knew the charging circuit had to be OK.
The connectors from the GPS and the cradle must hve been the cause. On the GPS itself they are quite delicate and I did not want to damage them. I took a jewellers screwdriver and scraped it across the CRADLE connectors. Plugged it all back in and success at last.
Obviously the contact cleaner did not clean it enough.

No more brick!

Never say never.

Thanks for the follow-up and your ultimate solution. It really helps when users do a follow-up when a solution is found and a problem is solved.