Garmin 680 (internal speaker)

http://www.sharc.net/gps_audio_repair.htm. Jim from Sharcnet (user ID Sharcnet) is a member of this forum and you can contact him through the contact tab. Many POI Factory members over the years have used the Sharcnet repair service with good results. If you search the forum you will find many testimonials.

Incidentally, welcome to the forum!

I love that Garmin still has info and manuals for the ancient nuvis!

Before trying something serious, Lou, check p 29 of the owners manual:

http://static.garmin.com/pumac/nuvi680_OwnersManual.pdf

I'm pretty sure that the old nuvis that offered a FM transmitter option (to play through the vehicle's audio system without need for a cable) would mute the internal speaker when the FM transmitter was active. If that's it, just disable the FM.

How could this happen? From the manual, apparently a quick double tap of the nuvi's power button switches from internal speaker to FM transmitter.

I had forgotten about that little quirk. I hope that fixes it for Lou Ross

I never knew that tidbit of info!

If Lou has sound through the headphone jack, then the fm transmitter is shut off.

When switching to fm, the Nuvi shuts off both the speaker audio and headphone jack audio.

The headphone jack audio is derived from the speaker audio. When headphones are plugged in, a switch in the headphone jack disconnects the speaker audio and sends the audio out through the headphone jack at a reduced level.

No speaker audio can be caused by a defective speaker or broken leads of the headphone jack that can come loose from the board.

However if Lou hardly uses the headphone jack, it is most likely a bad speaker. I've seen this problem many times. The factory speaker is underrated and loud audio and the click when using the hands free calling, pops the speaker or damages it, causing distorted audio or no audio at all.

Good info. Thanks.

There were a lot of Nuvi 6x0 and 3x0 units that were having internal speakers fail.

The factory had to replace them (these were resold or replaced as refurbished units) but had to come up with a quick way to prevent the rest of the units out there that hadn't failed yet.

Some of you may have recalled seeing the factory coming out with updates to the voice files to reduce the audio levels. This helped to prevent further failures but then owners begin to complain that the Nuvi audio was too low to overcome road noise.

A higher rated wattage speaker is the best solution as a fix but too costly for the factory to do a recall.

You can pretty easily remove/replace the battery and/or speaker. Here is a YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbOknpt2Qo
Here is another guide (no video) specifically on the speaker.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Garmin+Nuvi+680+Speaker+Replace...

No you just need to find a speaker and maybe swap the connector/wire.
Check it first to make sure it is a dead speaker. You can use a AA battery or ohmmeter. Listen for a click.

For me that procedure doesn't look all that easy. With my fumble fingers, I would probably break a cable or connector. and make the 680 completely unusable.

That said, on an older unit like the 680 it probably isn't worth the cost of repair. If it was me I would not be willing to spend very much on that unit considering its age and limitations. If you can find a cheap replacement speaker, what do you have to lose in trying to fix it yourself? Otherwise, it may be time to either discard it, or just keep using it in its present condition.

One thing you could do since the earphone connection is still working is get a cheap battery powered external speaker that will plug into the earphone jack. For example, something like this might work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Battery-Powered-Mini-Speake...