Nuvi 670 Speaker Failure

Has ANYBODY had this problem?

You mean NOBODY has experienced a failure in the internal speaker system?

I have had two different Street Pilot 7200s do that but my Nuvi 660 has been going strong for several months.

I bought a Nuvi 680 in March and so far no problems with the internal speaker.

Stan

I keep my nuvi 200 volume at 60%. If I increase it to 70% the sound begins to get distorted. I am wondering if the hardware is designed so that even at 100% the volume isn't high enough to do damage to the speaker.

Good point. I have been consistantly running my sound levels at 90-100% Since my FM transmitter kinda sorta sucks, I need to rely on the audible power of the actual unit. For me it is very hard to hear at 60%.

I have a friend with a Nuvi 660 who has speaker problems. I have been trying to get her to return it before the warranty runs out.

My old 350 had speaker problems when i had the volume set to max.
Not when I 1st got it though.

My coworker and I both have the nuvi 350 and he just started experincing problems with the speaker. Not sure if he has returned it yet or not.

And the speaker is working fine. I think there should be two speakers or one that is larger and louder. There are so many FM channels in the SF Bay Area, there is little use for the FM transmitter here, so I need the speaker.

I hope the speaker lasts.

If your vehicle audio system has a place to plug in an external sound source, plug in your Nuvi. If your vehicle's audio system does not have a place to plug in an external source, it may be possible to add one. Or, replace the car radio with one that has an auxiliary input.

I am on my second 680. on the first one the speaker failed (no sound) after about 3 weeks of use. Now on the second one I am getting the same symptoms as you. Cannot understand anything. I keep the volume up all the way all the time as that is the only way I can hear it over road noise. Everything else works fine including the fm transmitter. I hope I can get Garmin to pay for shipping this time as I cannot afford to keep sending it back

You say the FM transmitter works fine, but I'm guessing you mean it didn't fail but doesn't provide satisfactory sound all the time. Does your car radio have a cassette player? If so, the cassette adapters do a great job; yes, it results in one more cable in view but I can hear. I understand not all adapters have a wheel to allow the tape transport motor to turn normally, so you may want to check that to make sure it doesn't jam the motor and burn it out.

Well...mine just died. (nuvi 660)
On labor day weekend no less.

I was traveling home from a car show and suddenly didnt get the audible for turn.
Its only 2 months old too! I'll be calling garmin on tuesday.

I just sent in my Nuvi 350 for this exact problem. No sound from the speakers. Though if I pluged in headphones I could hear it just fine.

I went to the diagnostic screen and was able to get sound out of the speakers then. Once I exited that no sound....

Makes me think they have a software bug. I was 2 weeks out of warranty but the Garmin rep said they would cover it under warranty anyways.

Keep up the great customer service Garmin!

anyeone else have any other solutions? Since my Nuvi 350 is already way out of warranty, I was thinking of trying to open the unit up and see if I can replace the worn out speaker with something else comparable. Anyone try this route?

i stumbled upon this website that offers to do speaker replacements for GPS gadgets. Anyone tried his services before? Does he do a good job?

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

That's his website.

funny thing is, people spend so much money to get speakers fixed when its not the speaker at all.

the soldering gets loose and one or both of the wires get unattached. Its an easy 2 minute fix that people pay $50 to have Garmin or someone else fix.

"EDUCATE those who don't know so they can continue the cycle."

Take care!

In all the repairs I have done on Nuvi's, and that's literally hundreds, I have never found a loose or broken wire or solder joint on the speaker. The voice coil opens up due to the speaker's limited wattage rating and being overdriven, especially during BT use. On the ones with distorted audio, either the voice coil has shorted turns or the diaphragm is damaged. I've written about this problem on many forums.

- Jim
Electrical Engineer / Ham Radio Operator
SHARCNET-USA

Have you any idea if this can be repaired, according to Garmin this unit can no longer be repaired, which I think is very poor service. I am sure it can't be all that complicated to fix as long as you can get parts.

franko1938 - if you are comfortable working with small electrical parts you could probably change the speaker yourself. Otherwise I'd recommend contacting sharcnet (he posted directly above you) and he could provide you with a repair quote. You can contact him via this site or through his website http://www.sharc.net/gps_repair.htm

Quite an old thread.
This may be a foolish question but I'll ask just the same. Are you sure you don't have the volume muted or the volume turned down? Do you not even get a ping sound out of it? If you do get the ping sound perhaps try changing the TTS voice you have selected to a different one.
If the speaker is in fact bad you stiil can use it using the headphone jack and plug it into your cars auxillary input if so equipped. The cable is not hard to find. Disadvantage is you can never use it in pedestrian mode running off the battery.

Even if you had the ability to replace the speaker you may have difficulty finding a replacement speaker. Ebay used to have many of the 6XX series sold for parts but that is no longer the case.
On the 6xx series the speaker is located on the rear of the casing, just to the left of the power cradle connector. It is quite difficult to access and you may damage the ribbons connecting the LCD and touchscreen to the main board. Unless you have the tools and the ability, I would not attempt it.

If you treasure your 670 I would contact Jim at Shracnet as GadgetGuy2008 suggested.
Here is the link for pricing on speaker replacement for the 670.
http://www.sharc.net/gps_repair_prices_garmin.htm

The 670 is a nice unit, as old as it is it came with 4GB memory since it included the Euro map. Quite rare to have that much memory back in the day.