GPSrChive Discussion Forum

I get the message "Lost Satellite Reception" quite regularly since I upgraded to firmware version 5.50. It usually happens shortly after powering the device on and always after it had already acquired a GPS fix. The message disappears after a few seconds without further ado. I do not remember this happening even once with the firmware version 3.80 with which the unit was delivered.

ewald.gruen,

Thank you for the updated information!

We have passed it along to the Garmin Software Engineers.

Today I was able to capture it via screenshots:


The 65s that lay next to it did not lose reception:

I got in touch with Garmin support and they exchanged my 66sr for a new one. I received it Thursday of last week and so far I haven't had any issues. Garmin tech support was awesome, 5/5 stars.

Fingers crossed for you!

How do you get new CPE files loaded to your 66sr?

Garmin Express, Garmin Explore, etc. ?

Personally I can't update with Garmin Connect and Explore, just with Express.

I upgraded my GPSMAP 66sr from software version 5.20 to 5.50. In Setup > About it also reported that the GPS software version went from 2.00.05 to 2.00.06 at that time.

There is definitely something very wrong. Before upgrading, it found satellites very quickly on power-on, every time. But now it fails to find any satellites, most of the time. Sometimes it recovers after a few minutes, or a power cycle. I do have CPE: Current.

I then downgraded to Software Version v5.40. (Note, if you downgrade, you lose all your settings and data. Make sure you have backups or can sync from Explore, for example.) My GPS Software Version is still 2.00.06. The problem did not go away - still no satellite acquisition. Right now it has not found satellites after 4 power cycles with several minutes between.

My next step is to try going back to v5.20. I really hope that fixes it.

Before downgrading from v5.40 to v5.20, I started playing around with settings. I found a fix, of sorts. In Setup > System > Satellite, change Satellite System from "Multi-GNSS" to "GPS only." Once I made that change, the GPSMAP 66sr immediately acquired the satellites. It continued to work after reboot.

I upgraded back to v5.50 and it is the same. Multi-GNSS fails to acquire satellites at all, GPS-Only works. Also, setting GPS-Only mode turns off Multi-Band. Either I didn't notice this at v5.40 or it works differently in that version. I don't understand why you can't run GPS-Only in multi-band but it won't do it.

With GPS-Only, and Multi-band off, I get 10 ft reported accuracy. With Multi-GNSS and Multi-band on, I always saw 6 ft reported accuracy. With v5.50 I can turn on Multi-band and Multi-GNSS after it finds the satellites, and get 6 ft accuracy, but after restarting the unit I have no satellites.

This is great info for the Garmin software engineers to read, thank you!

Hello, I am having the exact same issue with my SECOND GPSMAP 66sr in a week. Just like others have stated, the device worked fine for several days and then just out of now where had serious struggles picking up any Sat Signal no matter the environment. At one point mine sat on top of a plastic cooler in the middle of a large field on a cloudless day for over 45 minutes before it was able to obtain any signal at all. I purchased this first unit on Sunday, I returned it to the store and got a replacement on Tuesday (Yes I am 100% sure they did not accidentally give me the first one back). The 2nd one worked awesome for about 2 days, and I really ran it through the paces, geocaching, hiking, riding my motorcycle, and just fiddling with it, in general, to get to know it. Then out of nowhere, today it started doing the exact same thing as the first did. I'd say about 60-70% of the time that I turn it on, this problem exists. Occasionally it will resolve itself after 20 minutes or so, but occasionally it will not resolve itself at all. After reading through posts on this thread I tried turning multi-band and multi-GNSS to "GPS only" and then back, and that fixed the issue. As of now, I have full functionality of the device if I just leave it in GPS only and it grabs the signal immediately on power up. If I want high accuracy, I just have to turn on MULTI-GNSS/MULTI-BAND manually for each instance that I want to use it. This is frustrating, but not a deal breaker for me, as I really like the unit when it's functioning. I factory reset both units holding "Enter, Page" and powering on, deleting all user data. This fixed the problem for about 10 power cycles, and then the issue returned. Hoping Garmin can fix this so I can just leave Multi-Gnss on and not have to fiddle with stuff just to get it to work as designed.