Bought a HDS12 Gen2 Touch October 2013. About 4 mos ago I noticed the unit was occasionally powering itself off and occasionally self-dimming itself (which you can do a quick touch of power button and the screen comes back), like twice a a day maybe. Should have, but didnt engage with Navico/Lowrance on it at the time. So fished that Squaw Creek HS tourney a few weeks ago and the thing is self dimming every 2 minutes or so and shutting itself off every 20 mins or so. Checked all power connections, and they seemed locked down tight. I downloaded the latest firmware, but have not had a chance to get the boat back out yet and see if it helps any. I called Lowrance, and they said its probably a hardware problem, and offered me to upgrade to the HDS-12 Gen3 Insight unit for $1575.00 (since mine is three mos out of warranty). Not real happy with a $3,000 unit croaking out after 2 years, so not sure I want to get in any deeper with Lowrance candidly. Was wondering if anyone had similar problems and if a hard reset or a firmware upgrade resolved before I go plunking down money on this problem?

It sounds to me like your battery is getting weak. How old is the battery? Water or gel? If water, have you checked it lately to make sure it's not dry?

I had similar issues and it turned out to be the wiring I had tapped into. I re-ran a dedicated set off wires to the battery and all my problems went away. The factory wiring had too many branches and splices for all the juice my graph was pulling.

Its water, worth checking that. I quick charged it and noticed it only got to 92% last week.

Run dedicated wiring from the battery to the unit.

Just go get some red and black 12 awg and do one wire to positive terminal and black to negative terminal on cranking battery -- right?

Simple answer is yes.. However, I think it's recommended you have a Fuse block back close to the battery. Also, many guys install a Switch between the graphs and the battery. In addition, make sure you have the 5a fuses from the main HDS lead still inline.

Preciate the tips, replaced battery, upgraded software, and ran direct wire and no problems in over two hours on Lewisville this morn (stuck some keeper fish too, surprised those fish were as shallow as they were)

How is lewisville doing right now? I was going to go up to DFW to see my dad. He keeps his boat on lewisville, thought I might take my rig up there and do a little fishing while we were hanging out. Where are some good spots and what bait works well?

Ryan

I was catching them on split shot rigs, with a grande bass rattlesnake or a fluke in 2 to 5 ft of water. Sneaky petes is good, around the I35 bridge is worth trying to (and coves around there). Talked to a guy at ramp and he acted like he hammered em shallow as well. There were a lot of sand bass fisherman out, so you could fall back to that if you wanted to just catch something.