In Champs on Roberts on saturday I never could get GPS to lock in. It was like it had been totally wiped off the unit. My other 2 units in boat that have internal GPS locked on with no issues. Boat ran fine all day and not an issue otherwise. I figured even though unit is new that maybe I had a bad GPS antenna. I had my starting battery basically [censored] out a few weeks back in a freeze but once charged it has been fine. Expecting to have to replace antenna or rewire the unit to fix issue My friend who I keep my boat in his shop found the cause. When I stopped in today to work on my boat he mentioned one battery not charging totally. It wa sthe starting battery anf was only reading 11.9V after a charge. took boat outside and still no GPS lock. Plugged charger in to extension cord and as soon as we did we got GPS working. Just that little bit of difference can make you lose your GPS signal.
Also I have had a bad battery cause the newer Opti/Etec/HPDI engines to cut out when running like they have a fuel issue or are about to blow up. Crazy how it affects all this that much. if you have a GPPS issue you might want to check your battery. Figured I would pass it on.

Thanks Mark

Mine does the same thing after about 8 hours on the water running graphs and livewells. The GPS will randomly lose signal then reconnect, then disconnect and so on. It's painful but by the time it starts I'm finished with fishing for the day.

Sorry I couldn't help earlier I may have brought this up based on what I've seen out of mine.

I had a low voltage problem on my optimax also. replaced battery and all good. weird

Mine looses signal when I start my engine, same voltage issue

It is for this reason I use a dedicated battery for all my electronics. I too had a voltage issue a while back that caused my HPDI to run funny. I moved some things around in the battery compartment and added a 4th battery, did a bit of re-wiring and presto! problem solved. I remedied the strain on the cranking battery and everything has worked fine since. Just glad I had enough room in the back of the old girl to put another battery back there and not create a weight distribution issue.

Not trying to change the subject,but how do you like the1198.Thanks,kes

I had an 1197 that I liked and now the 1198 is just as good but easier to see in the sun. i think GPS wise its a huge step over the Lowrance units I had. I like the way it is real time when running and not a delay. The sonar and the SI are very nice too. I have zero complaints about it.

Thanks,Mark.

Thanks for this post. It explains some prior issues I was having with a 997 unit.

How to turn it on? Lol

My 997 has started locking up and doing goofy stuff. It never did this prior to a unit repair I had done in December. I shipped the unit off for warranty work on Monday but now I'm curious.

What batteries do you run Mark? I wonder if today's electrons are just too much for a single battery plus being a starting battery.

My unit locked completely up on the initial run on Saturday and about 8 more times during the day. Even when I had the big motor running it would lock up.

My 997 is doing the same thing! Totally locks up, have to kill power to the unit to reboot it. Buttons don't work at all. Also dies when I crank the big motor..Let me know what you find out with yours if you can.

Nothing like battery issues. I just replaced all 4 of mine this week. Hopefully I'm good to go for another 3 yrs!

These days you should over spec your cranking amps to compensate for the bigger draw the electronics take. Once you do that you won't have your graph flicker off when cranking. I learned this first hand with my old 997.