We have had a 997 for 2 months or so, and after installing it ourselves (my dad and I) off of directions that left quite a bit to be desired, we have a few problems.
My main complaint is that we have a fiberglass boat with a curved transom yet the directions show basically a drawing of the simplest, and I assume most ideal scenario, flat backed john boat that it just mounts right on to. Funny it wasn't that ideal for us.
I assume we got it installed right (after about 5 hours) because at low idle speed it appears to work. But when we turn off the main it puts a message up saying low input voltage and won't go off the screen. I have a few ideas what could be wrong, but am not sure.
Also i think it's pretty sh*%$y that we hae to go out and buy through hull transducer and y-cable for an additional $200 to get it even work in the down view mode at high speeds.
Also it will just flat out freeze up sometimes, I know, there is probably some wiring issues, but after taking out the old Lowrance unit and installing this one it seems like there is about 15 different places that could be the problem. The manual is about the same as a how-to manual on heart surgery where the pictures are of the board game Operation. I had a bad feeling about instaslling it ourselves, b/c these types of things have a way to go wrong so that you take it someone and they cahrge $250 to fix it. Maybe we should have just done that, but after $2000 that's not the first thing you want to shell out more money for.
Sorry for venting , but if anyone knows of or has had this problem before I would greatly appreciate the suggestions.