X-75 dying?

[ShortStorie]

I have a Lowrance X-75 on the bow of my boat (using the MK Universal Sonar transducer). For some time the display has been erratic... particularly if the voltage is below 12.5 Volts. Dark vertical bars appear, widen and sometimes cover the whole screen. The display also appears to shimmer when this is happening. Today it happened after the batteries were fully charged and the voltmeter display on the unit was showing 13-14 volts and the charger was still connected. It went away after the unit was on a few minutes. I suppose there could be a wiring problem but the voltage would have shown a drop, wouldn't it? The unit came with the boat so it is at least 5yrs old...maybe more. Ready to replace it with and Eagle 480 but don't want to do that if there is nothing wrong with the unit.

[Barnacle Bill]

Check for corrosion on your connectors. You might luck out.

[Wannabe...]

Agree. Check the pins on the connectors for the power and the tranducer as well. Clean them with alcohol and a pencil eraser if you find any corrosion. Do you have another unit you can swap to that position - as in a compatable unit at the console? If so, that would eliminate the head unit being the issue and might confirm it to the tranducer or the wiring.

Wannabe...

[Cane Pole]

Try a soft or maybe hard reset. It helps sometimes.

[ShortStorie]

How do I do a "soft" or "hard" reset on the X-75? Thought that was only for the more advanced units. Hmm... Manual whereabouts unknown. Maybe I can find it on line. If it is just a connection issue, I hope it isn't somewhere under the deck. Checked and cleaned all battery terminals and fuses. Cleaned pins on unit. Broke the little plastic "V" shaped locating pin but that doesn't seem to make any difference. Broke the one of my old X-85 too and it continued to work. Wish I hadn't sold it with the old boat... would try swapping it out. Thanks for the suggestions. One question, though... If it were a connection issue, would the unit continue to register voltage of 13+ while connected to charger (unit misbehaves while on charger too).

[Cane Pole]

Reset Procedures | Lowrance

[Cane Pole]

How do I do a "soft" or "hard" reset on the X-75? Thought that was only for the more advanced units. Hmm... Manual whereabouts unknown. Maybe I can find it on line. If it is just a connection issue, I hope it isn't somewhere under the deck. Checked and cleaned all battery terminals and fuses. Cleaned pins on unit. Broke the little plastic "V" shaped locating pin but that doesn't seem to make any difference. Broke the one of my old X-85 too and it continued to work. Wish I hadn't sold it with the old boat... would try swapping it out. Thanks for the suggestions. One question, though... If it were a connection issue, would the unit continue to register voltage of 13+ while connected to charger (unit misbehaves while on charger too).

Battery chargers are a noise source when it comes to electronics. I am not surprised.

[ShortStorie]

Thanks, Cane Pole... I'll go try it right now. Wouldn't have figured it out myself. When I push the "menu" button, dark lines block everything in that part of the screen.

Noticed one thing... voltage is constantly changing slightly from 13.0 to 12.86 and all points in between. Significant? This is with the charger plugged in. I'll try it battery only.

[ShortStorie]

Tried the reset. No change. Tried with and without charger plugged in. No change. Will try to find someone with compatible unit and see if it works on my boat. Hopefully, it will ... Then I can buy the Eagle 480 without worrying that it won't work because of a bad connection.

[Cane Pole]

Tried the reset. No change. Tried with and without charger plugged in. No change. Will try to find someone with compatible unit and see if it works on my boat. Hopefully, it will ... Then I can buy the Eagle 480 without worrying that it won't work because of a bad connection.

Good idea. If that don't work, get a big hammer. That will reset it.

Good luck. This stuff is aggravating at times.