Lowrance Hook 4X darkening screen?

I have a Hook4x by Lowrance that I use on my kayak a few times a month. I bought it new in 2016 from Cabela's for my kayak. When it it not in use, the unit is kept wrapped in a microfiber cloth and stored inside a liquid-tight plastic box. In other words, it gets babied.

Last weekend, the screen started running dark where it was difficult to read. During the week, I readjusted the brightness setting and thought I'd corrected the problem. The unit starts out right and the screen is easy to read as soon as I fire it up, but after an hour of use, the brightness level of the screen gradually gets dim enough where it is difficult to ready in bright sunlight.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of problem and what, if anything Lowrance did to correct the problem? This unit has the easiest life of any depthfinder I've owned and is giving problems far too early in its life in my opinion. It is nowhere near the top of the line, but I expect for a depthfinder to last much longer than this one has. It still works, just not like it should,


Jim

My previous Elite 5DSI, and now my Hook 7, spend their off hours in a cotton drawstring bag .... and that bag is inside of a waterproof bag (that sits inside a 5gal bucket) ... so, yeah, I "baby" my unit much the same way.

My Lowrance Elite 5DSI screen would darken late in the day, after several hours of trolling (back when I was using a Group 27 battery that was several years old). If I let off the trolling motor, the screen would lighten back up for a few more minutes .... but, if I didn't let off of the trolling motor, the unit would simply shut off. The battery was the problem ... just wasn't big enough to troll hard for 4-5hrs and have enough power to run the depth finder. A Group 29 battery solved that problem.

Maybe your battery isn't holding enough charge to keep the unit operating at full tilt :dono

Thanks for the reply Pappy. The battery is a 8.0 Ah I got at Cabelas that lives in a liquid tight box stored indoors when not in use. It only powers the depthfinder and it gets recharged after every use. I bought a Werker 1000 mA charger for it that's way better than the piece of junk that was sold with the battery. This charger drops into trickle mode when the battery's reached maximum charge, so as not to burn it up. I don't have any way to load test the battery, but I do have an old hand held MK battery indicator that shows the level of charge in the battery, which says it's holding a charge. Maybe I'll just get another battery, like you suggested, to prove it one way or another. Gracias.

Jim