Humminbird 597ciHD Help

I hooked the unit up to the OEM Transducer, nothing, will not read bottom jumps around from 3 ft to 90 ft to 500ft. No image on DI, 200 KHZ or the 83 KHZ Frequency. I bought a Motorguide XI5 and the Humminbird Adapter Cable. Hooked the unit to the XI5 Transducer same thing. I understand on the XI5 I will only get 200 KHZ and or 83 KHZ Images. Called Humminbird I not very happy with their Customer Service, 20 minutes on hold, young girl answered was clueless. The unit passes self test. This happens when boat is not moving at the dock. The water at the dock I know is 5 feet deep and will not register bottom or give images of bottom? Any advice?

Make sure the unit has the latest software.... Restore unit defaults....if unit is set to fresh water, change to saltwater shallow.... You also need to change unit to advanced, under the setup tab...

The first thing to do is make sure it is seated completely into the mount and snapped in. Some times they look in but not all the way. It will get enough power to turn on but not good enough connection for ducer to work. If that dosnt work, dis assemble the mount, remove cables and install power and transducer straight into unit. Be warned with cable out of mount the power cable can be reversed and installed. If you do that it will not power up, just reverse and reinstall.

Thanks for the suggestion will try and see if I can get it to work, only 33 hours on the Unit kinda frustrating!!

i have the same unit, i hate it. does the same with me. i have tried new transducers as well as my u2 on minkota. i finally took it off my boat. it worked great for about a year then went to crap. I have updated software and it still is pile of junk.

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Originally Posted by quadlee

i have the same unit, i hate it. does the same with me. i have tried new transducers as well as my u2 on minkota. i finally took it off my boat. it worked great for about a year then went to crap. I have updated software and it still is pile of junk.

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Exactly, Mine has 33 hours of time on it, I always took the head off during non-fishing months and kept it stored in my home. What is more aggravating is the non-support from Humminbird, 20 minutes on hold, get some young girl who sounded like she was 18, and was completely clueless as I tried to explain what was happening with the unit. I'm done with Humminbird, time to switch to their competitor.

There used to be a couple of Humminbird reps who would respond here to help out, but haven't seen any posts from them for a long time. We also have had lots of praise for their customer service department. Has their service really gotten poor, or could OP have hit them on a bad day? I would certainly try another call....:twocents

I also had bad experience with humminbird with a 999 with less then a year of not much fishing on it
did just like wmac62 did called factory and after a long wait got a smart mouth yongun that didn't know nothing but send it in.
took over 3 weeks to get it back == without any explanation of what was wrong with it or what they did to it so kinda POd at
hummingbird too. after paying big bucks for their product you would expect better then I got from their reps.

Here is a good site to sign up on for Humminbird help and info. They have a section on the 5,6,7 series units as well.

Humminbird Side Imaging Forums - Index

Also go to BassBoatCentral. They have sections on just humminbird. Lot's of good reading over there.

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Originally Posted by cray

Here is a good site to sign up on for Humminbird help and info. They have a section on the 5,6,7 series units as well.

Humminbird Side Imaging Forums - Index

Also go to BassBoatCentral. They have sections on just humminbird. Lot's of good reading over there.

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Just a note about the sideimagingsoft forum ...:

There are no HB employees that frequent that forum since Greg has been too busy to attend ...

It's me and several other HB users that try our best to answer questions there ...

Rickie

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Originally Posted by vic n

There used to be a couple of Humminbird reps who would respond here to help out, but haven't seen any posts from them for a long time. We also have had lots of praise for their customer service department. Has their service really gotten poor, or could OP have hit them on a bad day? I would certainly try another call....:twocents

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Not sure what is going on down there, but when you get a canned response, restore all defaults and if this does not work, send it in with a check for 254.00 dollars and we will fix it!!!! Like I said when I started explaining Motorguide XI5 83 KHZ and 200 KHZ imaging and she was clueless I knew this was a lost cause, if you work in Tech Support at least know something about how the product works

Sorry to hear this wmac62. The customer service is one of the deciding factors for me when choosing products, and that was why I bought H'birds. Guess we made the wrong choice.

Have you dis-assembled the mount where you can plug the cables directly into the head unit like cray mentioned ... ??

These quick detach mounts have some issues sometimes with connections ...

Rickie

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Originally Posted by quadlee

i have the same unit, i hate it. does the same with me. i have tried new transducers as well as my u2 on minkota. i finally took it off my boat. it worked great for about a year then went to crap. I have updated software and it still is pile of junk.

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I have that same unit. I don't use it now, but while I was using it I was very pleased.(everyone has there own experience with customer service. I've always been very pleased) If either of y'all come up around the Kentucky dam area, give me a holler. We can try my transducer on your units or you can try my unit of your boat, to figure out the issues your having.

The latest software version is(7.120)

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Originally Posted by kosmo

I have that same unit. I don't use it now, but while I was using it I was very pleased.(everyone has there own experience with customer service. I've always been very pleased) If either of y'all come up around the Kentucky dam area, give me a holler. We can try my transducer on your units or you can try my unit of your boat, to figure out the issues your having.

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I may take you up on the offer and bring the head unit. Just south of you down here in Dryden Bay Rock Castle Area Cadiz.

Hey guys thanks for the recommendation and advice, tried direct cable connection to the head, updated to latest version nothing.

Can you test the head unit on someone else's boat ... ??

Or test someone else's head unit on your boat ... ??

Rickie