Lowrance Elite 7. What Rubbish.

 Apologies for the rant.

With the weather looking ordinary for the Christmas break we decided to give the annual Abrolhos dash a miss and look for a new spot closer to town and do a bit of camping.

Mates old man has a nice little 4.3 Cc that just needed a new sounder installed. He had got a good deal on an elite 7 at the Mandurah boat show so figured we had that all sorted. Took a few hours to pull the floor up and do a spot on job of the install. Fired up in the driveway. All good so far.

Pull up at the campsite and get ready to go drop the pots in. Unit fires up and I enter a couple of marks. Drop the boat in and the sounder decides to not fire up. Start up screen saying Elite 7/ Lowrance and that's it. Won't boot up.

Day 1 of a 3 day trip and the brand new Lowrance electronics fail.

Make a couple of phone calls from the highest hill in the area and find that it is a comman problem and they need a software upgrade and reboot. Are you kidding me? It's a brand new unit. No chance of that happening with no Internet, laptop, sd-micro sd cards etc. 

If you have one of these units I would recommend you update the software ASAP. It seems it is a know problem but dealers don't seem to be too proactive about fixing the issues. 

If you are in the market for a similar unit I would recommend something more reliable, anything else. Really put a downer on my sons first away trip with the men.

 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?


Wazza79's picture

Posts: 315

Date Joined: 23/05/11

Just put one in myself.

Tue, 2013-12-31 16:39

 Hey dodgy,

Just got myself a new Elite 7 DSI too.  Tried it for the first time this week and very impressed.  Haven't had any dramas.

How do you find out what version of software is required?

Bummer about your situation though.  Flying blind ain't good.

Cheers

 

Wazza

 

Posts: 4578

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Who really knows? Latest on

Tue, 2013-12-31 16:46

 Who really knows? Latest on the website is the best I can suggest. Just got to accept that the company will use the consumer for its product testing. 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Posts: 23

Date Joined: 12/05/13

 I put in a new 7" Simrad

Tue, 2013-12-31 17:11

 I put in a new 7" Simrad setup and had the chart constantly freezing. Updated to the latest software and haven't had a drama exept sometimes it takes half hour and a few restarts to find satellites! Being on holiday is a bad time to find problems, at least my dramas were just in the sound honing my wrasse and butterfish catching skills!

Posts: 5981

Date Joined: 17/06/10

mongerals

Tue, 2013-12-31 17:16

Unfortunately what dogy says has a ring of truth about it, a friend of mine had a similar experience with a electronic device (not lowrance) and to say he was not impressed is putting it mildly. I hope the kids still have a good time camping. What is also said about some, not all people not wanting to know about the customer after they have taken your money is, unfortunately also true.
I hope the camping with the kids turns out ok.

Posts: 4578

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Thanks Meglodon. The young

Tue, 2013-12-31 17:21

 Thanks Meglodon. The young bloke still had a ball. Learnt a few new words directed at the offending unit but was still a good time all round. Got his first Dhu which was a bit of a milestone.

Waited a couple of days to post until I had cooled down a little.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Posts: 4578

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Pretty sure the Simrads use

Tue, 2013-12-31 17:18

 Pretty sure the Simrads use the same processors as the hds series. Not wrong about being pissed off about it this time of year particularly. Trying to warn as many as I can to steer clear of these toy units.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

beau's picture

Posts: 4104

Date Joined: 24/01/10

Maybe the new update came out

Tue, 2013-12-31 18:06

Maybe the new update came out while the unit was sitting on the shelves?

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tot's picture

Posts: 1161

Date Joined: 31/01/10

try a mobile phone gps program

Tue, 2013-12-31 19:31

would involve a drive to get reception to download but might be worth it?
how did you post?
or are you home now?

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Reverse cycle a/c supply and install - Ducted and wall splits

Posts: 4578

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 I'm at home now. I do have

Tue, 2013-12-31 20:12

 I'm at home now. I do have the navionics app and we did use it to drift over some ground. Nothing like putting in brand new electronics and having to rely on a $15 app....

Still bagged out on dhu each of the 3 days but would of been nice to see what we were going over.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?