fishfinder problems

[stealhead4748]

Last year i bought an Eagle 502c igps in the spring..It worked perfectly for me all year..This year however, its been driving me crazy..The GPS works fine but the sonar is an entirely different story..i can be trolling along in 150ft of water and all of a sudden it will go nuts and read that im in like 2ft of water or while in the same 150ft of water at Cayuga lake the 150 will start blinking and stay at that number though i know im now in 200ft plus of water as though it has lost contact with bottum...Aslo it now rarely if ever seems to be marking any fish... I've got no idea whats wrong with it...I was thinking maybe a noise problem either electrical or air bubbles, but today i shut everything off in the middle of cayuga lake and it still told me i was in 2ft of water...Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated..On a side note probably unrelated, the volume on the keypad and alarms seems to have now stopped working as well

thanks in advance

[Bad Habit]

I've been having the same problem with a Lowrance X-91 for over a year now. Iv'e tried every thing I can think of to fix it. Rewired both batteries along with all electronics( vhs radio, GPS, depth raider, fish finder, down riggers etc.) I checked and cleaned both battery grounds. Checked by perko battery switch connections. Nothing has worked. I called Lowrance and was told it may be a bad transducer and I should buy a new one and try it. I haven't done that because I hate to spend the $$ just to find out it's not the problem. My unit is 7 years old so maybe it's time for a new one. Good luck and let me know if you find a solution.

Rick

[ray koziatek]

go to sonar set up put surface and bottom clutter on low ,ping speed high(different area on menue) and of course angle of transducer slighyly forward is recomended when boat is in water (angle) just guess on trailer by dirt line slightle back will show balls bvut looses signal aT HIGHER SPEEDS..... EVEN IF YOU LOOSE THE NUMBERS PUT IN MANUAL DEPTH SETTING AND IT WILL ALWAYS MARK BOTTEM just start at 500 ft depth the adjust to your closest depth thats what i always do the you can use the zoom feature of you want a good look at bottom or a suspended mark

[Play Penn]

Had the same problem with my Eagle 640c FishElite, good picture until about 80 ft then lost bottom and the auto range went to 5ft. When I got back to shallow water again I would get my picture back. Checked all connections and power source. GPS and temp worked so after calling Eagle, I replaced the transducer. Works good as new less about $60.00. If your unit is around a year old try to get it replaced under warrenty, it's worth the effort. My unit was over 2 years old.

[Mickey Finn]

Had the same problem with my Lowrance. I drove myself crazy trying to figure it out. Changed the transducer and all my problems were gone. Wish I'd done that sooner. If it was working fine and now it isn't, I'd bet on the transducer. They have a way of crapping out during the off season. I've had it happen quite a few times over the years.

[Gray Fox]

Had the same problem a few years back and also changed the transducer and had no more problems.