New fish finder crashed mid-season...

[raider44]

I bought a hummingbird 778c and had problems with it twice. After the first crash I had the transducer replaced, and again today it crashed... Now in the middle of season I am looking to replace the fish finder for around $500-$600 total sonar unit only.

I had a a few in mind- any comment on these or other models would be great.

Lowrance Elite 5X

Furono LS4100

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[seasquirrel]

furuno

[Rich D]

If you can swing the extra$$$ I would go with the Furuno 620. I have seen it for I believe 825.oo with a ducer. Good Luck.

Rich

[Patriot]

I just bought an LS4100 and its a good LITTLE unit. The screen is not real large but it does the job. Make sure the transducer comes with speed & temp unless you have another sourse for speed. The transduce I received wirh mine has temp only and had to order ir seperate. Got mine here at Overtons and was the cheapest around

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product ... D=SHOPPING

And here the x-ducer I needed

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product ... rchID=4006

[Patriot]

If you decide to get the LS4100, I have the 525T-PWD Transom-Mount transducer. Its brand new unused with instructions and boxed, $90 shipped

[motoman]

spend a few more bucks and get the fcv620

[Broadhorizons]

Just wondering, what did Humminbird service say about the unit crashing?

[Mickey Finn]

Was it the transducer again or the unit itself? I just bought the 788C not too long ago. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that it keeps on working. So far, it's been great. Headed out to the big pond for 10 days starting on Thursday. Hoping it will keep on working. You know, $650 ought to get a guy more than half a season out of a unit. Seems like quality control at some of these companies isn't much. It's not the cost that's the problem, it's being without the unit that's the problem. If someone would come out with a reliable unit at that price range, they would have the market to themselves.

[raider44]

Thanks for the advice guys. I am calling hummingbird tomorrow about the unit. They sent me a new transducer after the original one never worked correctly. However the whole unit acted up again on Saturday. My dad is a licensed electrician and said all the wiring is in good shape.. I honestly do not know what the problem is. But this is the second crash since April with this model. I think moving on to a different model is best bet. No hard feelings against hummingbird.

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[American-Honey]

I bought a new 757c for this season and also had trouble with it. They sent me out a new transducer twice and everything was good each time for about a month. Failed again on me and I sent the unit and transducer back last week. They have repaired it and I should have it back tomorrow. Haven't heard what they found or repaired, but I'm hoping this will take care of my issues. It has been frustrating having so many issues with a brand-new piece of equipment and I wasn't too happy about spending money on it to ship it back. But at least so far their customer service has been good and hopefully will be able to resolve it. Don't like the idea of having to buy something else. Well, I probably wouldn't mind it, but the wife would kill me!

[Yankee Troller]

I have a 958 and an 1157. I have updated both of them with the latest software releases, and I can't say enough about them. I have them interlinked, and I am running an Airmar B60 transducer (not a stock humminbird ducer). A buddy of mine has the 788combo unit and he loves his. He hasn't had any issues. I know Billy has run his for the past few seasons without any issues, and now Runnin Rebel and Team Vision Quest is running Hummingbirds.

However, Raider your the second or third person I have heard with issues on the 700 series from this forum. I wish it wasn't the case, because mine have been solid.

[raider44]

Strangley enough I ended up with the same model. Hunmingbird would not do a refund, so I took the unit back to basspro and they gave me store credit. The selection was rather limited and the 778 was the best model they had... so, round 3!! Hopefully 3rd time is the charm.

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[K Gonefishin]

Raider a guy on OGF (Commadore 64) is having issues with a 7 series bird right now, look under the electronics forum. someone posted a link to a forum I guess many guys are having the same issue as he is. losing bottom and not marking fish. Nobody is perfect. Bird, Lowrance whoever.

[Commodore64]

I'm a member here too, and I am having issues with my 788CI, just as noted over at OGF. Worked fine for a few days, now it will barely mark the bottom. I won't want to play this swap game...at all.

What a PITA.

[Billy V]

I've put an email in to the Humminbird brand manager to see if there's something going on with the 700 series. Is it just that the unit is losing bottom? What exactly is it doing when it "crashes"? Is it powering off completely?

My 955C and my 1157C have both been flawless, so I'm wondering if there's a software glitch in the 700 series. I'll let you guys know what I hear back.

[K Gonefishin]

Thanks for looking into this for a couple Ohio boys Billy, much appreciated. Commodore is a friend of mine. Something isn't right this issue defintely is happening with the 700's as noted by many others as I poked around on some links I found other thread on OGF. These two fellas aren't the only guys having this issue. I know people with 800, 900 and 1100 series down here in Ohio and nobody is having this issue either.

[American-Honey]

With my 757c, I would start losing the bottom graphics that would quickly degrade down to showing almost nothing of the bottom. They would send me a new transducer and it would work fine again for about a month each time. Then I would notice small gaps in the bottom display. Over about 2 days it would then degrade down to shown a small pulse of the bottom every 10-15 secs and then basically down to nothing and completely losing the bottom depth. GPS and temperature worked fine. I get mine back from repair today, interested to see if they say what was repaired.

[raider44]

Thanks Billy- like the other guys have stated, the main problem is losing bottom after a month or so of use. In addition, not marking many fish, missing gaps in returns, marking fish below the bottom (not sure how that happens but it does), and very cluttered screen.

Hummingbird has been helpful with customer service, but with this many of people having troubles with them I think some sort of "recall" should be considered.

[American-Honey]

Got mine back yesterday with a replacement transducer, no mention of what was repaired or if even an issue was found. I'm going to call them today. Really would like to know if they found something and what the issue was. If they just sent it back with a new transducer, I won't be happy if I am going through this again in another month.

[American-Honey]

Talked to Humminbird and they said my issue was the transducer again. Seems they had a bad batch of transducers that delaminate inside over time and cause the issues that I reported. They sent me back a transducer with my unit that they supposedly thoroughly tested. I hope that is the case, but I have my reservations. Not gonna be happy if I am going through this pain again in another month. This will be the 4th transducer I have put on since spring.

[Knotlost]

I know exactly what your referring to, I had a new unit, and it too lost bottom, and would do it all the time. The GPS worked fine (700 series) all the time, but the sounder wouldn't work, I sent it in and they reflashed the CMOS (reprogrammed the brain for you fish heads). I got it back and it only worked a little while so they sent me a new transducer, that seem to fix it for good. It apparently has something to do with the transducer.

I was a pain but I don't care who you buy from there are many things that can go wrong with any brand you buy. I guess I don't consider a transducer problem as a big deal in life with all the real bad things that can happen, its just a inconvenience.

Mine is now working very well and I still think its a great unit with all that it has and dose. I took the transducer they sent me and upgraded it to the 4 beam to give me a wider view and real like that as well.

[58Johnson]

Same issues from 768 combo.

Loses bottom randomly

No longer marks fish arches

Humminbird customer service says send it in cause I've already swapped transducers with no improvement, set the unit to salt water deep with no improvement, set surface clutter to 10 with no improvement, turned off all other electronics with no improvement, etc, etc.

Unit worked GREAT when new. Tracked downrigger balls well past 100ft. Now it distracts me from fishing. Too bad.

[shadster]

It is quite apparent that Hummingbird has a problem with this unit and should come to a settlement with those who own it regardless of any warranties. It is not fair to put out that amount of money and have to put up with the aggravation and downtime. How many times are you expected to send it in?

[Mickey Finn]

Add my new 788C to the junk pile! Just put it on earlier this summer. It crapped out on me at the beginning of my 10 day trip to Henderson. I was just crossing my fingers that I didn't loose another transducer on my Lowrance or that would have been the end of that trip. How can they sell crap like this without testing it enough to find out these flaws? I don't know anyone who has one that hasn't experienced this problem. Guess I've got to call them and most likely listen to some CSR tell me that he's not aware of anyone else having these issues. Man, I hate buying expensive junk!

[58Johnson]

To be fair to Humminbird here is an update:

Downloaded software update to SD card and loaded into fishfinder after restoring defaults. Unit said version was the same as what I already had and no update was needed.

The non update has dramatically improved things. I lose bottom really infrequently for only seconds now. I know things were updated because TVG was replaced by Switchfire in the sonar menu.

I am also now using the quad transducer. Both quad and dual were losing bottom previously. I stayed with the quad because it seemed like it was a better quality unit. I don't know if the dual ducer was the cause of the problem previously.

So...all is working well now for me. I have fish arches, can track downrigger balls to 100+ feet and do not lose bottom frequently.

Lets see if this lasts. Fishing is more fun now.