touch screen problem

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:39 pm

I have a Dakota 20 which I love and has worked well until recently. The touch screen is not accurate. I touch one letter but a different letter, or no letter, shows on the screen.
Sometimes I punch the letter many times before anything happens. Changing the battery helped a little, but didn't fix it. I am wondering if anyone has had this kind of problem and if so, what did you do?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:58 pm

I have the Oregon and that often happens to me when the letters or numbers are at the edges of the screen. I have found that a lighter touch seems to help with this problem, but not always. I know that's not much help.

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:19 pm

We had that problem with our first Dakota 20. Since we bought it at REI, and they have a generous return policy, we brought it back and they gave us a new one right away. That's one of the reasons I like REI.

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:51 pm

Ummmmmmmm, try cleaning the screen, and make sure you do not have a screen protector on?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:57 pm

Sally I know exactly what you mean - those touchscreen units can get wonky after a while. We really like the Dakota/Oregons, but after the issues we had with the first one (which like I said earlier they replaced promptly at no charge) when we became a two-GPSr couple we decided to get a non-touchscreen unit also. So Kim uses the Garmin Dakota20 (which has a touchscreen) and I use the Garmin GPSMAP62s (which has buttons), and we like both. Plus we have an iPhone4 as a backup for spontaneous caching. The Dakota we've had for almost 2 years, and the GPSMAP for about a year; we'll see how long each one lasts. They both get a lot of use. Kim dropped the Dakota in the Rock river in the winter, and when she fished it out about 20 minutes later it was still working just fine!

WGA Member Joined: 2008-09-10 Posts: 231

Try calibrating the screen and see if that helps
"Setup>? Display> Press To Begin Screen Calibration> Follow the instruction>"