Garmin Forerunner 305 Won't Switch On

Quite a few of the books and training plans I have ask for your resting heart rate.... and I have never found out what mine is. Apparently the best time to check is when you wake up, and before you do anything at all.

So late last night I decided to go to bed wearing my Garmin chest strap and keep my watch on the bedside table. This would allow me to flick it on and take HR easily. Only problem was the Garmin watch would not switch on :shock:

I have a Garmin Forerunner 305, and I've never had ANY problems with it, ever. I had a fiddle with it before deciding that I must have left it switched on after my run earlier in the evening draining the battery, and as I had the cradle at work I had to wait until today to get it working again.

Today, after putting it into the charging cradle - nothing happened.... not even a little message to say charging. Totally Dead. oh dear. I spent a while trawling forums in th desperate search for help. I came across a post which gave instructions on how to reset the Garmin Forerunner 305. 

Before resetting I decided to uninstall all Garmin browser plugins and software and reinstall the latest versions (most were outdated anyway). I then followed the instructions below. I didn't have any success with either method. I assumed I could be doing it wrong and so repeated both reset methods several times. Suddenly, and unexpectantly it beeped to life !!! Chuffed :)

Heres the reset methods I tried:

To perform a Garmin Forerunner 305 soft reset, please follow the steps below.

1. Press and hold the “Mode” button in.
2. While holding “Mode” press “Lap” also.
3. Hold both “Mode” and “Lap” together for around 5-7 seconds.

After you have done this release the buttons and try turning the unit on. If the unit doesn’t turn on try putting it on the charger and repeat.

To perform a Garmin Forerunner 305 master (hard) reset, please follow the steps below:

1. Make sure the unit is powered off.
2. Press and hold the “Mode” button in.
3. While holding “Mode” turn the unit on.

The unit will ask you if you would like to erase all user data. Please go to yes and hit enter.

Whassup?

I still don't know the cause of my little problem. I have almost certain that I did not leave it switched on after my run, so I don't think battery drain was to blame. I've read several posts about water issues - mine has never been exposed to rain or overly wet conditions.

However a few days ago I did delete all the run/cycle history from the watch. And the evening that the watch died was the first time I use the 'course' option to race against myself. Although I have used the course option on the bike, so this shouldn't be an issed. The firmware is uptodate. I hope that is my problems gone :S