Distorted Recording (purple/black screen)

AviationChris

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Hi have been having issues with my Garmin 55 dash cam for a while now, and almost about to get a new one, but i thought I'd try to troubleshoot this. Bit of background history. I don't have the camera for very long, approaching just over a year and purchased it brand new online. The camera was working fine for a while, but I did get a corrupt SD card message, which upon research, proved to be a memory card issue that came with the device.

I since have changed it and no issues ... for a while. Recently a new issue has come up ... Distorted live recording.

This happens randomly, whereby the the image is completely half black and purple almost; completely unusable. I have attached a screenshot of the video recording. Turning off and on the dash cam does not help, and as I said, it randomly comes like this now and then. Lately it has become a daily occurrence, to a point where the camera is useless. Version and serial are in the attachments.

I thought it may be another SD card issue, but I have recently tried two brand new SD card (compatible, i made sure with the camera) and the problem is still there.

I've also used Garmin Express to upgrade to the latest firmware/software, ver. 4.40, but still makes no difference.

I've almost given up all hope and about to purchase a new camera, but thought I'd try to ask the community if anyone out there has received or experienced similar issues. Please let me know and how you went about resolving this.

Much appreciated.
 

Attachments

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looks like an image sensor issue
interesting, could this be an issue with the dash cam itself? ie. a damaged sensor? if so, will be cheaper to buy a new camera to fix the problem i guess
 
the CMOS sensor looks to be failing, not something you could repair if it is mounted directly to the PCB, would need to see it opened up to confirm if that's the case
 
the CMOS sensor looks to be failing, not something you could repair if it is mounted directly to the PCB, would need to see it opened up to confirm if that's the case
understand ... if i was to take the bottom two screws out and take a photo, would that help? what is the best way i can show this?
 
if the sensor is mounted directly to the mainboard there's nothing you could DIY, if it's on a separate board you can check the connection between the two, a bad connection can cause a similar result to a failing sensor, haven't seen inside one of these but the form factor is typical of a single board design so may be out of luck for any chance of a DIY fix
 
if the sensor is mounted directly to the mainboard there's nothing you could DIY, if it's on a separate board you can check the connection between the two, a bad connection can cause a similar result to a failing sensor, haven't seen inside one of these but the form factor is typical of a single board design so may be out of luck for any chance of a DIY fix
Thank you ... i'll try to remove the coverings without any damage, and will attempt to take any photos that may help. Many thanks for your help. i'm guessing this may be the problem.
 
Did you manage to solve this? I have the Garmin 55 as well and I'm experiencing exactly the same.
 
Hi,
I see that this is an old thread, but I have exactly the same issue with my Garmin Dach Cam 54 (bought in June 2020, broke around June 2023).

I realized that something is wrong when I received the warning that my microSD card might be faulty, then I checked recordings and saw these purple/black video recordings like @AviationChris posted. SD card change gave no effect and distorted video was a normal thing.

After I bought a new dashcam (not from Garmin, because they offered me a new one for twice as much as I paid for the first one - not good customer service :) I dissasembled my Garmin DashCam 54. I couldn't see anything wrong inside, everything seemed to work fine so I assembled it back together - it worked fine for two days in high temperature and the problem was back.
I thought that it might have connection with power source, but then I checked that the problem is agnostic to power source (e.g. Garmin original cables, car charger, powerbank with different cable and so on). It works fine for a short time after assembling it and after a while the purple/black recordings appear. Maybe it's just "planned obsolescence"? Something like 13 years ago I got a simple dashcam as a gift (medicore model 13 years ago) and after all that time it's still recording (it fell multiple times, worked in very high and low temperatures), but Garmin just got totally useless after 3 years.
 
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