Hook 5: Bought in July, Dead by September - Help?
 

This thing was awesome while it worked - and I've come to rely on it.

But now it seems to be dead.

Nope, didn't ever roll the kayak or dunk the unit (I did wash it off with freshwater after each use).

Nope, it's not the battery or connections - I bought a brand new Nocqua lithium battery for it and checked voltage all the way to the red terminal end of power - over 12volts going into the unit.

Nope, not any butt connectors screwing things up - again, I checked it with voltmeter, 12volts all the way the red connecting nut.

Symptoms: Went to power it up, Hook5 logo came on for a minute or two and then screen went black. Subsequent attempts, a brief flash on the screen and then nothing.

Lowrance Customer Support isn't available on the weekend (I already tried to call).

Any advice for me? I know there will be wide ranging opinion but what are you guys liking out there in terms of reliability? I like the split screen feature of the Hook5 with GPS and side scan screens side by side - is there something better out there?

I'd hate to kiss 360 bucks good bye but if there's something out there that's much better I might consider it.

Anybody else have similar problems with a Hook5? I'm all ears - just trying to prepare myself for the fight to come.

regardless of your voltmeter reading it seems like symptom of low voltage, I would start my testing with a different battery if possible.

I was in the same predicament, also bought mine in July and tested everything and thought everything, meaning batteries, connectors etc. were ok. Make a long story short, it was the power cable(red). Went to West Marine together with the unit - which I strongly advise, and have it plugged in with one amongst the display and check to see if it powers up, thankfully mine did! And buy the replacement cable. Hopefully it solves the problem.

Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.

I found plug was arcing and burnt. Instead replacing the transducer cable, lt was cost effective just to replace the whole unit.
I make the battery connection now after connecting cable to the F.F.

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Tested it with two different batteries - a lithium (Nocqua brand) replacement battery and a sealed lead acid battery - both won't get the unit to power up. Neither will the Hobie kit battery and all read approx. 12.8 volts at rest on my meter.

Wired the unit directly (through the power cable) to a brand new battery - nothing.

Ok - so, :dontknow:

Ok - that's a good next step - I'll go see if I can test the unit out at West Marine and report back. BTW - did they sell replacement power cables there at West Marine?

Should be under warrantee, if you got it at WEST Marine they might just trade it out.

Yes, still under warranty.

I went to West Marine and they let me hook it up to the power cable for their Hook5. It was a NO GO. So, my assumption is that the unit is defective.

I'm going to call up Lowrance on Tuesday and see how that whole thing goes.

Anybody ever call up Lowrance for an issue like this? Any words of wisdom/advice/warnings?

Here's how I fixed the issue.
 

Since it actually comes on, it is not a power issue. Hook it up to your battery in the dark and see what you see on the screen. You have to be careful on the water if you lean on the power button and the left arrow, it will dim the display.

Lowrance's hook models suck! I've had 5 break on me. Each one only lasting 2-3 months. Granted I fish 30-50 times in that time frame it wont matter if you baby the shit out of them. They will still corrode. Somehow, water got into your sd card slot and corroded the inside. It might not look corroded but it sounds like thats your problem. If you try turning it on/ off enough it will probably start to lock on a white screen when powered up or flash in rainbow colors.

I'd recommend switching to an Elite 7-Ti if you can afford it. Haven't had a single problem with it yet and it sucks having this corrosion issue happen when you need it the most. I'd send it in to lowrance for a replacement. If a new one doesn't get back to you in 2 weeks or less call lowrance again because they probably forgot about you. Took me over a month on 2/5 occasions...

X2 on the SD card slot. Do youself a favor and buy from West Marine and buy the extended warranty.

I had a Hook 5 for all of one trip, rinsed it down and the SD card slot had a punky gasket. Returned it and got a new one.

On the new one, I applied clear caulk around the door. If you need to access the door, just scrape the caulk off, do your upgrades, etc and then reapply the caulk. Pretty cheap solution with minimal downside.

I've heard nothing but negative on the Hook series, even from my freshwater bretheren in AZ. Same type of issues, same eventual solution (return and upgrade to something else.)

Weak link
 

On a lot of models . Great idea though.

Im willing to bet your brightness is all the way down. Power it up and when it goes black press the power button quickly a few times and see if the brightness goes back up

Called Lowrance customer service and they sent me a return authorization number and so I'm sending it back in.

Tried to see if the screen was just dimmed way down by doing what some of you suggested (power it up, push power a few times etc.) and.... nothing. It's not dimmed down because it doesn't even power up. It's dead.

I'm not sure if they'll allow me to upgrade but I'll try... and next time I will buy from West Marine and get the upgrade warranty.

I'll keep you posted on how this all works out.

Pretty funny - just looked closely at the return label Lowrance sent to me and it turns out the address is up at the Otay Mesa border crossing. It's 12 miles from my house so I'm going to drive it over there.

The place is a freight forwarding company so my buddy (who lives near La Paz) and I are laughing - we think they just freight forward the unit to the little dude who fixes all his electronics.

He told me that one of his captains once sank one of his boats - they took all the electronics into town and the guy fixed every single one of them - good to this day.

He also told me that regardless of what the unit says - it's not splash proof/water proof.

Do you guys run your units exposed to splashing etc? I'm thinking about putting a plastic bag over mine when I'm out there from now on.

A clear one.

I'm on my 2nd Hook5. The first got splashed and dunked in the surf and failed after about 6 months. Corrupted graphics, unresponsive buttons, rebooting itself etc.

Swapped out at WestMarine because I had he extended warranty (after a bit of runaround from them) and now I drybag the unit during launch and landing. It's been another 6 months and so far I've only had one day when the buttons didn't respond.

the reason for the address being at the border crossing is that Lowrance has a factory down by Ensenada.