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How to get the Garmin heart rate monitor to work after a Battery change

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Daniel Wasser

This week I tried to change the Battery on my Garmin heart rate monitor ( HRM2-SS ). The change itself is not that difficult – only remove the 4 screws at the backside, open the cover, change the old Battery with a new CR2032, close the cover and place the screws back. After that the Heart rate was not shown in my Forerunner or Edge…
To fix the problem I tried to reconnect the monitor with the forerunner manymany times – without any success.
A colleague of mine who uses a (optical) nearly similar polar heart belt, gave me the hint to short-circuiting the monitor for a few minutes. Bypassing the battery contacts should cause a reset of the device. This could easily done with a paper clip or by inserting the battery in the wrong direction. The contacts of the monitor are installed in a way that the misplaced battery will only cause a bypass between the two contacts. Be careful: don’ t give reverse polarity to the device – only bypass the connectors!
After this procedure the heart rate monitor build up a proper connection to my garmin computers and every thing works as expected. By the way – i love my Garmin devices!

262 thoughts on “How to get the Garmin heart rate monitor to work after a Battery change”

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Anton on March 31, 2013 at 14:01 said:

Ha! You gotta love the internet.
I had huge problems getting my HR sensor to work after I changed the battery. The thing just refused to work.

Then I found your two year old post, short circuited the device and hey presto! It all works properly again.

Thanks a lot!
Cesare on May 10, 2013 at 21:58 said:

Thank you!!! Now my HRM work!
Ahbe on May 24, 2013 at 22:52 said:

Thank you! Your post saved me a bunch of headache. My HR is working perfectly again.
Xristodoulopoulos on May 29, 2013 at 21:45 said:

Serious solution! God bless you! If exists! lol
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PeninsulaRider on June 22, 2013 at 6:33 said:

Great fix. The humble paperclip across both contacts had me up and running in 3 minutes. Thanks heaps.
Tony on July 1, 2013 at 20:32 said:

Unbelievable 1st 30 minutues of frustration, 2nd 10 minutes searching the internet and 3rd 2 minutes doing what was suggested here. And it works!!! Troubleshooting on the internet seems to be so much easier than listening to the manufacturer!!!
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Julio C. on October 9, 2014 at 4:43 said:

Amazing!, I just do it and works perfect! Thank you very much!
Caz on October 11, 2014 at 16:15 said:

Problem solved! thank you for this..
Jamie B on October 17, 2014 at 7:31 said:

Wow! Thank you! Garmin mailed me a new HRM3-SS strap + transmitter to replace my HRM2-SS when it stopped working. I presumed the battery was dead, but that didn’t work. Then I tried changing the strap to no avail. I then contacted Garmin to ask if the transmitters typically failed. Their solution was to “one time” offer me a replacement HRM3-SS upgrade for my out-of-warranty item. That made me happy but I then found this blog and pulled out my old HRM2-SS from the closet and presto! It took a minute or two but I saw my Garmin Edge read, “HR Detected” and knew it was connected. Why didn’t Garmin instruct me to try this rather than mail me a $70 strap!?
Patrick Trowbridge on October 17, 2014 at 18:12 said:

Amazing! After hours of messing around it took just 2 minutes. You just saved me £40. An enormous thankyou.
Tiago on October 25, 2014 at 0:33 said:

Great help! After testing two different brand new batteries, measuring voltage, searching for hints on youtube, I finally found this and could have my garmin HR pair again!
Julio Vásquez on October 29, 2014 at 21:28 said:

Really this procedure Works very well , Garmin would be indicates in the operation manual of device
David on December 18, 2014 at 8:54 said:

Worked a treat, thanks! 🙂
jazun on December 19, 2014 at 10:06 said:

ha ha! first time to replace my old garmin hrm batt since 2010…thanks, it’s workin’ again.
man from poland on December 23, 2014 at 19:22 said:

I love You, man!!!
Jeremy M on January 1, 2015 at 12:05 said:

Thanks! After an hour of frustration (and several batteries), the unit now connects!
A Bicyclist on January 3, 2015 at 19:38 said:

Works for the Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor HRM3-SS
Brian on January 10, 2015 at 3:20 said:

It’s alive… ALIVE! Seriously, thank you very much. Was just about to drop money on a new one.
TSelllers on January 15, 2015 at 1:54 said:

Thanks for this. I also got it to work by shorting the 2 contacts after the new battery was installed.
MW on January 26, 2015 at 20:43 said:

Brilliant! Solved the problem of my HRM not talking to my Garmin 910.
Thanks !!!
jorge luis on January 29, 2015 at 22:12 said:

Muchas Gracias, Hice tus pasos y el heart rate monitor funciona muy bien.
Brillante!!!!!
Kaui on February 10, 2015 at 20:48 said:

bravo!! Garmin should catch s clue and include your tip in their (incomplete) documentation. Excellent tip! Just fixed my garmin hrm and my edge is paired again. Woot!
Todd on February 11, 2015 at 16:39 said:

Has anyone not been able to make this work? I have tried the paper clip and flipping the battery over, multipe attemps with each method. Still no luck. I had taken the battery out for a full day while I bought a new one and then finally got around to putting it in. Any ideas?
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Erik on March 5, 2015 at 19:24 said:

I had intermittent readings from my HRM2-SS, so replaced the battery but it wouldn’t connect. Very pleased to find the above post but when I tried shorting the terminals, it stilldoes not connect. If I try several times then I sometimes get the connection but still see erratic readings. Going to try Garmin support now.
robert on March 5, 2015 at 20:12 said:

amazing – really chuffed – heart rate now works – Edge 705. Almost thought it would fry it but now works a treat – thank you
Cpro622 on March 10, 2015 at 13:09 said:

Thank you thank you thank you
Cyclist of Catan on March 14, 2015 at 17:17 said:

HRM died last week, with the obvious culprits being battery or the soft strap. The battery was a couple of years old, so I bought a replacement, but still no joy. I read this page not expecting for one moment that it would actually work, but I figured it had to be a better option than shelling out for a new strap. And it works! Excellent.
Chris on March 28, 2015 at 17:37 said:

After reading your trick, I was rather sceptic. But tried it anyway and it worked! Thank you very much.
Curtis on April 4, 2015 at 20:00 said:

LOL…it worked! Took me less than a minute to reset my Heartrate strap. Thanks!
Scott on April 5, 2015 at 3:37 said:

+1
Adrian on April 9, 2015 at 22:38 said:

This hasn’t worked for me, any other ideas?
Daniel Wasser on April 10, 2015 at 8:56 said:

Hello Adrian,
try it again.. Otherwise the device may be broken..

Daniel
sTTevie on April 24, 2015 at 8:01 said:

thanks man,

you just made my day!!!!
Micke Pettersson on April 30, 2015 at 14:26 said:

Thanks you saved my day and my sensor.
AW on May 14, 2015 at 21:52 said:

I’m confused by “bypass the connectors”. What connectors are we talking about, and how is it done? I’ve put the battery in mine upside down and assembled the whole thing, let it sit for a while and tried again, to no avail.
dave on May 25, 2015 at 22:23 said:

Just to add my thanks to all the previous ones. What a relief. Like others I had tried everything and was looking to buy a replacement strap when I found this solution. Thank you soooooo much!
Philippe on June 1, 2015 at 21:50 said:

thx a lot. Works perfectly
John Reeves on June 6, 2015 at 19:11 said:

Excellent advice, worked for me too. Many thanks!
David Wilson on June 13, 2015 at 10:43 said:

Yet another grateful reader. Mine works again also.
Vinnie Q on June 25, 2015 at 4:03 said:

Thanks for the tip! Worked like a charm!
Bernize on July 18, 2015 at 9:11 said:

It worked like a charm on my FR70! 😀 thank youuuu!
Sergio on July 20, 2015 at 23:19 said:

funcionaaaaaa uihuuuuuuuuuuu
Geoff on July 28, 2015 at 14:30 said:

Saviour! Worked a treat. Many many thanks.
Claudiu on August 6, 2015 at 7:15 said:

hey, work great! I lost 2 days before finding your post! Nothing on the official forum 🙁
Thanx
Lyd on August 18, 2015 at 18:56 said:

Awesome! Ready to throw out Timex heart monitor strap out because needed to be reset before every run in order to receive a heart reading. Now pressed battery reset after following above directions & it displays a reading every time. Thank you!
Tracy W on August 29, 2015 at 17:47 said:

Hello – I’m with AW – where do you place the paperclip to bypass the circuit. Not intuitive to me. Hate to say this, but a YouTube video demonstration would be great!! A different blog gave the advice to turn the HRM upside down for a minute to fully dissipate the charge.
I also stripped one of the screws backing it out … it was over tightened from original issue or I received the 0.01% bad soft screw – any suggestions where to get a replacement screw?? The quarter slot was such a better design. : ) (imo) Thank you!

262 thoughts on “How to get the Garmin heart rate monitor to work after a Battery change”

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