Joined the USB Connected club....

[bklein]

After taking off my 17" and replacing it with the 11" I went to CDM to hunt. Walked all the way down there and turned it on and I see either the Minelab opening screen (not detect screen) or "USB Connected". Awwww geeez. It would actually detect in the Minelab screen but speaker audio, no control of anything, no screen, no wifi, pinpoint doesn't work. I found 75 cents walking back to the car. When I got home I took the CTX completely apart. Nothing unusual in the display module. A crimped interconnect cable - but I had that before and now I buzzed it out to verify it is good. Then I took the control module apart. No water inside, everything looks good - but the battery is dead. So I get one from Walgreens and put it in and.... it is still the same. When I connect it to the computer it doesn't come up as a USB device so I can't reprogram it. I tried a total hard reset of everything but same deal. Something is marginal somewhere but I can't find it. I guess repair center time...

 

[treasure_hunter]

Was it locked in the Start Up Screen or did it say USB connected? A lot of times if it is little moisture in the usb connector blowing air in there with hair dryer will dry it out. Is it warranty or non warranty?

 

[bklein]

Both! It alternates. Sometimes I can get it to stay in the start screen but if I repower it will come uo in either.
No moisture in the usb port. All that I've done to get this is change coils and recharge the battery. And the nternal battery died. Kinda loks like if your internal battery dies you lose critical code necessary for USB function. I tried a second coil and same thing.
Out of warranty thus I took it all apart myself in an attempt to fix.

 

[skateteacher]

These kinds of posts give me pause. I saved and saved and then traded my detectors to get the CTX. I have a DF as a backup now (for the beach) but I can't help but feel sometimes like I have all my detecting eggs in one basket and I'd be better off with an Excal for beach and saltwater and an ATPro for dry sand and land. I like swinging the CTX but so much of what is discussed on any forum related to the machine is repairs and machines going down. I have 33 months left on my warranty but that doesn't seem like enough.

 

[bklein]

I had first tried to reprogram my CTX using my Windows 10 pc. I think when I first got it the pc was Windows 7 and I had no issue working with it. But now I'm trying Windows 10 and it doesn't see it. I've read of several others having the same trouble - so I tried an old XP laptop and it sees it. I wasn't watching when it happened, but I think it reprogrammed it and it has worked for the several times I've tried repowering it since. I'll try hunting this weekend for a real test.

If it was/is dead there is a lot to be said for a DF or excal. I am still rebuilding an excal and have a surf pi pro. The pi pro is nice to use because it senses deep and is so light. Just bad on days there are a lot of aluminum nuggets, bottle caps, or bobby pins. The beaches have been pretty clean of those lately.

I had called Minelab this morning and the guy said he's never seen a CTX with a really dead lithium backup battery. Mine definitely was dead. If your CTX is getting to be 4 years or more you should start suspecting this battery if things kind of get flakey with the CTX. Its risky trying to replace it but I figured if I were to screw it up it would go back for out of warranty repair anyway...

 

[treasure_hunter]

Exchange2 isn't really compatible with windows 10 with out a lot of manipulation.

 

[bklein]

Tried the CTX this weekend and it is back to working 100%. Just a lousy target day...