FF fix in 5 minutes

I had two Lowrance Hook-5 units die, one continued to shut off randomly for several hours before finally dying all together. The second worked great for one day, then completely died after an hour on the second trip out.
Cause of death ... faulty seals on the card readers.
Of course there is no warranty, but they would be glad to fix it for a flat rate of $135 each + insured shipping each way equaling over $300.
Knowing that the flat rate is good for quite a while, I decided to poke around. After a couple calls, hours of hold time and 15 minutes of conversation I found what I needed. Per tech support,  the card reader reads special maps and allows upgrades to software, but is usually not needed for general operation of the device.
Decided to carefully open unit and check what the actual damage was.  After opening the back cover (12 screws and 2 plastic nuts) I was happy to find the card readers were sealed from the internals and only attached with a single ribbon cable. I disconnected the ribbon cable which removed the short from the system allowing the unit to fire and otherwise work normally. 
I will add pics below
Life is Good in the Cove! 
;0)

good to know, thanks.  first thing i did was add silicon to the port to seal it up before use.

Nice work 👍

Nice work!!

Good to know. I cover my card reader slot with electrical tape to try and keep water out.

Nice work Macguyver!

Thanks Eric. I've been keeping my elite 5 hdi around in case someone found a solution to the same problem. Yes, it's the damn card readers. It would turn on then shut off by itself. You may have just saved me a FF.

your FF struggle has been on my mind for the past week or so.  I'm really glad you got it working, and now you have a spare(now they'll both live forever lol)!  see you next weekend for OS!

Nice fix! I'm pretty sure your trick will revive my old Hook 5 if I ever need it.

The ribbon cable has no purpose unconnected?  Yes you removed the short but what is the cable for?  How does the card get read?

It will not read the card after this fix.
But, the unit will work.
I dont need the high detail map as the basic map pre installed give me enough detail. As for the update ability, the tech said that if you are only using the basic functions, it will never need to be upgraded, but, if I reattach the ribbon cable, I can still send it back for flat rate service. Although i am trying to get them to just sell me a card reader to install myself (highly unlikley).

It will not read the card after this fix.
But, the unit will work.
I dont need the high detail map as the basic map pre installed give me enough detail. As for the update ability, the tech said that if you are only using the basic functions, it will never need to be upgraded, but, if I reattach the ribbon cable, I can still send it back for flat rate service. Although i am trying to get them to just sell me a card reader to install myself (highly unlikley).

Sounds like a local waters win...I hope they sell you the part, that would look good on them...

Great timing on this post! My Hook 5 just cut out about halfway through my trip last Sunday and wouldnÂ’t fire back up.

Might have to do this after I confirm that my head unit is to blame and not my (old) battery or battery connections.


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I had two Lowrance Hook-5 units die ... they would be glad to fix it for a flat rate of $135 each + insured shipping each way equaling over $300.

That's absolutely nuts. Yet another reason why I'll never own a Lowrance...

Thanks for the tip - I'm going to run a bead of silicon over my card reader before my next trip.