Humminbird problem

[Steve foster]

This might be lengthy, but I want to give all the info I can.
I'm new to fishing electronics. I have a helix 9 gen 4 mega that I had installed at bass pro when I bought a new grizzly 1648 in February. So far I've covered quite a bit of water on three different lakes and two rivers and I have yet to see a single arch marking a fish on 2d.
As far as side imaging goes I am seeing precious little in terms of structure and what I do see is not very well defined. Down imaging seems to be mediocre, but since I'm having trouble I'm not sure how much I'm not seeing.
I'm highlighting 2d here because I'm assuming it's the bare minimum and the easiest to get a baseline on whether this rig is working or not. I am seeing pods of bait fish, some bottom details, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.
I've tried leveling the transducer using the torpedo level and pocket change method and I really don't see any difference.
Is it possible I have a bad transducer? Seems unlikely because depth and water temperature is working and, as I said, I can see bait fish.
Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

[CrankyOne]

Well there are alot of variables to your issue so it may be difficult to answer. Have you adjusted your sensitivity, contrast and/or sharpness levels? You can also turn the fish ID off and on which makes it easier to see the arches. Same goes for down imaging. For the side imaging, you must be going between 2-8 mph for it to read correctly. If nothing else works push restore defaults and start from scratch. Have you updated the unit since you bought it?

[AJLee]

I have Helix 10 Gen 4 units, and I had problems last year with the depth readings always showing 1.9 ft. on my console unit. The support staff directed me that there was probably some data corruption issue and provided with me with instructions to correct the problem. I also had a bad transducer problem where my bow unit was reading 20 degrees warmer temperature higher that my console unit. I had to do quite a few steps to diagnose the problem. The problem ending up being that I needed a new transducer for my bow unit. Hummingbird sent be a new transducer, no charge.

I suggest you contact the Hummingbird support service that is on their website. Click on the support tab at the top and go to contact them. I ended up finding their email address and asking them about my issues. A support staff tech contacted me back. Through quite a few emails back and forth, they were able to address the issues I was having. Be aware that they will most likely ask for several pictures of what your unit is showing so that they can see what possible issues you may be having.

https://humminbird.johnsonoutdoors.com/us

You may also want to check and see if you have the most recent software updates. The updates are available for download on their website. You just need an SD card to download the updates and input them into your unit.

[Whoopbass]

On my Helix I see blobs instead of arches. The blobs are usually a mix of some green, blue, yellow, or red. Its been a while so i'm not exactly sure on the colors but a colorful blob is a fish. This time of year the fish are not moving that much so usually I mainly see a small blob on the bottom of whatever color and that will be a fish. Side imaging isn't that great on my unit but down imaging shows a lot of defined structure. Go to a lake that you know well and get into some structure and use down imaging. If it doesn't look that good then something is off. Even straight out of the box with no adjustments down imaging should look pretty good.