Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

I run a mobil marine repair, and have bad luck with these units both the 5 and 7.I run hds's with zero issues.I have a brand new 5 on a customers boat it worked for first 4 hours then locked up. Lowrance said it needs new 4.0 software downloaded. Tried put in micro sd and it will not work said file is corrupted or unit is damaged. The same thing on the last 7 i did.I ended up just ordering a brand new unit. Any ideas hear?

There may be a problem with the unit. I haven't heard of any trend with these units being faulty. I would call Lowrance customer service and see if you can get a return authorization number and have the unit looked at. I agree that 4.0 needs to be in the unit but if it won't load then there is a different problem.

yea im sure thats just my luck. They are sending me a new unit!

I'm glad Lowrance Customer Service solved your issue. Good Fishing

Ken,
I have the same unit. How do I update the software?
Correction. I have the older HDS-5. Are there software updates for my unit available?

Go to Lowrance.com and click on Support along the top of the page. Then click on View All Updates. In the first block of updates for various units, look near the bottom of the page and find HDS Generation 1 - 4.1 software. The update of 4.1.36.68 is the version you should be running in any HDS Gen 1 unit. Since this is an older model because of the Gen 2 units out now, this is the final version of software that will be updated for Gen 1 units.

To find out which version of software that you are running on your unit, hit menu twice, go to system, then at the bottom of the system menu is "About". Highlight About and hit enter. Look at the version of software in your unit. If the number is lower than 4.1.36.68, then follow the download instructions and put this version on an SD card. When you have the update on the SD card, put the card in the unit without any other cards in the SD slots. Start with the unit off. insert the update card and press the power key. The unit will automatically recognize the update and load it. Follow the instructions on the screen of your unit.

When you have the version of 4.1.36.68 in your Gen 1 unit, you won't have any other updates available so you're done.

Thanks. I'll do that today.

I just received my lake insight pro chip along with a trial of insight genesis. I am eager to use it on my Elite 5 HDI. Some questions,

Do I need to install the Elite 3.6 update before I install the new 4.0 update, or can I update the 4.0 directly?
If so, in the instructions for the Elite 3.6 update it says...
"Insert a blank microSD card that is no larger than 2GB into the microSD card reader."

The smallest micro SD card I can find now is 4GB, will that be a problem, or do I need to find a 2 GB micro SD card?

Thanks!

You can just upload the 4.0 update. All earlier updates are included in the most current update. You can try to use one of your larger SD cards and see if it will work. Some units can't read the larger cards. Give it a try, it can't hurt anything.

Hi Ken,
Just wanted to check in to let you know I was able to get the 4.0 update installed on my Elite 5 HDI. The smallest micro SD card I could find was an 8gb card and it worked just fine.

I inserted the lake insight pro card, but haven't had it on the lake yet, so I haven't noticed any difference with that yet. Thanks again fly your help!