Chartplotter Flickering and Turning Off?

Question:

I took my boat back to the marina today. Everything worked well, until my chartplotter shut down on its own after about 90 minutes. After messing around with breakers and buttons it restarted after pressing the “asterisks” button, we think that’s what did it. It fired up, got a signal and we carried on as normal. When we arrived at the marina for our lift out, it quit just before we docked. The warning tone goes on intermittently and will not stop. Once in a while, the screen flickers and I am able to get the unit going by pressing the “astericks” button, but I cannot shut it down properly. Normally, you hold the power button down while it counts down to shutoff. Now it just shuts off immediately and proceeds to give a warning tone and seems to want to restart, but won’t. I turned my battery switches off and left. Any ideas ? - Rudy

Answer:

I would recommend connecting your boat to AC shorepower with the charger turned on, to see what happens with a good battery voltage.  It might be a voltage issue, although it seems like something else. Failing this, you could call Navico (parent company of Simrad, B&G, Lowrance, and also in the past Northstar) and see if the company still supports this popular product.