Northwest Fishing Reports

The winter of 2012 and this past 2013 winter we entered our garage to hear a squealing. Turns out it was the Lowrance X102 depth sounder. For some reason it had turned itself on and was just screaming and the screen was flashing like it was trying to acquire a stable picture. We unplugged its power cable each time to get it to stop. (Who knows for how many hours or days it had been doing this.) Two springs ago when we took the boat to the lake there was no problem and the unit worked all summer/fall. However, this year the week after the gremlin stuck when we plugged the unit back in at the garage and at the lake, the unit repeats the squeal and won't acquire screen and readings in the water.

The manual does not address this and we wonder if the unit is simply shot. Anyone have any ideas other than to buy a new one?

Thanks in advance.

How old is the unit? I would call Lowrance for sure. Another route is to contact them via facebook. Best thing about social media is that they want to maintain positive feedback, so sometimes you can get faster responses via social media. I have never heard of that issue! Of course we always unplug ours from the boat after every trip.

May have overheated the transducer, it needs to be immersed in water to dissipate the heat generated during sonar operation. Most power and transducer connections for Lowrance units are interchangeable, if you know of someone who has an operating Lowrance system, see if you can take your head unit to them for a quick test.

...and hope that there is nothing wrong with the head unit that could/might ruin the other person's transducer...

What color is the connector on your unit? black or blue?

It is blue.
We also did try the unit two times while on the lake Saturday so it should have had plenty of time to cool down (per one person's suggestion).

I have a LCX-28c that was losing bottom everything else was working fine. Just replaced the transducer and cured the problem.

The new transducer was around 60 bucks shipped to my door.

With the blue end it sounds like the same transducer also.

To be a bit more clear. As the transducer overheats, it begins to lose its effectiveness, left running in that condition long enough it simply fries itself. The head unit should be able to protect itself from a faulty transducer unit. I suspect the screaming you heard was the power supply within the unit being taxed by a short circuit and cycling between shutting itself down and then turning back on to check if the short has been cleared. In most cases this cycling happens rapidly which would explain the flashing condition you mentioned.

I have that exact unit and mine was doing that too so I changed the cords and then just unhook it each time when done and found it has never done it again. My buddy has the same one and he also experienced it turning on by itself so I told him what mine did and now he does the same thing and just disconnects it from the battery when not fishing. Hope that helps!

Or you can install a switch on the console, or bracket to turn the power on/off.

black connectors are for B&W units.... blue connectors are for color units. I think this is for the power connector only. The transducer should be the same for both.

Have you found out what the problem is? You might try starting the unit without the transducer hooked up just to see if it will boot. If it will boot try running it in simulator mode and see how that goes. I hate to say it but if it won't boot without the trans it may be toast. Had an old TV that did the same thing (I know not really related) came home and heard this wavering high pitched squeal and it was coming from the TV. No pic, no nothing and the repair shop said it could be the power supply or a connection gone bad. BTW I also always disconnect everything from power when done for the day. Helps save draw on batteries and could help prevent a fire.