# Humminbird 597ci problem



## thebige22 (Oct 26, 2007)

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have the Humminbird 597ci that I purchased in 2009. It worked fine the first few years but this year have had problems with the sonar. No matter at what speed I'm moving(from trolling to "on plane") the depth readings will go from the real depth of 30 ft. to 0.6 ft. I know the actual depth is 30 ft. Also, the bottom of the lake reading will go from a nice thick red & yellow reading to a thin yellow reading with little detail.
Can this be a transducer problem? Any other things that it could be?

TheBigE22


----------



## Rough House (Jun 1, 2012)

you should put your question on the humminbird forum. So much information and helpful people on there plus theres some humminbird cs agents on there as well. http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/
good luck


----------



## firstflight111 (May 22, 2008)

call humminbird they will help you on the phone ....


----------



## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

My guess would be transducer as long as it is installed correctly. I'd also recommend calling them as they've always been really helpful for me when I've called.


----------



## thebige22 (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks guys. I'll call Humminbird and see what they say.

TheBigE22


----------



## HBirdDeborahCRC (Apr 19, 2011)

Please check your PM - TheBigE22


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

When you find out whats up, let us know. My 2d just quick picking up the bottom, i coudln't adjust the sensitivity or the surface clutter, and the screen shots quit working. Multiple resets and checks on everything didnt work. They sent me a new tranducer, the trandsducer worked better than the first one but still not like it should. The first head unit had a basd GPS sensor right out of the box so it had to go back, now the second head unit is going back and they told me more than likley ill be getting a new head.

For the cost of this thing, im really getting frustrated with it. When it works how its so post to, I love, but its become a pain and a big hastle. I talked to the customer service about exchanging the whole unit and upgrading to 700 or upper series, they said nope. I said with all the issues ive had i cant upgrade units if i pay a little more money, nope we can only replace the head unit. Im kinda thinkin I should have bought the lowrance!


----------



## ohiojmj (Apr 16, 2004)

I replaced the transducer when my 788ci would no longer display the bottom, the correct depth, or fish. With the new transducer, It shows bottom and depth, but only gives small faint marks when my cheaper, lower wattage Lowrance Mark-5x is showing walleye stacked up like chord wood on Erie. I've had 2 frustrating years with the 788ci and assigned it to gps/chartplotting duty. I've given up on finding fish with it this season, but will try updating the software as recommended in a post here or on another walleye fishing website (like the oem software wasn't good enough to show a fish mark on the screen? OMG!). Quite a disappointment. Not sure I'm willing to pay like $170 for HB to service my head unit. I think I save my penny's for a new Lowrance HD SI unit in a few years.

Good luck with your troubles and keep us all posted on the results, thanks.


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

So i got my unit back today at about noon and i opened the box. The paper work said that there was nothing wrong with the head unit. I said interesting, so i headed to a local lake and fired the unit up. For a unit that didnt work and had no issues the thing worked like it did when it was brand new. Im not sure what they did for not fixing anything, but the unit works great now. I didn't change anything on the boat so im sure they fixed something but what, who knows. So its back in action, i did mark alot of fish in all depths at all speeds and showed the bottom great.


----------



## Bad Bub (Jan 17, 2006)

TomC said:


> So i got my unit back today at about noon and i opened the box. The paper work said that there was nothing wrong with the head unit. I said interesting, so i headed to a local lake and fired the unit up. For a unit that didnt work and had no issues the thing worked like it did when it was brand new. Im not sure what they did for not fixing anything, but the unit works great now. I didn't change anything on the boat so im sure they fixed something but what, who knows. So its back in action, i did mark alot of fish in all depths at all speeds and showed the bottom great.


They may have just reset the factory settings. (Sensitivity, ping speed, etc...) when I got my lowerance 7 years ago, the factory default had the sensitivity cranked to the max! If you went into water shallower than 5ft. The screen was completely blue. I lowered the sensitivity and it worked great but every time i had to do a soft reset it would go back to max. I called them and the guy talked me through changing the factory settings. Now it resets just fine. Maybe it was a setting that isn't user accessible on the birds.

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## TomC (Aug 14, 2007)

Thats kinda what im wondering. The soft resets that you can do on the unit itself did nothing to help the issue, i wonder if they have a hard reset that they can do or there was or something they "Fixed" and just said there were no issues. Any how it works great now.


----------

