I am glad that you posted this thread. My 450 froze last week while on a weekend trip. In my case it stayed on. Nothing I did could unfreeze it or turn it off. I finally unscrewed the battery pack and found that that was the fix. I am happy to know that mine wasn't an isolated case and that I was able to stumble upon the fix.

 

I believe the allen screw that holds the battery is a 2mm. Go to the hardware store an pickup a 2mm phillips head screw an replace. You may have to reduce the diameter of the screw head, but it will work. I have read where the allen screw has stripped out with repeated usage. Also, update your firmware for the Zumo (free from Garmin). The updates have corrected some of the bugs in the programing.

 

Try taking the battery out and use it that way. The same thing happened to me and Garmin sent me a new battery. While waiting for the battery to arrive, I used it without the battery. It works faster that way and I have never put the battery back in.

 

Another answer to your problem might be this:

Question: How do I perform a master reset on my zumo 450/550?
Answer:

To perform a master reset on the zumo 450/550:

1. Power the zumo off
2. Touch-and-hold the bottom right corner of the Touchscreen
3. Power the zumo on
4. Release the power button when the zumo powers on
5. Continue to hold your finger on the touch screen until "Erase all user data?" appears
6. Release your finger from the Touchscreen
7. Touch "Yes"

I've found that I can also touch "no" to the question about "erasing all user data" & the unit will work, but it might freeze later at another start up. If I'm on the road I'll usually answer "no" & continue on. If I'm at home I can answer "yes" & reload user data (routes, waypoints, etc.).

 

Just FYI, I've had to remove battery to reset my 550 also. But, last week another problem cropped up -- unit totally dead and would not reset. ???? Turns out that I just had to recharge it with the wall unit and now it works fine (I assume I hit "YES" by accident and left it on battery power until it died). I guess it's possible for the battery to run down so much that the bike will not kick it back on when it starts. I'm going to carry both the allen wrench AND the wall charger with me on long trips now just to make sure I can get it back working.

 

mine died in TN last year.... called support and they said it was dead and to send it in... a lot of good that did me, 2 days into a 14 day road trip. got home after the trip and sent my dead Garmin to them.... 4 days later they sent me a brand spanking new one in a factory sealed box. the original was 2 years old. the new one has worked pretty good so far!!! use zumoforums.com a ton of good stuff over there!!!!

 

I used the handlebar mount that comes with it.

I've been using it for about two years now without incident.

 

Before doing the battery trick try doing a cold-reset first. Hit the "+" and power buttons at the same time. My Zumo is switched by the ignition (i.e. not constant 12V) and doesn't like for you to start the bike 'til the splash screen comes up, and if you hit the starter too quickly it will die. A quick cold-reset brings it back to life immediately.

 

Several months ago my 450 would occasionally just switch itself off while riding, like maybe three times in as many months. It wasn't a cradle-power problem or otherwise it would've reverted to internal-battery power, and merely powering it back on would get it going again. I upgraded the firmware and haven't had the problem again. I think the current firmware is 4.7, but I haven't checked in a few weeks. The Zumos still have some bugs that Garmin hasn't addressed and I hope the FW versions keep coming and that they fix all the issues. You can read about these here.