Totally bummed

I bought a brand new CTX 3030 last week. They sent it to me straight from Minelab in Illinois...got here just in time for my 5 days off about the middle of the week. I had been reading books on it and watching videos. Today I took it outside and played with it in the yard. I located a good coin signal and went in the house to get the MXT to run it over the target before I dug it. In doing so I turned the CTX off. I signal checked...then went to turn the CTX back on. It gives the startup tune and Minelab logo but the screen freezes with it on there. Tried factory resets....changed batteries...checked connections...still the same thing. It starts up and freezes with the logo on the screen. This after about 15 mins of use. I called the dealer...who told me he didn't have any in stock to swap out with me but he would call the distributor. In the mean time I called Minelab customer service. I actually got ahold of a person! Told them my story and she says "ohh the lcd is frozen...we know exactly what that is. We are sending you a new unit and return label for the defective one.". No questions asked other than serial #. That is cool on their part but man I was looking forward to using it this stretch of off days. In fact, was planning on heading to a local freshwater beach this afternoon with it. Uggh. Well at least they are sending a new one.

Yup...that sucks.......makes a guy wonder if they will last past warranty! I have a 30 year Tesoro Inca that still works great..........

That's a classic case of Infant Mortality, based on your description.
Most people make the erroneous assumption that new things should be very reliable, when in fact the opposite is true. New things can have many manufacturing defects in them, and these are likely to show themselves very early on in the products life. Once these initial failures have passed/reduced in frequency, the product is normally quite reliable, and will continue to remain so, until it enters the 'end of life' period, where things start failing again, at an increasing rate.
Here's a Wikipedia article summarising it:
[en.wikipedia.org]

The LCD in the CTX is an 'intelligent' part, it includes a significant amount of electronic components, possibly integrated onto the glass itself, possibly there's a circuit-board full of parts, immediately behind the glass. Either way, there's a lot of tech to go wrong.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2016 08:50PM by Pimento.

Brand new stuff should work. I think they should throw in a small gift for your trouble. I hear too many of these stories. Good luck with the CTX. A great detector. Just a little too heavy for me.

I've owned 2, had issues with both, ended up going back to the Etrac. Like you, when I spoke to Minelab about the problems, they knew exactly what the problem was without a hesitation.

Apparently they would rather replace than get to the real root/cause of the problem.-----Word of warning: don't let the warranty run out on a CTX---not a CTX!

Sorry to hear that Daniel

I'm on my 2nd one (original design) and no problems with either of them except the cuff lock not working the greatest - I haven't got an upgraded one as it's no big deal to me. Just gotta tighten the lock every so often.

Hope you get your new one soon and have no problems with it.

Dang Daniel, know you were looking forward to the days off with it. Hope the one coming does better for ya. With the way our dirt is right now I can see why you were heading to a beach though.

Good luck with the new one bud

I know how you feel. Happened to me once with an Explorer. It sucks.

Call me lucky, but I've had my Minelab CTX3030 since June of 2012 when they first came out. I've hundreds of hours on it spanning from sub freezing to 95+ heat temperatures. I also have done quite a lot of salt water detecting machine totally submerged up to neck deep. Zero issues. Ever.

Now I am a bit crazy with maintenance. Since day 1 I've had a screen protector and cover. Detector gets wiped clean after every hunt and rinsed with fresh water after every salt water hunt. I swap battery gasket out often, I use marine grade silicon on the battery gasket, and a liberal coating of silicon on the metal parts of the coil connectors and even dab the screw heads that hold the plastic body together with silicon and a Q-tip. I use Teflon tape on the threads of the USB port also. I change the coil cover every year or so. They do become brittle. My machine looks nearly brand new and knock on wood, has never given me trouble. It all sounds tedious, but it's not bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2016 07:49AM by Jressman.

OTOH I've heard of many issues with the CTX. For such an expensive detector, it should be perfect out of the box.

One of the things I kept running across on the forums while reading about them was a haunting statement some were making. "Buying a CTX new is a crapshoot lately". There is actually quite a bit of claims of pixels going out on the screens and locking/freezing up. I've had several Minelab machines over the years too, including several GPX machines and various FBS machines from the Explorers to the eTrac and CTX. I actually had an older CTX but traded it not long after having it for some GPX stuff. The only trouble I've had with any of them was a lower rod piece came unglued on a GPX that I had. I simply epoxied it back. But I guess my luck ran out on this new CTX. Brand spankin new with approx 15 mins use on it. From the box to the yard...no abuse. It is one with the arm cuff and battery compartment updates so it is newer stock. One would have hoped that with 4 years of CTX production they would have the kinks worked out.

"she says "ohh the lcd is frozen...we know exactly what that is."

if they 'know exactly what that is" then why are they still shipping units with the problem?

Good question canslaw. The dealer I got it from sells a lot of Minelab detectors and he said he had never heard of a problem like the one with mine. The person I talked to @ Minelab didn't even question when or how it froze...just that I needed to send it back and they were sending a new one. I was supposed to have got a paid return shipping label via email but haven't got it yet. I called them about it Friday afternoon and they said UPS would be sending that but I never got it. I don't know if they will ship my new unit after they receive the defective one or if they were already shipping a new one. If they aren't shipping until they receive my defective one, then I want this one on its way yesterday

Daniel Tn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good question canslaw. The dealer I got it from
> sells a lot of Minelab detectors and he said he
> had never heard of a problem like the one with
> mine. The person I talked to @ Minelab didn't even
> question when or how it froze...just that I needed
> to send it back and they were sending a new one. I
> was supposed to have got a paid return shipping
> label via email but haven't got it yet. I called
> them about it Friday afternoon and they said UPS
> would be sending that but I never got it. I don't
> know if they will ship my new unit after they
> receive the defective one or if they were already
> shipping a new one. If they aren't shipping until
> they receive my defective one, then I want this
> one on its way yesterday


Daniel-----Give Minelab yet another call & see what's going on.-----I had the ears break once on an Xterra & Minelab wouldn't replace it till they got my broken one back even though the whole thing was new & under warranty.----Some of you guys might remember those coils on the early Xterras--they were subject to ear breakage---and Minelab full well knew it.----The guy at Minelab asked me if my wife had been beating me with it.---I told him "no"---it hadn't even been used---either for beatings---OR---detecting.-----They will get you taken care of but I know it's a PITA going through this--we shouldn't have to as long as the CTX has been out.-----------Del

Hey ..Daniel..That sucks....Those LCD's are a pain in the Butt too ! had two get the lines in them....Starting to wonder?.....Marty said don't leave in the heat(in truck).....Never had one lock up.....Some thing to look forward to!.............Got my E-trac back after three months...........Take it easy!

New products should work with no problems.

deadeye Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> New products should work with no problems.


You're right--they certainly should.-----Unfortunately not all of them do (some of them have bugs in them that have to be "ironed out"---seems to be more & more common place with first release products.-----But---with the CTX & as long as it has been on the market (yrs.)---you would think they would have "common occurrence" problems worked out on it by now.------I believe it was Minelab that requested suggestions from users on future possible upgrades/improvements on the CTX--which to my knowledge, with the exception of the battery gasket & arm cuff hasn't happened.---Many of the user upgrade suggestions appeared to be logical & do-able.-------In any case---I would just say to Minelab----at least concentrate on a "fix" to the current "problem(s)" Daniel (and others) are having with the CTX.----Replacement is nice--but it isn't getting to the root of things.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2016 06:55PM by D&P-OR.

Well I decided to go on up to the beach I was wanting to take the CTX to. I brought the MXT Pro with me instead, since the CTX is broke, and had the 6x8 SEF coil attached to it. We have been under an extreme drought; most of the creeks and streams are dry or nearly dry. The lake I went to today, was also seeing the effects of the drought. It was down quite a bit and they normally don't drain or draw this lake down during the winter unless they are doing repairs of some sort. It was down to just a few feet of the orange floating balls in the water. At normal pool, those orange balls are in about neck deep water to me and I am 6'. If I would have had shorts on today, I could have detected the area to the orange balls and only been in knee deep water.

This beach gave me fits this afternoon. It is imported sand on top of clay and shoal rock. This was the hottest ground I've had the MXT in yet...checking it on the ground phase reading, it was at 83. I could not get it to settle down no matter what I did; kept getting false signals and hot rock signals. I ended up turning the gain down to nearly nothing but really didn't help it any. I tried auto track and then GBing it and locking it...neither one really helped. I only hunted the area that is normally under water and only dug the signals that were foil-tab readings hoping for a ring. I made a mistake and only brought my sand scoop that I used down in Gulf Shores and that thing was worthless in that clay and shoal. Oh well..at least it was pretty up there. I can't wait til when I get the CTX replacement so I can go hit this beach again.





But that is nothing compared to that good ole sugar white sand of Gulf Shores. I miss it bad. I have an archery tournament down in Foley, Alabama coming up in February. I am FOR SURE going to that tournament now; since I know Foley is just about 20 minutes or so from Gulf Shores area. We'll just get the same condo room that we stayed in this time and I will have a few days to hit the beach again....with a better detector this time.

Update:

I never did receive a shipping label for the detector. I'm glad I went ahead and sent it in on my own dime...if not, I would still be waiting for the label.

I mailed the detector off last Friday. The tracking info showed it had been delivered on Wednesday morning. I waited from then until Monday (yesterday) before I called them for an update because I hadn't heard anything back from them at all. At first they told me they were running about 30-45 days behind on getting to repairs. I spoke up and said "so now the plan is to repair my machine instead of sending a new one...I was told I would be getting a new machine under warranty since the one I sent back was brand new and pretty much defective out of the box". She first said yes...and apologized for bearing the news of a long wait. That's when I said, so you're telling me I spent 2 grand on something that I never got to use, that I had no control over it being defective...and now you're telling me I'm out of 2 grand AND going to have to wait over a month for Minelab to make it right?..If you can't do any better than that, just refund me my money and I'll get something else from another company that will actually work". To say I was a bit aggravated is an understatement but I kept my calm and cool, much to my surprise. She put me on hold. Then came back on and said my machine was indeed under warranty and they would be sending me a new unit as soon as they received my old one...which I then said they have had it since Wednesday. She put me on hold again to verify that...and then said I would be getting an email notification soon when my replacement ships. I got one later that afternoon with a UPS tracking number...supposed to be here Wednesday. But I tell ya...if I wouldn't have spoken up about it, I would be waiting quite a while for my machine to be fixed. 30-45 days is a long wait.

My question now is....what is going on with them that they have so many warranty and repair issues, that they are over a month behind? I don't know how many repair techs they have on their roster, and I don't know how many they can fix in a day. There are a lot of numbers you can plug into those unknowns that might make a man/woman VERY weary of purchasing a Minelab product. What if they have 3 techs and each tech can do 6 or 7 machines in an 8 hour shift, and based on that projection, they are 30 days behind? That would come out to a lot of defective machines coming in to be repaired. Even though they are sending me a new machine...I am VERY weary of future purchased of their products.

Feel your pain about minelab. I had an explorer that bit the dust and would have paid to get fixed but I was told minelab did not have parts for it any more. I understand but at the same time it kept me from buying another minelab

Is Kellyco the service center??

I've Heard the GPX units are repaired in a unconventional spot .

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

When I purchased my CTX just over 3 years ago Minelab did its repairs in house. Had I known that all repairs were going to be outsourced to Kellyco, I would never have bought it. Especially at the price it commands.

The GPX's go to a UPS store in Chandler AZ where somebody picks them up and works on them at his home - according to the best info I have been able to develop.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

In my case, the unit went to the Illinois location and not Kellyco. When you call their service center, you are liable to get either location though. It so happened my first call was answered by the Illinois people...my second call was answered by Marty in Florida though. But the detector itself went back to Illinois.

My E-trac went to Marty...took three months to get lcd fixed..not under Warranty!....Man if you have something break...(3030)..Lots of screen problems(lines)...Great machines when they work.


Daniel Tn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In my case, the unit went to the Illinois location
> and not Kellyco. When you call their service
> center, you are liable to get either location
> though. It so happened my first call was answered
> by the Illinois people...my second call was
> answered by Marty in Florida though. But the
> detector itself went back to Illinois.