Garmin 200w does not hold charge

The problem is either a dead battery - and the only way to know is to charge it for sure - in a wall charger. Many cell phone chargers etc will work- other wise - you must charge it in the car charger - this takes at least 20 minutes.
If your battery will not charge - I suggest you send it to Garmin for servicing.
Also a new Garmin 285WT is on sale at Tiger Direct dot com.

Gary

thats because the phone charger is wired different to the gps charger , u need a genuine charger, if when pluged into pc it takes longer to charge, best to have gps turned off while charging from pc..... if it still does not work/ hold charge battery in unit gone , caused by being in active for over 3 months

Sounds like a battery problem. You may have to send to Garmin for replacement of the battery as it's not user fixable. I also highly suggest using a Garmin approved charger/ car charger if you don't have that!!
Or understand this:
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} There are three ways to charge the internal battery in your automotive GPS unit.1

1. Use the provided vehicle power cable that came with your GPS unit. The unit will charge while powered on and using the device as well as when the GPS unit is powered off and plugged into a running vehicle. About 3 hrs for a full charge. If the unit will not charge in the vehicle, check the fuse in the power cable for the unit and the power outlet in the vehicle.
2. Use an AC power adaptor. Some units come with this power cable to plug the GPS unit into a wall outlet allowing the GPS unit to take a charge. For units that do not come with this cable, one can be purchased from Garmin's online store.
3. For most units, the final way of charging the battery is to plug the GPS into a powered on computer with a USB cable2. This method of charging will be a trickle charge and it may take longer (like a full day) than the other two options, however it will still charge the battery. A USB cable is provided with a few GPS models. For those that don't come with this cable, one can either be ordered from the online store or you can use a standard USB to mini-USB cable that fits the unit and plugs into your computer.

I connected the unit to the car charger instead of the USB charger and then held down the reset for 10-15 seconds, after which the system would show the computer connection on the charger and then boot up when not on the charger.

Steps:
1) Disconnect the nuvi from the charging cable.
2) Press and hold the battery meter icon for 8 seconds. This puts the nuvi into "system test" mode.
3) Plug in the power cable.
4) Click "Exit." The nuvi will reboot, but remain in GPS mode!

Your PC may not be able to charge it. If it does it's only a trickle charge. May take a day or two
The Garmin cigarette lighter charger take 4 hours.

hold the battery icon for 8 seconds, which will take you to the test screen then plug in the charger then exit This works on a nuvi 200w.

If you are trying to use your unit in the car via the USB port and not the supplied cable, it will not work. You must use the bracket that came with the unit or the specific charger that came with the unit. The pins in the Garmin USB charger only use two pins whereas a regular charge cable uses 4.

The Nuvi units are short on battery life and therefore Garmin has given you a connector other then USB to power your unit while in a car. You need to carry that. It's just a design flaw. If you try to rely on the battery of your Garmin Nuvi, you have less than 2 hours even on a full charge. And carrying the USB adapter which plugs into the cigarette lighter socket won't allow your unit to run while charging. so you need to take the adapter charger bracket that comes with the unit if you need it for longer trips.

the same issue with mine, but mine cut out after one day. Purchased 6-9-08