Fish arches

[SkunkedAgain]

I've got a basic Lowrance HD-50 (H-something 50) that came with my boat. I don't need anything fancy for the most part, and mostly use that thing to know depths. However, I hate having all of the cartoon fish on the screen. How do I get it to go back to displaying the fish arches?

[JohnMickish]

Go into the menu, get into the sonar menu and turn off fish identity. That should get you back to the arches.

[SkunkedAgain]

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work. Is there a way to reset to the factory defaults?

[SkunkedAgain]

Anyone?

[JohnMickish]

Are you sure that this unit has the capability to show arches? Being a basic unit it might not be able to. If you don't have the owners manual, you can go to Lowrances HSOforum and download one.

[Surface Tension]

Need to know what model you have so check it.

Most reset procedures are. Hold the zoom in and zoom out button and hold them in while you hit the power on button.

[SkunkedAgain]

I do have the manual, but it just states what mnfishingguy told me to do, which is turn off the fish identity function. I had arches the first time, then I showed my wife that it could do "the little pictures" as well and have never been able to get it back to arches.

Thanks ST, I'll give the zoom-in and zoom-out a try, and also double check the model number.

[Ed Carlson]

If it is in demo mode, it may revert to Fish ID..were you checking it while in demo mode?

In systems settings there should be a Reset Function, try that.

In display settings there should be the Fish ID, turn it off again.

It really would help to know the exact model of the unit as to better advice you.

[SkunkedAgain]

This went from bad to weird. Friday night I put in on Vermilion with Mrs Skunked Again. I threw on the depth finder (Lowrance X50ds) to see the surface temps. Everything was working fine. I grabbed the owner's manual when we got to the place and went to bed.

The next morning I found the reset procedure. I pressed the 'down arrow' and 'down menu' buttons and then the power button simultaneously. The unit turned on and was in simulator mode. I turned that off and the unit quit displaying data. At times it would show no depth or structure and at other times show that we were in depths ranging from 80-455ft (I was in a 6ft bay). All weekend I fiddled with it to no avail. I reset it several more times and tried different settings but nothing worked.

The manual states that if it constantly reverts to simulator mode, that you may have a problem with the transducer or cable. My unit does revert to simulator mode even when I'm not using the reset sequence. During the weekend and after putting my boat back on the trailer, I confirmed that the transducer was in the correct spot and the cable looks fine. The thing that I find odd is that it went crazy after hitting the reset, not the moment I put my boat into the lake. So it worked fine until the reset and now is useless except for displaying the water temp.

Any thoughts before I take it in to get looked at?

[solbes]

I have the same X-50DS that came with my Lund in 08. I used it for a year on the console and then upgraded and moved it to the bow. I guess I've never had an issue with it. Some people I fish with like the cartoons, so I turn it on for them. Then just cycling through the menus I turn them off again during the fish identity selection.

It does sound like a bad transducer. Did you check the connections, look for bent pins, etc? If that all looks good and you have good power, then I would bring it in. If it's out of warranty, it may not be wise to spend a bunch of money on repairs.