Bought the unit new 3 years ago, had the "so very common Lowrance shallow water issue" did all the software updates and with the new "Shallow Water" option it solved the problem, so I had been lucky with this unit till today,
Unit started fine this morning and worked good for couple of hours, the wind picked up and it realy got rough, while moving @ 15mph in 3' waves the unit stated reading .7 feet and the bottom disapeared, the screen had green/pinkish interfarance type lines with no bottom. the screen showed max 5 feet range even though it was set on "Auto Depth Range"
I found the transducer had kicked up a bit(I guess due to rough water) pushed it down back level and still the same, cleaned the face of transducer, turned power off/on a few times same results. I know for sure we were in 110 FOW. this went on for a good hour or so.
Called the dealer I purchased the unit from(he is pretty knowledgable with Lowrance units) he walked me through a few steps/adjutments over the phone, same result. he thinks I need a new tranducer.
finally headed back to the ramp and I turned off "Auto Depth" and manually set depth range to 100 feet, the unit started showing bottom and started making fish and structure, after about 15 minutes I turned the "Auto Depth" on and the unit still worked fine till we reached the ramp(30 minutes later)
I could have played with it more if it wasn't rough out there, so now I am not sure if it is the transducer or another issue.
Back at home, turned it on in the garage and I can hear transduer ticking normally like it should, I am not sure if it will work next time on the water.
any ideas/suggestions please?

Any one have had a simillar issue? or any suggestions how to fix this?
I don't have a problem replacing the transducer, just want to make sure that is what causing this problem.
any help will be greatly appriciated.

i had the sAme issue.....Did you try a soft restart? I forgot how to do it, check the owners manual. I sent it back to lowrance ove a year ago and still dont have the unit back and cant get any info on what the heII is going on........I now own a Hbird, much happier:rockit:

It sounds like the transducer, their's only One way to find out..

If I have to replace the transducer and from what I hear about Lowrance Transducers, I'll be replacing it with an Airmar P66,

There another thread that says late last year Lowrance changed the way they make transducers, using different crystals and epoxy to address the failure issues. It's too soon to tell if the new transducers will be more reliable. My experience with the Airmar P66 has been good- 3 seasons and still going strong.

Good luck finding a Airmar, I'm going though the same problems and narrowed it down to the transducer.
Airmar says they're out of stock till late June, and I couldn't wait so I picked up a new transducer from Lowrance, and yes they're suppose to be new and improved...time will tell I guess.

Same problems you had.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167151

I ended up getting the HST-WSBL model, its the one that on my units now and as I don't fish larger deep lakes the single freq transducer works just fine for me, at half the price.

Al

I have the same unit and it does the same bottom gone shows the wrong depth.

I just got off the phone with customer service the ducer is bad just like yours they will ship me a new one.

The company that made the first ducer for the 27c are junk. I did the new update Fri, and still lost the bottom. The new ducer is $79.99 Good Luck. They knew of this problem and never said anything. Customer beware. Now I have to rewire the new one in, not very happy.

New transducer cured my problems, took it out yesturday and it works great.
Thorne Bro's has them in stock for anybody in the metro that needs one.
Little under $70 for the single freq unit

Al