Absolute CTX-3030 agony and maybe a lesson learned.

[Stuperduke]

This one might be long post but I hope it will be a good lesson for any other beginners out there or folks in my situation.

Well to begin with, I have been a ctx user for about two years, however I primarily hunted gold with a GPX, SO MY CTX was a closet princess. After moving up to WA, I really got into reading the Andy book and truly learning this machine. I have always been frustrated with it but have found a few silver with it so I just thought that I didn't give it enough use to learn it. Basically I'm saying that I was thinking it was my fault. Horrible tones, extremely low depth with any program or setting, just a nightmare of a frustration. Well this weekend I put my foot down and went deeper. My air tests on a silver dollar max out at about 6 inches, if the machine is in manual sensitivity, it is the most comically erratic sounding this ever. You can noise cancel, hold it to the sky and it sounds like flight of the bumblebee. Long story short, it was a combination of my lack of knowledge, lack of reaching out to other detectorists, and not wanting to feel like the idiot that bought the expensive machine without the knowledge. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you think something is wrong and have tried everything.......maybe reach out to those who have been in the game long enough! Just because you think you have done everything, there isn't any shame in asking. All that being said, there's either a coil issue or unit issue and I'm leaning towards coil. Bummer I waited until it's out of warranty.

 

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[smokeythecat]

My el cheapo machine will smack a silver dollar at 15-20" plus. It sits in the truck waiting for my primary machine to fail, which it never has. I'd call Minelab. Is there a factory reset on that machine? If so, try that.

 

[Stuperduke]

Factory reset done multiple times, even replaced the internal battery. I read a thread that said it could cause issues. I'm shaking my head at how many good targets that machine has been over in two years

 

[pepperj]

Factory reset done multiple times, even replaced the internal battery. I read a thread that said it could cause issues. I'm shaking my head at how many good targets that machine has been over in two years

Did you change the battery yourself?
If you did was it a simple fix?
Reasons being is I sent mine in, got it back and it died again.
It peeved me off so bad its still sitting in the back corner of the storage. Going on 6 yrs now

 

[Stuperduke]

It's very very easy. There are small rails the circuit boards pull out of that are semi frustrating to get back....but yes....extremely easy.

 

[Stuperduke]

You can PM for details if you don't want to bore the thread.