5000 and its problems

hi all,
turned the 5000 on yesterday, and everything on the display screen was back to front like looking in to a mirror, ditector still worked, later it changed back to how it should be..strange..gim...

gim wrote:hi all,
turned the 5000 on yesterday, and everything on the display screen was back to front like looking in to a mirror, ditector still worked, later it changed back to how it should be..strange..gim...

G'day Gim

It's a fault, the odd GPX4000 I know used to do that, not sure about the GPX4500, and now your 5000. It's a bit inconvenient to be having to carry a mirror around as well as all the other stuff, just so you can read the menu screen

cheers dave

Haven't turned my 5000 on for a couple of month's, so for all intent purposes, it's working just fine and dandy! And the best part, the battery is still charged?

Yeah the 4500 did it also, from memory you could loosen and re tighten the rear case screws and that fixed it in some cases.

Narrawa wrote:Yeah the 4500 did it also, from memory you could loosen and re tighten the rear case screws and that fixed it in some cases.

Is that when the were not earthing properly?

Sounds like dry solder joint's, you could jump on it and have the same outcome!

Don't get me wrong, I think the 5000 is a great detector, Just a tad loose and open to change without warning, as for responsive to small targets, you couldn't do any better!

davsgold wrote:

Narrawa wrote:Yeah the 4500 did it also, from memory you could loosen and re tighten the rear case screws and that fixed it in some cases.

Is that when the were not earthing properly?

I seen it a few times on others 4500s, i remember someone said it was to do with pressure on the rear screen that was one of the reasons. So loosening and tightening it may fix it.?

If you think it maybe an earth problem, the bottom left hand screw houses the earth strap on the 4500s rear panel, so this one should get a work out. Or you could if motivated enough, pull the rear end cap off and sand paper the areas where the case earths, removing some of the blue case paint thats probably causing a lousy earth.
Not a hard job by any means, may void your warranty tho if you tell.

**** hey was looking at buying a second hand gpx 5000 but after reading your posts i have to wonder if i will be buying someone elses problems. not looking for that maybe ill buy a 4500 instead and hope for the best. Am i better off buying one from a dealer instead of say ebay or similar? thanks guys keep up the good work thsi site is a great source of information. well done and thanks to those that have help me with information in the past cheers
Danny

Gday

Old players will wait around for the dust to clear and the bs to die down before deciding whether to upgrade or not, remember this---gp extreme to 3000 (ho hum) then 3500 (about time)--3500 to 4000 (ho hum) then 4500 (more gold from old patches) then 5000 and still hearing about issues that should have long been sorted--5000 to 5500---this should be the one to get.

There have been teething issues with all new machines, some things are unknowns until they surface in the field, but things like faulty switches and fittings should not be happening at this level and price range, these issues are purely from a lack of quality control and trying to rush the product on to the market, I dont understand the rush apart from the issue of detecting being rather seasonal, there is no real competition to speak of so the only conclusion can be that its based on getting the money back in the bank that drives it all.

cheers

stayyerAU

Hence my motto Stayyer, "Ah Minelab,why are you so unkind to the prospector"

Cheers kon61.

Sounds like you blokes have been lumbered with fake 5000s; Either that or ML quality control is well and truely down the gurgler.
I will give the 5000 a big mis I think. A 6000 dollar lemon is not what I want to spend money on.

I think I would more likely go with a tried and true used 4500.

for every one whinging about the 5000 there is probably 100 out there cleaning up where the old models have left gold behind. as i have said before the only problem with my 5000 is the depth of the bloody holes i have to dig. the salt gold timing in wet ground and fine over old patches is worth the price alone.

I have used every Minelab since the Eureka Gold Ace upwards. I started with a SD2000 then 2100 and skipped 2200 and then went to the Extreme/3000/3500 skipped GPX4000/4500 and went straight to the 5000. The best for my money was the 3000 tbh. I own 20ac of workings on Slatey Creek, Victoria, just near Creswick and the ground is very hot. The gold is not big (wheet and rice grain size) and patchy (best was 14g in the size of a car windscreen all 0.2 - 1g) but there are a lot of hot rocks that you would swear were gold (mellow signals). I got the 5000 because of the "small gold" factor and the "smooth in hot ground" factor. I have tried mono coils (I'm a DD fan and small coils) on recommendation from Menad from Minelab, as he said that the mono was the go for hot ground and the type of ground I'm working in (also gave me some settings to try) but I feel like wrapping it round a tree sometimes!!! I've tried it in other areas and HAVE found small gold I missed but to my frustration, I see no improvement over the 3000 on my block where I WANT it to work. I have one gully (sluiced out gully) where I have specked gold but I turn on my detector and frustration sets in. I KNOW there is gold to be found there but if I dug all the signals I'd be there for weeks with hot rocks to show for my efforts. I feel stupid as I run Gold Tours and teach people to detect but its annoying not being able to get my head around this 5000. I've been successful in the past with my Gold Tours and running the GP's. ANY advice would be helpful. Have I just got a dud or am I doing something wrong...idk anymore?

Gold_tours there is one way of checking your problem to see if it is your 5000 or the ground, is to let someone else with a 5000 on to your property and see if they to have the same problem as you, under your supervision of course. You can compere setting, coils ect..

Wombat

Yes, the 5000 has to be the mast frustrating detector every produced. BUT....It can be tamed. There is a massive learning curve to this machine and I am still "learning" it myself. I know one day I will master the machine but I dont think I will of done so until ML has brought out the GPX11000 series.
I understand peoples frustration with this beast and can understand one fellas earlier post when he stated that he threw his machine into a river and left it there. Now I know alot of people out there bagged the guy for doing this, but I understood him perfectly. The first trip I had out with my 5000 I very nearly wrapped it around a tree and believe me, I have the patience of moses. But the frustration I was experiencing with this machine got to a point where I just lost it.
I find the best thing to do out on my trips when it starts playing up, be it through my own dodgy settings or EMI or heat etc, is to just reset the bugger back to factory settings and start all over again, tweeking the gain and stabaliser first and going from there. I tend to find I can get a little over zealous in my efforts to get the machine running "perfectly" and tend to forget that NO MACHINE YET MADE will be as quiet as a mouse in all conditions.
All I can suggest is keep trying as like anything, the more you use it better you will become as the 5000 seems to behave like no other machine. Yes it is similar to the 4500 but the new updated software and timings seems to make this little bugger a hell of alot harder to master.
Here's hoping another company will produce a detector that will work as well as the ML's but will be easier to function.

went fishing the other day, and bugger me dead you won't believe what I dragged up

Harb wrote:went fishing the other day, and bugger me dead you won't believe what I dragged up

Nice one

This is a bit off topic but I nearly threw a cat in the ocean once as I cast my pilchard whilst rock fishing of a breakwall,it lunged and grabbed it and wouldn't let go for the life of it.I,ve actually also caught an old boot once of the bridge at lake illawarra.
Now catching a 5000 that would be a surprise.
I believe a ship went down off the headland here at disaster bay with chinese diggers and apparently their coats were full of gold to take back home maybe some lucky fisherman will drag one up one day.

Hey Gold - Tours,
I have been having the same problems as you and the detector is all good and yours sounds like mine. The problem is the 5000 will not run well at all in this ground you are working so maybe a small DD will do the job. You need to make sure when using the DD you use the right settings.
Regards,
Uncle Bob.

Thanks UNCLE BOB, I did start with the small elliptical DD as this was the coil I found 99% of my gold with the 3000 in the 1st place but on advice from Minelab I swapped over to the mono (tbh I HATE mono coils) as they said it was better in hot ground. I'm the sort'a guy who would prefer to dig 100 small targets and get some gold than dig 3 or 4 massive holes to get a coach bolt and a horse shoe. With the small DD I could pinpoint within a sq inch but with a mono I end up digging huge holes and it gives me the shits. I've also tried the small DD in mono mode and found that not too bad but I lose 1/2 the coil this way. I'm going out to my block today again to test a few other settings and options. I'll post how it goes when I get back.

Gold_Tours wrote: I've also tried the small DD in mono mode and found that not too bad but I lose 1/2 the coil this way.

?????

In DD mode the coil transmits on the left winding (1/2 the coil) and receives on the right winding.
In Mono mode the coil still transmits on the left winding, but receives on both windings making it slightly more sensitive, but allowing the left edge of the coil to be used for pinpointing which is a big plus. Cheers.

xenon wrote: tweeking the gain and stabaliser first and going from there.

My machine is a 4500, however the 5000 maybe different, the 4500 manual instructions refer to adjusting stabiliser after all your other settings?

Peter

Hi All
Some brilliant posts above.When you go back over the history of Minelab PI detectors there have been improvements.Talk to those that reguarily go to WA with each new model and they will tell you that they have found good payable gold.What in general has changed is the size of the gold.With SD to GP Machines it was about depth trending towards "Going over old patches by the arrival of GPX Series.
The GPX4000 at the time was the new quiet stable kid on the block,Then out done by the Gpx4500 (apparently the timings on the 4000 where too closed and susiquently opened more on the 4500 which was noisier,an more subject to EMI because of the frequencies used.Now we have the quieter 5000.
So where are we heading.Why I ve said its a bit like a caryard is that on faith we spend $6000 on $400 worth of electronics.Thats Ok but in a caryard after youve listened to the speel you can determine engine size,fuel consumption,speed ect.As for us we are kept in the dark.We really have no idea for example what percentage of a 5000 is 4500.As much as we have a rough idea of the size and depth of nuggets missed by gp machines yet findable by gpx machines,we have no idea of nuggets missed by gpx machines that would have been found if a gp machine was used.
Its all a mystery and there is only one that can be blamed for that.Its not the dealers its there supplier.You could argue the point that Minelab can give us information as this would give the oppostion the heads up ,but thats rubbish.There is no oppostion.Im not asking an explanation of the workings just stats.Ie with this model we have concentrated on finding smaller deeper and this is the improvement on the previous model.We need this information.
Had an interesting experience the other day .Ive always felt the triangle is DD ground.Ran my gpx4000 on full timings and matched it against the missuses Gp3000.Both used 11 dds.The gp3000 didnt just beat it it killed it.Would have been nice to know this Minelab.Needless to say Im now running a Gp3500.And no the Gpx4000 wasnt a bad machine (Good gold has been found with it running a mono in WA).
I personally am not holding my breath for any new model.To me its like buying the green one blue one or red one.They all work,but without knowledge of the strenghths and weaknesses of each model we are trully in the dark
Cheers Dig

hmmm, not a great feeling after forking out all the money for a 5000.
It is my first detector though.
I have the screaming noise and hopefully tomorrow I will have a bit more of an understanding about the workings of it.
Gold? I would be happy to know that it works first and foremost.

fingers crossed
Em

I understand why Minelab doesn't make claims like "the new GPX5000 gives x% more depth than previous models*".

Detectors are complex devices. They do not avail themselves to simple comparisons. There are thousands of combinations of settings in the one machine, and then there are more variables in terms of coils, targets (size, composition, shape, orientation, depth), ground conditions, atmospheric or EM conditions and of course the user. I have spent many hours testing coils on my 5000. Finding the optimum settings for one coil in one location against one target on a certain day is easy. Finding which is the better of two coils against one target in one location on a certain day is also easy, but takes a bit more time. However, if you come back on another day, the previously poorer performing coil may in fact be better! Then add in another detector and target and ground variables and you can see how complex the problem is.

I believe the GPX-5000 is the best detector currently available because it has the widest window of operation, it is the most tuneable. That doesn't mean it will always win simple comparisons however.


*Conditions apply.