A friend from Bicester (Oxfordshire) recently contacted me with a personal, non-business query. His Windows 11 PC suddenly stopped recognising the Garmin Edge 530 cycling computer. Upon connecting with a mini USB cable the computer would make the usual short “device connected” sound, but then nothing happens… Garmin Express software doesn’t “see” the device, and the device itself is charging but does not display the usual PC connection image on the screen.

Restarting both, the PC and Garmin Edge device didn’t help. Upon closer look into Windows Device Manager, I found that the Garmin was listed as “Unknown USB Device” with “Device Description Request Failed” status.

Uninstalling the device from Device Manager didn’t help either. The next step was to try another USB cable. Despite my Bicester guy reassuring me that the cable was fine and that it worked fine with other mini-USB devices, I insisted on trying the one that came with his Garmin Edge unit in the box. He couldn’t find the original cable, but he found a few others and lo and behold – one of the cables did the trick – Garmin Edge was immediately recognised by Windows Device Manager and Garmin Express software.

Even though mini-USB is a standard and any cable (except charging-only) is supposed to work universally across devices, in practice this is not always the case. If you have issues with PC or Mac not recognising your USB device, it’s always worth to try the original cable that came with the device.

February 2024
Garmin Edge 530
Windows 11 Pro (23H2)