670g Low Battery - Doesn't recognize battery change - Caused pump to lockup

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
1

Editing the original post title and adding a bit here. This thread has gotten off track. Just to be clear, the pump was not recognizing a battery change. After replacing the battery (with verified good lithium cells), the pump continued to show low battery and apparently run on the backup battery. Eventually the backup battery would die, and then the pump would lock up.

Wanted to pass this on in case anyone runs into it.

Last evening, my Medtronic 670G locked up trying to change a low battery. Before I get into this, I want to assure everyone that the pump DID suspend pumping when this happened.

On my way home from work I got a low battery alarm. I was about 20 mins from home, so elected to wait until I got there to change it. By the time I got settled, the battery had exhausted, was in alarm, and had suspended the pump and CGM. I replaced the battery with a new Energizer Lithium battery, screwed the cap back down… but the pump continued to indicate the battery was dead and would not respond to any button presses. Alarms continued while I tried a 2nd and then 3rd battery with the same results. As I was checking all three of the batteries with a volt meter to ensure they were good (all were above 1.6V), the backup battery in the pump exhausted and the pump was dead.

Called Medtronic, after going through the “script” the rep was reading from, I eventually got him to get me over to tech support. Not sure why this needs to be this way Medtronic. I had a dead pump, I shouldn’t need to go through my life history with the 1st level rep to get him to transfer me to tech support. Between hold time and rep interaction, this took 10mins.

Once I got to tech support, things worked much quicker. He didn’t bother with the “did it get dropped, did it get wet, did it get damaged in any way” questions until we were done… this guy got straight to work.

So long story short, with the help of tech support, I learned a new trick on the 670g. Note, doing this will cause both the CGM an BGM to no longer be linked to the pump.

In the event of a frozen screen/blank screen:

  1. Hold the “back” button down for 30s
  2. Replace with a known good battery
  3. Pump should reboot
  4. Acknowledge any alarms
  5. Set time/date
  6. Disconnect the CGM transmitter (this can be tricky because of all the tape)
  7. Place CGM transmitter on the charger briefly (longer if you need a charge)
  8. Delete the CGM and BGM from the Device Options menu
  9. Remove the CGM transmitter from the charger, ensure the green light flashes briefly and reconnect it to the pump from the Device Options menu
  10. Once you’ve got it the CGM connected, place it back on the charger again briefly, then remove and connect to the sensor, and follow the steps you would normally take from there to start a new one
  11. Reconnect the BGM via the Device Options menu

Double check your settings and with any luck, you will be good to go.

No explanation from Medtronic as to what happened, but after we had the pump up and running he did have me go through and give him all of the information I could about what/when things had occurred.

Hope this helps someone.

4 Likes
2

ugh. so glad I’m using a 551. My next pump is going to be another one when the warranty runs out in December.

1 Like
3

I’m using a 523. I actually love the pager style pump. Small and very durable and does everything I need it to do (for now). Unfortunately I think my next pump will probably be Tandem. It is small and from a technology standpoint more inline with what I want.

2 Likes
4

Same for me. Also considering leaving Medtronics after 20+ years for a tandem.

2 Likes
5

deleted

6

With Animas, a dead internal (backup?) battery was a valid cause for replacement under warranty.

Their reasoning was:
First - It shouldn’t happen within the 4-year warranty period. The internal (Animas) battery is expect to last past 4 years.
Second - If the battery could not maintain the date/time then it is unknown what other settings might or might not have been retained. Animas did not want to run the risk of telling a customer to use a pump which may or may not be reliable.

I miss Animas.

Really the only thing I didn’t like about Animas was their decision to tuck tail and run.

1 Like
7

Same here, I’m also on 523 (looping). It has a couple of cracks but it’s compact and easy to read without taking off from the belt. I will switch now in September to either Omnipod (soon to be loopable) or Accu-Chek Insight (loopable with AAPS), and keep the 523 as backup.

8

is that available in the US, also?

9

Don’t think so. I think that Roche moved out from the US market completely. In Europe still offer Combo, Insight and as of next year the new Omnipod competitor Solo.

10

Roche has a major stake in Senseonics. I would expect to see (at some point) the Eversense cgm being integrated in with the Roche pumps in Europe.

11

Not unlikely. There were rumors that Roche would develop their own CGM as well. I’m not such a big fan of Eversense as I don’t see an advantage vs Dexcom with something being operated under your skin, which still requires a transmitter etc. I have seen scarring and bruising caused by those sensors.

12

UPDATE… has happened two more times since this was posted, (next two battery changes. Medtronic sent a new battery cap after the 2nd lockup, which didn’t do anything.

On Monday, after being on HOLD for 48mins, yes… nearly an hour, they agreed to overnight another 670g overnight. Didn’t get it however until yesterday around 2PM. Had a question about startup, was on hold for another 27mins.
Interesting note about calling Medtronic CS. Both times while on hold, a rep picked up to apologize about the long hold times and asked if I wanted to “just call back later”.

1 Like
13

My 670 G locked up several months ago when I was hospitalized and my wife removed the battery for several days. I called Medtronic tech support and a rep walked me through the reboot procedure. Between waiting time and the assistance, elapsed time was about 45 minutes.

Apparently, lack of power shuts down many of the programs.

14

Too complicated. I miss my old pumps. The reps note everything in conversations and use it against you in future conversations. I feel that they are researching still with all the questions before we get to the issue. Problems are never the product fault. 30 days to return pump is not enough time to even get whole system working together to see if it works for you.

1 Like