I’ve been using the Dexcom G4 for 3+ years with no problems whatsoever. Until my 3-year-old receiver died a few weeks ago, my G4 has always just worked.
Now, I’ve had 3 new new receivers fail in the 3 weeks. Has anyone else noticed quality issues with recently shipped Dexcom receivers? Any advice for getting one that survives more than a week?
Details of my receiver problems are here, in case they might help someone:
3-year-old Dexcom receiver’s screen stopped turning on. Button press just caused vibration despite full charge. Paperclip reset didn’t work, so ordered a new “Share” receiver.
After 1 week of use, the new receiver vibrated once and then turned off for no apparent reason. It did not respond to a button press, but spontaneously turned back on a couple minutes later, and then displayed a “System Check Passed” notice. The next morning, however, I woke to a “HW-Batt” alarm and the instruction to call tech support. The paperclip reset revived the receiver, but tech support said they should send a new one anyway.
The first replacement receiver arrived but would not turn on even after 3hrs of charging. Pushing the button caused it to vibrate and the screen to light up, but no color or images appeared. Called tech support again. The paperclip reset did not work this time, so they sent me another replacement.
I’ve now been using the second replacement for 4 days. I woke up this morning to a “System Check Passed” notice and found that my receiver displays only 1hr of data (all my data from yesterday is gone). I plugged it into Dexcom Studio to see if I could recover my data, and was able to upload continuous data for the past 4 days (including the 23hrs my receiver still isn’t displaying).
I haven’t called tech support yet, but wanted to see if others are having the same problems.
Mary55, you are clearly very unlucky in the Dexcom receiver department! If I were you, I’d call the helpful Dexcom folks yet again and politely but firmly demand that someone in the know “test drive” your newest receiver for a few days before they ship it to you, if this is at all possible. I wish you the best of luck–you deserve a perfectly functioning receiver (you’ve more than “earned” it by way of your run of cruddy luck!) Please update us with (hopefully) good news.
My receiver is a year old and I’ve received the System Check Passed alert once. I think that is normal, though I’m not sure what it means. When that alert appears, it looks like you lose data, but if you shut your receiver down (via Shutdown) and then restart it, all the data will come back.
It does sound like you’ve had bad luck with your other receivers. I hope that your most recent one continues working without any further problems.
A friend of mine just started on Dexcom, and her first two receivers had to be returned after a day or two. I think they have made a bad batch of receivers. Amazingly she is continuing on Dexcom. I’ve never had a problem with mine (just normal death at about a year.)
I had the same problem as the first issue you noted. They sent a new receiver and wanted the first one back to examine. 11 days after the FedEx records showed the return of the receiver, I got an email stating Dexcom had not received it yet and reminding me to return it.
I have also had issues reaching tech support lately. I hope Dexcom is not getting too big for their own good.
All I can add is that insurance usually replaces receivers once a year. Check with both Dexcom and your Insurance for replacement needs. And always call Dexcom on problems. I’ve found them to be extremely helpful in many situations.
Hi all - I went out of town last week and completely forgot about updating the status here - better late than never, I guess.
Thank you to everyone for your feedback - it’s reassuring to know that others have had similar issues.
I did call Dexcom again and, just as Jen wrote, they said the System Check alert is normal as long as it doesn’t happen too often. The person I spoke with said that every week or even every month would indicate a problem. They did offer to replace my receiver again since my previous one failed shortly following that message, but I figured I still have 11+ months of warranty left so I’d wait and see.
The receiver has been running fine for the last week or two, but I did just get a second system check this afternoon. No data loss this time though, so I guess it’s still in the normal range so long as I don’t have more system checks soon.
I’m hoping there may be a phone-independent non-apple watch interface soon so I can give up the receiver… we’ll see if this one lasts that long.
Just got a new Dexcom - the G5 - and I was getting “system check passed” notifications about once every twelve hours. Sometimes these accompanied a “crashed” receiver, i.e., a blank screen that took awhile to “reboot” - sometimes as much as 10 minutes without a response. Once the screen came back I’d get the “system check passed” screen, and often my data for the last few hours was lost, although sometimes it came back when the same thing happened all over again.
This all ended with me on hold for over an hour with Dexcom, and they answered just in time for an ERR67 to appear on the screen, which apparently means my receiver needs replacing. I’m wondering if it’s just a manufacturing bad batch, or if they thought folks on the G5 just wouldn’t be using the receiver that much. I wanted to get used to it on the receiver before trying my iphone, especially since I don’t know how it will affect my iphone battery or my data usage.
I hope the folks at Dexcom read these forums - I let them know I wasn’t the only one having problems. It’s not great for them as a company. So far, I was happier with my Medtronic CGM (I used it in 2011, but went on a hiatus from the CGM before trying this one out). It worked right away, and no way I’d be on the phone for over an hour.
I use the iPhone with the G5. My battery lasts all day on a charge but admit I don’t talk on the phone that much. I feel the display on the phone is better than the receiver. Give it a try.
My first dexcom receiver lasted 8 weeks without an issue - then constant “system check” and "Contact Distributer"
My second replacement was far worse
My third is unusable - crashes every few hours - even started a continuous “vibrate” in a meeting today - which lasted 5 mins (button did nothing - no paper clip) - it finally rebooted.
I’m awaiting my fourth… the snag with the Phone is battery life and having to unlock to read graph.
My first g5 receiver lasted two weeks then failed to get a signal from the transmitter that lasted 8 hours til I turned the receiver off and called Dexcom who sent a replacement. The replacement worked overnight but then also failed to receive a signal for over an hour. I don’t know why this is occurring. I decided to just use my Android phone with xdrip as it is very reliable and just not use the receiver at all. Unfortunately, this means I can’t use the clarity site but nightscout plus xdrip work great.
I downloaded the source code on github and built it in Android Studio then installed it on my Android. I am not sure if an apk is available from the developers yet since it is still in alpha, or maybe it is beta. I received an email this past week stating they will soon be opening up the testing to a larger audience. The following link gives the latest info.
John Costik: All interested folks: please hang tight while we get ready to open up to a larger, closed beta group. I’ll be busy the next few days, but hope to have more info on Thursday &/or Friday, thanks!
Unlike · Reply · 4 · May 3 at 11:57am
Maybe contact John Costik to see if he can provide an apk app to install on your Android? If not, and if you can’t build it yourself, I can send you mine.
There are many online. Just Google ‘Android Studio tutorial’. I haven’t tried any of them but probably the first one that pops up should give the basics. Good luck. Post if you have any questions.
If I were you, I’d call the helpful Dexcom folks yet again and politely but firmly demand that someone in the know “test drive” your newest receiver for a few days before they ship it to you, if this is at all possible. I wish you the best of luck–you deserve a perfectly functioning receiver (you’ve more than “earned” it by way of your run of cruddy luck!) Please update us with (hopefully) good news.
