[size=medium]I have the same issues as the OP. I have had my 705GP since Dec.10th of last year and I had seen so many people posting with the standard newbie frustrations and their lack of understanding of their detectors. I'm talking about all MDs not just Minelab 705s! I had so many problems with flipping TIDs, not having hardly any single ID tones, very little depth, (not long after getting it I noticed the depth scale never had more than 2 arrows) and any other MD problem issue you can think of! So I just assumed that it was the normal I have to learn my MD story. From Dec. of last year until a few weeks ago I worked so hard at figuring this 705 out and making any sense of it. I read the manual 3 times, and parts of it 5 or more times and did everything exactly as it told me to do it. I had also read Digger's Ebook at least twice and many sections several more times,and watched every video on Minelabs website. I sat in this sub forum and read page after page of Posts and replies as well as doing the same at every other forum I joined. The more I worked at it and tried to understand it, the more Erratic it got. The TID numbers never stopped changing and eventually the tones were like old Acid Rock. Finally the sound started going out and quickly got worse. I sure didn't have anything like the 705 everyone Raves about and loves. The thought that my 705 was defective had grown to the point I was about to send it in, but I wanted to be totally sure I tried everything first. When the sound started going out I knew it had to go back for repairs. When I first got my 705 The Depth was not so good but it had solid tones and its pinpointing impressed me, I could almost always get the target into a 2in circle in pinpoint mode and into a 4in circle in my search mode using the tip and heel of the GP 5x10 coil. It also had some accuracy in the TIDs. Since nothing I tried made it better I adapted to it as best I could as it got worse. I was not letting a MD kick my Butt! Almost 5 weeks ago my sound went out while hunting so I tried turning the MD off and on several times and plugging in and unplugging the Headphones, I never got the sound back that day and went home growling. The next day it worked again but it kept cutting in and out and lowering and raising its own volume. The tones by now were twisted together like strands of rope with the actual target tone being the lowest volume one in the mix. It was also the shortest tone. But I could hear it when the volume was at its highest for the 15 seconds it stopped at the top and and I stopped swinging when it was at its lowest for that 15 seconds. By then the MD was so messed up, pinpoint mode was useless so I pinpointed in my search mode as I swept the coil over my targets and averaged the changing coin TID. Two days before I sent my 705 in for repairs I was searching a totlot and found 41 zinc pennies and a wheat penny, 4 clad quarters, and 3 clad dimes!
Now is probably the time to mention my Old Fisher Coinstrike! A few months ago with the Minelab driving my nuts I decided to try another detector and bought a cheap used Fisher C$ from a local seller. It was a deep easy to learn and use pretty nice detector, it did chatter a bit like people say Fishers do. I switch between the C$ and 705 daily until the 705 would make me mad then switch to the C$, I carried them both. After a couple weeks the C$ started acting the same as the 705 But not quite as bad, and no sound problems. Now I had two different brands doing the same thing driving me crazy in stereo, I almost had to think I was doing something to these MDs or My ground was doing it somehow? I was not doing anything to the MDs that didn't come out of the owners manual in my lap as I did it on the C$ and/or with the manual or Diggers Ebook on my lap as I adjusted the 705. Neither MD ever saw water, neither ever stayed in my car all night, the 705 was new and the C$ was mint! Both MDs came into my house house working well (except the 705s depth) and Both were Unstable in less than a month each? I decided to send them both in for service Figuring the C$ might need debris cleaned out of it, and it probably needed checked out and recalibrated. I have a friend that has that done to MDs he buys? I sent the C$ first figuring I would probably have to pay and hour labor and after being cleaned inside and recalibrated, it would come back with a clean bill of health and I could sell it. It weighs to much and I am not wild about its combination numeric pinpointing and depth gauge that take over the TID numbers.I sent it in about 7 weeks ago and it was gone about a month, so during that Time I was devoted to figuring out the 705! I bought the 705 5 months ago and I bought the C$ 3 months ago, the C$ was gone for repair for 1 month of the three I owned it. The 705s problems kept getting worse and the sound went bad beyond use by luck just about a week before the C$ came back!
Now is probably the time to mention the Tesoro Deleon, I bought it from a private seller in another forum about a month ago. I used it while the C$ was in for service and the 705 wasn't working. I mention this MD for the timeline and because it's part of the MD story!
Now lets tie it all together. Fisher Calls me after getting my C$ and informs me it has a bad coil, and they don't have one so have to make a new coil, This is why it was gone a month! When they Called again they informed me the C$ Coil had been put on the MD and it had been tested and would ship later that day. I then called Minelab service and explained what my 705 was doing and got a RO number and they Emailed me a prepaid shipping label! As I pulled the packing material out of the C$ box I used it to pack the 705and off the 705 went to ML. I had to switch from my Deleon to the C$ to test it out so I could decide if I wanted to sell it or not after its repair. I'll only say the C$ is a monster now, I don't know what MD can touch its depth, but it wont be a cheap one! I think the new coil is 1/4lb heavier than the original! I used it a few days and went back to the Deleon way lighter MD. In my Letter to ML I put in with the 705 I stated the C$ doing the same thing and having a bad coil. Two days after shipping it off ML called and let me know they got it that day. It was a Friday afternoon. The next Wednesday the Tech called and informed me that the only thing worth keeping on my 705 was the control face and the control box plastic case, and that the coil was bad also! Every part inside of my 705 was replaced, as well as the coil! It was done and sent to shipping Thursday late afternoon. it shipped on Friday late, and I had it back yesterday late afternoon. I had asked them for a Catalog and calender and bumper sticker, I got a thin High end only catalog, The repair paperwork, and a service satisfaction questionnaire! Oh and they kept my Velcro straps I used to hold the Coil Wire together, That I use on the MD to hold the wires to the shafts. I guess they traded me for a new set of Batteries they put into it, That's a fair trade for me. I used the 705 today and it works good I can't say great because it doesn't pinpoint as good as it used to, and it seems to have a slow reaction time now? Does the reaction time change with sensitivity or some other function setting? To be fair I was only out 3 hours before I got to hot and couldn't get any air out of the air, we had some kind of yellow air alert here today? Is there something I can do to improve the pinpointing to get it back to what I'm used to it pinpointing like and also can I do anything to speed up reaction time? I swing the MD at the suggested speed and its no problem as I am actually searching, its when I am stopped and swinging maybe a foot wide to narrow down the target before pinpointing! im not getting the target tone until I'm 2 inches past the target going either way? Sorry this is so long... Good Luck and Happy Hunting,,,,, Pat [/size]