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More Edge 500 issues
Oh dear - more Garmin Edge issues 
I have an Edge 500 which has been working perfectly for years. I use this with a HRM and speed/cadence sensor.
This week though it failed to 'boot' (for want of a better word) so I gave it a factory reset. Seemed to work fine.
First ride I went on expected the wheel sensor to auto-calibrate but looks like this didn't happen until a long way in. This resulted in the Edge thinking I rode 20km less than I really did. FWIW, I didn't even figure this out until I was talking to the Strava guys about some dodgy looking power numbers. Love Strava support! 
Anyhow, so to prevent a re-occurrence put in the wheel size manually at 2126mm. That sounds about right for 700x23c tyres, right?
However, just back from a little spin and the Edge was acting very weird. It was registering around half the distance I'd actually ridden to begin. So I turned off the cadence sensor which seemed to fix that issue. Hardly ideal though.
On the ride just now I got part way up a climb & the heavens opened. Did hope to ride through it, but a bit further it became obvious I was just riding into even worse weather so headed home which was a bit disappointing. Oddly, the Edge thought I started at around 72m altitude but finished at 327m. Now, I know storm fronts can screw up barometric altimeters, but by over 200m? That doesn't sound right.
Anyone have any ideas on what's going on here? You reckon the device could be buggered in some way?
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Have you done a firmware update, go to garmin website look for updates to the edge 500, you'll need a garmin connect acct and web updater for garmin, it should work
It has the latest firmware. Has had for months so don't think that is the problem.
If you get a drop of water that blocks up the little holes for the pressure sensor it really screws up the altitude reading. You don't need much pressure change to cause a large altitude error. If the altitude goes funny, give the GPS a bit of a shake or blow off any water that's covering the sensor holes. Also in cloudy or overcast weather you may struggle to get a good signal from the satellites. Moisture is really good at absorbing microwaves.
Additionally, if you've had the GPS a long time then maybe the battery is dying, they don't last forever. As they die the internal resistance rises and they have trouble delivering high current. So the thing may work generally but fail when it has to do some big calculations, like establishing its initial location. Just guessin'.
Hmmmm... interesting theory. I'll make sure it's super dry before the next ride, and also leave for a long time in a really clear location.
I'm not convinced there is much wrong with the battery, lasts for hours and isn't that old.
I have had problems with my 500 edge as well and I put it down to water/moisture, so I used an old trick my husband taught me, put it in a cup of rice and leave for a few days at least (until it worked properly again) and it sorted out all the problems.
We use the rice thing for any electronic devise that has had some water/moisture problems. My daughter put her ipod through a full cycle of the washing machine, looked cactus (and didn't work), a few days in a cup of rice as good as gold!
I actually put my Garmin in the cup of rice quite regularly just to keep any moisture at bay.
Brown or white rice
Just the stock standard white rice, best for absorbing moisture.