ive recently started to hunt for gold in the mountains...pine trees etc etc...heres the problem lots of pine needles etc etc..my detector no mater what i do just runs absolutely balistic no matter what coil or what knobs i twist nothing helps..while swinging the coil its like one big giant target..any ideas ...thanks

I had the same problem, and it was a bad power cord. Shorted out in cord from getting it hung around tree branches and stretched out too many times.

This might sound stupid but I've seen it happen several times- Check to see if there is black sands in/under the skid plate. They make the detectors go crazy.

OWT. Check both the suggestions mentioned above. I've had both cause that problem.----Bob

ive tried everything mentioned except pulling off the skid plate...however it does this with all my coils....once i get out of the mountain areas things run fine...i have been told that these 4000,s dont like ground where there has been past fires....charcol or carbon build up...the only way i can get this to run is with a d/d coil..in cancel.. audio quiet..and a gain of about 2.....whitch wont pick up squat for a target....however since these pine needles are about a foot in depth iam probably wasting my time anyways unless i ran across a masive chunk of gold anyways....thanks to all that replied to my post

Hey OWT if your detector works fine other places it sounds like your too close to eletrical interference I,m sure you already know about that but i had what I guess was an under ground phone line or something like that in the mountains made my GP go crazy, just a thought i dont know - Ronnie

Ronnie. That was a real stroke of bad luck with that buried power line running right through that great patch you found . You know that hundred foot swath of undetectable ground has some nice gold. Good to hear Jeff is coming back.----Bob

What are the settings that you're running? It might not be ground balancing because of the hot ground up there, you just might need to adjust a couple of things and get it running smooth. Mine works just fine up in the mountains, but you can't always run the same settings as down in the foothills as the ground is like night and day. Are you running it in Normal or extra?

even tough ive had a minelab for several years iam as green as it gets..however ive had ample time to get used to this detector ive tried every combination and turns and twists with no luck to prevail..there is only one thing i have not tried just never thought of till coming over that minelab book..its about wore out..is doing a specific ground ballance....and really getting into the manual tuning.....undergroung services? ya never know i have run across that before...