You've got it all backwards.

For the last two weeks, my Garmin 405 has been warning me, "That the lap database is full, and that old data will be erased." This message would appear at the completion of every 1 mile lap, in a message window that nearly covers the entire screen. I was a little annoyed at the warning, but was fine with the automatic deletion of old laps since I daily upload to Garmin Connect. But I was wrong, You have to deal with this ASAP to maintain data integrity!

Today at the completion of a three mile run, the error message stayed onscreen and refused to disappear until I held down reset for 3 seconds to end my current activity. Then when I went to review my times, I noticed that the watch only recorded two miles. I uploaded this castrated run to Connect, and to my surprise the map shows three miles, but the splits show two. Crappy.

Anyway, here are some quick instructions to clearing your lap database and getting underway again:

1. On the bezel of your 405, hold down on Settings.
2. Highlight History, if not already selected, and tap the Enter button (or quickly tap the bezel once)
3. Scroll to Delete and tap the Enter button
4. Scroll to All Activities and tap the Enter button. If you have not off loaded current runs from your watch then you should choose Old Activities instead.
5. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. Select Yes and tap the Enter button.
6. Review the deletion by tapping Reset button to move up one menu, then selecting Activities.

Peace out and enjoy your running.

BTW: The Garmin 405 supposedly holds 1000 laps in the database. Alos others complain of their watch beeping continuously when the warning first appears.