fry

Weird. I've NOT experienced this. I'd disconnect the maestro, etc (ugh, i know) and see if it goes away. I'd also be considering buying a replacement display on eBay to swap and see if the problem persists or resolves. The w4400nex display is also directly compatible - I know cuz I have a w4500 with a w4400 screen.

Could be a sticky button on your steering wheel or display unit, or potentially the touchscreen digitizer. Definitely not quick/easy/fun to troubleshoot. I don't envy you.

Glad you got it working! It might be a good idea to warn people that there have been reports of issues when using these images, because they are based on the 4400 firmware (correct me if I'm wrong). IIRC some features don't always work, and if someone wants those features, they may decide they want to pay the $95 to get the official one.  I didn't download these again to double-check them against the 4500 firmware image I made from the $95 official SD card I bought.

IF someone buys the official card, they too can make a backup file before they install it in their 4500. I went a slightly different route, and am very happy I did: I cloned the official SD card to one I had on hand, and used the clone instead of the official card in my 4500. Works great, and running firmware 1.05. So I have an image and an unlocked official card for whatever that's worth.

No, I won't upload my image file because I don't want any trouble with copyright police.

@Jeff Brown Buy the official replacement SD card from PacParts.com (Pioneer QXX3352), see https://www.pacparts.com/model.cfm?model_id=AVHW4500NEX&mfg=Pioneer&back=0&action=list_part. $95 + s&h.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL the new SD card, clone it to an image on your hard drive and back that image up for safekeeping. As you hopefully already know, the SD card will be locked after you install it, and no one here knows the SD card lock/unlock password yet.

I just did this with my own 4500 (with a slight twist). I cloned the QXX3352 SD card, and then put it back in the packaging to keep it pristine, then wrote to my own on-hand SD card and installed THAT SD card in my 4500. Seems to work perfectly so far.

If you want to share that image after you have backed it up, feel free to do so at your own risk (e.g. DMCA takedown notices).

edit: I outlined how I created my image file in the linked thread.

Thanks @Datsun It seems our images are different in some way.

For others viewing this topic, I purchased one of the official Pioneer SD cards for the AVH-W4500NEX from PacParts.com. Part number QXX3352 (https://www.pacparts.com/part.cfm?part_no=QXX3352&mfg=Pioneer).

I created an image from the card using this command(in linux, MacOS can do this too):

dd if=/dev/sdcard of=/path/to/image.bin bs=512

and then hashed the resulting file with this command:

sha256sum /path/to/image.bin

and the output of that command was:

6a466ff1a69dd147cd5e2601f73bbac4340d70f4ee3436b2db51153552dbaef2  /path/to/image.bin

This doesn't tell me a whole lot other than the simple fact that @Datsun's image and my image are different. There's a million reasons why they could be different.

Has anyone else bought the official replacement SD card, and would they be willing/able to do some coop hacking around with disk images of a fresh-from-the-factory card with me?

So I bought a "used" AVH-W4500NEX online and it appears to be what I would a "Frankenstein" radio (where more than one broken units are reassembled to create a single working unit). Is there a better term to use? For example: the screen module is badged with AVH-W4400NEX in the corner and the serial number on a sticker on the unit does not match what is shown in the system information screen.

Since I'm new to these units and have a lot to learn about them, can someone explain how "swappable" parts are between the two models? It seems they're basically the same hardware with a few minor changes (I think I saw someone list the hardware differences somewhere online, but can't find them again right now). Also, are the sticker serial number and the one listed in the software supposed to match, or not really?

@DatsunAny chance of sharing the .img file you created from the Pacparts card?