mike35z

no problem....i will forward the info....

He will make a couple samples for you to look at. You can decide if you like them, and go from there. I will post them here as a thumbnail or somthing. The comleted artwork will be emailed in bitmap, jpeg, or whatever format you want. I think the bitmap 500x240 loads very fast and is the original factory graphic format used in the z1,2 and3. thank you Mike

My roomate is a graphic designer....he did these backgrounds for my avic z2 unit. He can make them for anyone of anything. ( for a small fee) jpeg 500 x 240

I have noticed several upgraded hard drives available on ebay that contain the image file from an Avic Z3 hard drive. I would suggest when buying an upgraded hd to check the cache size of the hd. Most of the hd's listed on ebay are using an 8mb cache size. This is the same size as the original. A hard drive that is larger in capacity benefits greatly from a 16mb cache size. The higher cache size increases the operating speed of the hd. It allows for increased read and write speeds. The toshiba hd's that use the 16mb cache size are more expensive. It is worth paying an extra 10 or 20 do

I upgraded my Z1 with a new 40GB hd, with a 16mb cache, and 5200 rpm spindle speed. I loaded the z2 image onto this...then did a defrag of all the partitions. I think this helped increase the boot time too. If anyone is loading a new HD with the z2 image, be sure to do a degrag on each partiton...(only 2 of the partitions will need it). It helps a bit for the load time. My Z1 now boots up in half the time...just enough time to put a seatbelt on, and put the car in gear.

Is this a brand new Z2 out of the box? Did anyone make any changes to the HD, or is it totally a new unit. What CD are you trying to load? Is tha an update for the unit? Or is it a music cd. I can try to help you if you like. Mike I have bought 2 D2 units, and 2 Z1 units and installed them in 4 cars for me and friends. I know a come about the nav units from Pioneer.

Whenever I leave my car in a parking lot I put a towel over the dash and it hangs over the navigation unit. I also heard of a way to make a fake cover to go over the unit that makes it look like a cheap radio. Another possibility is to get a piece of plexiglas...crack it...and lay it over the z1 screen to make it look like its broken..no one would want to take it. Just some crazy ideas that might work.

Just for kicks...I decided to try my AM radion on my Z1. It does not pick up any am channels......the FM works great....I never listen to AM radio, but was suprised to find out it did ot pick up any stations. I used to work on radio's years ago. Alot of AM radio's used an oscillator circuit that had to be adjusted when the radio was installed in the car. This oscillator fine tuned the antenna for max reception. I wonder if the Z1 needs this adjustment. Oh well....i really don't care about the AM anyway.

I have an oem Tosheba 30gb hd removed from my Z1 unit. I replaced it with a 40gb unit. I installed the Z2 update on the 30gb oem hd. I have it for sale on ebay if anyone is interested. (cheap) I guarantee it to work perfectly. It has brand new partitions and OEM files used in Z2 upgrade. thanks

I have a copy of the Z2 upgrade RAR files, and the decompressed tib file used by Acronis. I would be happy to send you these files if your interesed via a couple dvd disks if your still looking. mike

I used the ftp download link to attempt to download the 8 rar files from big floppy. I was able to download all but the last 3 rar files. It says the ip address for big floppy is no longer allowing downloads. Has anyone else had this problem? Just curious. thanks mike

I totally agree with you on the unreasonable amount of money that pioneer is charging for a map update. If you buy a car from ford or chevy...they give you free map updates for as long as you own the car. Pioneer should be supplying free map updates with the very costly z1 and z2 units. They are very poor business people for doing this. If they supplied free updates for the z1 and z2, they would sell alot more of these units. There greed is overpowering their thinking. One way to update the Z1 with a new map is to purchase one of the pre-loaded HD's on ebay. However, some of the

Some of the people that are selling the Z1 upadate Hard drives are not using an automotive grade drive. The original HD used in the Z1 was built to higher specifictions. One of the specifications is the ability to run correctly in wide variences of temperature. The interior of a car or truck can often reach in excess of 130 degrees in summer and below zero temps in the winter. The hard drive is the main mechanical device used in the Z1 units. This places rigid specifications on the hard drive. The toshiba OEM drive was built for these tolerances. I have noticed that most of the Ebay replacmemn

Some of the people that are selling the Z1 upadate Hard drives are not using an automotive grade drive. The original HD used in the Z1 was built to higher specifictions. One of the specifications is the ability to run correctly in wide variences of temperature. The interior of a car or truck can often reach in excess of 130 degrees in summer and below zero temps in the winter. The hard drive is the main mechanical device used in the Z1 units. This places rigid specifications on the hard drive. The toshiba OEM drive was built for these tolerances. I have noticed that most of the Ebay rep

I want to thank you so much for posting this info on upgrading the z1. I think the $ 250.00 pioneer is charging is a bit high. I would think they would keep the price reasonable for the owners of the z1 units since they are costly to begin with. I am a computer repair technician and computer builder. After I upload the new data to my Z1 HD...I am going to purchase several more exact replacement hd's. Then I will set up these hd's and swap them to anyone that wants to do a simple and quick upgrade to their Z1 and a reasonable price. If anyone is interested...I will post more info later...