I have the W4500 that started going wacky in September, first it started in the boot loop, then it started working again, well somewhat working. Anyhow I ended up here looking for an answer, watched a few videos and ended up ordering the car from Russia on October 3rd. I took the front off the unit and cut out the slot with a 3/8 drill and a file for when the sd card shows up I am ready to switch it out. Haven’t seen it yet. Maybe I should have ordered the card from Pioneer but I called them and asked if the software came with the sd card for $100, they told me no. So I called a supplier of theirs, I think it was “PacParts”, same price. I asked them if the software came with the card and they said yes. So since the unit functions good enough for now I’ll wait to see if the Russian card shows up for a little while longer.
I did the same as @Datsun above however did so with the unit in the car. Overall process to cut the slot and swap cards was 15 minutes which included setting up the dremel and laying out the slot. Here's how I did it:
Start unit and press eject then select SD.
Once the face slides down, unplug the negative battery terminal to the vehicle. This keeps the face down the whole time and eliminates any possibility of shorting something out.
Remove the faceplate from the Pioneer unit.
Layout where the slot should be. You can use the SD logos on the plastic and the finger indent for the upper SD slot as reference points. @Datsun did a much better job locating the slot so use that as a reference. I was just guesstimating based off watching the Youtube video and pausing it.
While holding a shop vac in one hand close to the working area, use a dremel carving bit and lightly start to work a slot into the face plastic. Don't go in too far or you'll hit the OEM SD card slot hardware. I actually knicked the card a number of times but it didn't effect it, not that it matters. I just worked in shallow passes until I was all the way through.
Once you're able to remove the old card, I used a utility knife to clean it up slightly but as you can see I didn't really go crazy trying to make it look pretty as it'll be hidden when the face is up.
Insert your new card of choice.
Reinstall your faceplate.
Reconnect your vehicle battery cable.
Once the unit loads, I did a factory reset just to ensure things were as clean as possible.
Everything has been running great since. I was having issues with Android Auto not loading. This was happening on the 1.01 firmware and 1.02 firmware. My new SD card is loaded with 1.02 from the img file posted earlier. Just wanted to share.
How to fix for AVH-W4400NEX boot loop
in NEX Series
Posted
I did the same as @Datsun above however did so with the unit in the car. Overall process to cut the slot and swap cards was 15 minutes which included setting up the dremel and laying out the slot. Here's how I did it:
Everything has been running great since. I was having issues with Android Auto not loading. This was happening on the 1.01 firmware and 1.02 firmware. My new SD card is loaded with 1.02 from the img file posted earlier. Just wanted to share.