Avic Z1 Freezing At startup.

[Marauder]

[quote name="branas"]Yeah, didn't think about that. Leave it to a Floridian to not think about winter 8)[/quote]
Well, I'm a Floridian too, so it wouldn't be a problem for me; I don't even think I ever used my heater at all last winter!

I talked to the Sound Advice guy yesterday, and he called Pioneer and found out exactly what we've been discussing here--that the Z1 will cut off the hard drive at 122 degrees until it cools down enough to operate. But that's not exactly what mine is doing; it's not completely booting above a certain temperature (much lower than 122, never getting past the Pioneer logo screen), although the hard drive IS running, because it plays music from the library, but none of the buttons work. And I checked yesterday when I left work--it was raining and overcast, and the ambient temperature was 87 degrees, inside the car it was around 89, and the Z1 failed to boot.

Long story short, I have an appointment next Friday to get my Z1 replaced with a new unit (for a $40 service charge...), but at least I won't have to wait six weeks to get mine back with a note from Pioneer saying they weren't able to reproduce the problem in their seventy-something degree testing facility. I don't look forward to re-ripping the 55 CDs I had stored in the library either, but I'll be glad to get rid of what I hope is simply a lemon Z1.

[palacios]

[quote name="ufd108"]The problem with that idea would be that in winter you would be dumping hot air on the Z1. If you go this route make sure you do it in such a way that you can easily close it off in winter.[/quote]For me that would be a good thing. I live in North Dakota so the winters here are usually in the negatives and it is well below the lowest operating temperaure for the Z1. When I had my N1 and my N2, during the Jan-Feb period, my screen would turn on extremely slow and waiting for screen changes while navigating through the menus was a pain in the ass. I haven't had my Z1 through a ND winter yet but it'll probably do the same thing. I find it funny that I can touch the 1,000 watt amp under my seat after it's been on for an hour and I have to remove my hand after a while because it's too cold.