Possible Solution for "Please Insert Appropriate Disc" error

[54t67]

For those of you having the "Please Insert Appropriate Disc" error message, I noticed something interesting that solved the problem for me: higher temperature.

 

 

I have owned the AVIC-N3 for a couple of years now, and it started doing the "Appropriate Disc" thing soon after I got it. (It would let me listen to the radio but not any CDs/DVDs or use the Nav. system) Seeing as how my installation was an amateur process at best, I assumed that it was something I had done wrong. After scouring every AVIC-related forum I could find, the only solution seemed to be sending it in for repair. The problem would come and go, but eventually it just went away all together and it worked perfectly. Lucky me! Fast forward to this winter, the problem returns. This winter has been unusually cold (Florida) so I have been running the heat in my car a lot and I noticed that in the (cold) mornings, I start the car and there is the error message staring me in the face. After driving the car a couple miles with the heat blasting, I stop at a store to buy cigarettes and when I start the car back up, the error message is gone and everything works as it should. "What the heck did I do?" I would wonder, but after repeating this process a few mornings I figured it out: it was the heat.

 

 

Try running the heat in your car (once it is blowing very warm air) for 5-10 minutes (or more if it's very cold), then turn off the car, maybe wait 30 seconds then restart it and see if it works. If you have a toggle switch set up for the unit, even better because you can just turn on the power to the AVIC once the car is good and warm. Also, it *may* be possible to just have the detachable face removed before you start the car, and then attach the face once the car is warm. I have not tried the detachable face method (lack of cold mornings since I thought of the "face" method), but I think it would work fine; plus you don't have to restart your car.

 

 

No guarantee it will work for anyone else, but I am 100% certain that solved the issue for me. It rarely gets cold here and when it does it is only for a few days at a time, a few months out of the year. For people that live in colder places, I imagine the problem could be much worse and/or frequent. (When I say "cold" I am talking about 40°F; the low so far this year was 27°F and that set a new record) It makes perfect sense once I realized it: that is why I had the problem a year before, but it mysteriously went away for 8 (hot) months and did not return until the first cold snap. It explains why the problem would even come and go within the the same day. When I turn the car off for the night, I make sure to fill the car with warm air, and this is enough to make sure it works properly when I start the car for the first time the next morning. The last time it gave me the error message was the morning of that 27°F day (Jan.6 2010) and I let the heat run, restarted the car, and it worked perfectly.

 

 

This is perhaps way too long of a post, but the solution is so simple it seems stupid and just writing "Try your heat, dude!" would have made this sound like a joke. In my previous readings about this mysterious error message, I remember reading one post where some guy tried to explain exactly what the problem was and what they would be repairing if you sent it in for service ($200~) He explained (paraphrasing) that it was a problem with the laser "eye" not resetting properly, because every time the unit powers on the arm that holds the laser eye resets to its starting position and if it cannot for any reason, it will default to that error message. He said that as they age, the arm will will start doing this and they need to be replaced. Cold weather causing the plastic arm to tighten up and not be able to reset seems possible.

 

 

Anyway, sorry for the ramblings! Try out the heat trick and please post a reply about your luck, or lack thereof.