F900BT Will Not Turn On

[Jduke705]

I have had my Avic F900BT for about 2 years now. I got it when it first came out and have done the updates to the 3.0 download from a member here and then official update from the 3.0 to 3.1 or whatever the version was. I did this update back in about March so at least 5 months ago. I never have had a problem with it except a few places I believe the GPS would cause a reboot as one road the same spot would cause a reboot. But no other problems to note.

 

I drove to work yesterday with no issue and parked. When I went to lunch the unit will not boot up anymore. It will display the lights on the buttons for about 5 seconds and nothing on the screen then shut back off. I checked the 12v, acc, and ground wires and all read as normal as they should. 12 is constant and ground reads ground , and acc is 12 v in acc position.... Also checked the fuse in the back of the radio and it is good. Even replaced it just for good measure...

 

Has anyone else had a similar issue and fixed it.

 

Thanks,

 

Josh

[w4rh4wk]

Try reinstlling the 3.1 update from scratch if you can.

3.1 Firmware

[Jduke705]

I have tried the winCE files from the 3.1 download and also the wince images from when i did the 2.08 to 3.0 update and both freeze on me. I have tried 2 different sd cards and have reformatted them both with a full format not just a quick and tried again. These are the same 2 cards i originally did the update with also. But it gets to read 100% then freezes when i do the update wince with update. I can get it to go to read 100% then write 5% and then freeze when going to update wince without format...

 

Thanks for the response and any other ideas

 

Josh

[w4rh4wk]

if its freezing on a write ...the SD cards are most likely fine. This is not a good sign, it might mean your AVIC's built in drive has died or has bad blocks and it cant accept anymore changes...

[Jduke705]

And can you think of anyway to replace this built in drive? besides replacing the entire unit lol.

 

or anyway to repair the bad blocks

[w4rh4wk]

when i took my f700bt apart to replace the touch screen, i didnt see a separate flash drive component to the device. If i had to guess, its built into the main board of the device. You can check

http://www.pacparts.com/

to see if they have a drive or mainboard, but i doubt it. If they have the parts,

here's photos on a step by step disassemble of an AVIC unit.

take apart avic link

[Jduke705]

Ah. Thanks Warhawk. I am at work and cant see the dissasembly photos here but i will check when i get home. I was just thinking about taking it apart and seeing what i can find there for where the internal memory is stored. I hope its not on a onboard chip... but if it is not much i can do about it. And i checked the link for that pac parts and nothing interior to the unit for the avicf90bt but thanks for the link.

 

But i will look into the dissasembly photos when I get home and as always thanks again

 

Josh

[w4rh4wk]

your welcome!

[johnmiller10]

Ah. Thanks Warhawk. I am at work and cant see the dissasembly photos here but i will check when i get home. I was just thinking about taking it apart and seeing what i can find there for where the internal memory is stored. I hope its not on a onboard chip... but if it is not much i can do about it. And i checked the link for that pac parts and nothing interior to the unit for the avicf90bt but thanks for the link.

 

But i will look into the dissasembly photos when I get home and as always thanks again

 

Josh

 

Can you get into test mode? If so, follow these steps to copy the files from FlashDisk over from the torrent download link above. Let me know how it works out, hope it helps!

 

11. Go to start, control panel, Storage.

Due to the difficulty of the next few steps, I would take the few extra seconds required to calibrate your screen. When I was doing my reflash, I got to a point where I needed to select something that was not selectable because the screen was so far out of calibration. Trust me here, do this step. Press Start,settings,control panel and then look for the stylus icon. Double click the stylus icon and click on the calibration tab and follow the simple calibation instructions. You will thank yourself for doing this step. Once this is complete, it is now time to clear the internal flash memory to get it ready to accept the new files. While still in the control panel double click on the Storage Manager icon.

 

12. Unmount FlashDisk, and press FORMAT.

Once the storage manager box is open, you will have a dropdown box with 3 or 4 selectable options to choose from. You want to make sure that this source is selected: dsk1: sdmlc disk and the partion on the right will read like this: part00

Press the button that says Dismount and then press the button that says Format. This will erase the internal flash memory and you will lose the partition. No problem. In the bottom right hand corner of the screen, there is a small icon for the virtual keyboard. Click on this, and a window will pop up that says keyboard. click on the keyboard font and it will launch the virtual keyboard. Now, in the right hand column of the storage manager, click the button that says New and you will create a new partition that will prompt you for a name. Touch your stylus in the name field and then type in part00 and press the OK button. You will now see that you re-created the original partition and it is already mounted. If you chose not to recalibrate your screen as suggested earlier, you can now begin to start swearing as the keyboard will most likely not be selectable.

 

13. Once formatted, create a new partition and call it part0. Mount it back up.

Just skip this step as you already completed it in the step above.

 

14. Copy ALL files from USB drive backup to FlashDisk This should take about 40 min or so

This is the step that had me tearing my hair out until I figured it out. You can now close the control panel and anything else that is open so that you go back to the desktop. Double-click on the My Device icon. Here you will see a few icons that represent your different storage devices. You are now going to copy the files from either your SD card or USB drive depending on which storage medium you chose in step 1. If you are using a USB device, make sure it is plugged in. If you chose to use an SD card, make sure you insert it into the headunit. As I chose to use a USB drive, my instruction will detail this step, although the exact same thing applies to the SD card.

Double click on the USB disk icon. This will show you all the files that you stored on the USB drive back in step 1. Click on the Edit tab at the top of the screen and then press Select all. Press on the Edit tab agian and then press Copy. Now, double-click on the My Flash Disk icon and it will open the folder that you formatted earlier. There may be a couple of very small files in this folder, but they will be over-written very soon. Click on the Edit tab and then press Paste. This will dump all the files from the USB drive into this folder. You may get prompted about " do you want to over-write some files". The answer is "Yes to all". It will now take about 45 minuted to download the files into the internal flash card. Once this is complete, follow the final step and you should be set. After rebooting/resetting, you will have to plug your Ipod in and reset all your personal preferences.

 

PS. If you chose to use an SD card to transfer the files, instead of double-clicking on the USB disk icon, double click on the Storage card and follow the same instructions.

 

15. Take out any SD cards from the unit and reboot.

[Jduke705]

Can you get into test mode? If so, follow these steps to copy the files from FlashDisk over from the torrent download link above. Let me know how it works out, hope it helps!

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately no.

 

The unit will not turn on the screen unless in diagnostic mode and freezes when trying to write the wince image. And if trying to start normally or boot into testmode off the SD it will again display the lights on for ten seconds or so (no screen activity. not even splash). then lights turn back off and the fan continues to run in the back.

 

but thanks for the attempt

[torred]

Hey mine did the same thing on thursday the 28. I had the battery off cuz i was working on the engine (misfire of cylinder 4) and when I plugged my battery back my deck wouldn't turn on. Mines a 700bt. I just get a black screen. No pioneer splash screen. And like urs the lights turn on and the fan kicks in. So it looks like it's on... but the screen is just black.... havn't found a fix tho...sadly... ;( I tried doing a hard reset... but all it does is the lights on the unit pulsate... and then within 30sec the light turn off of the unit.

[Jduke705]

Hey mine did the same thing on thursday the 28. I had the battery off cuz i was working on the engine (misfire of cylinder 4) and when I plugged my battery back my deck wouldn't turn on. Mines a 700bt. I just get a black screen. No pioneer splash screen. And like urs the lights turn on and the fan kicks in. So it looks like it's on... but the screen is just black.... havn't found a fix tho...sadly... ;( I tried doing a hard reset... but all it does is the lights on the unit pulsate... and then within 30sec the light turn off of the unit.

 

 

 

I believe it has to do with the booting... I believe it may have fried to the point that it cant read the internal memory to boot into anything but bios... I am taking apart mine now to see if i can find where the internal memory is stored.

[torred]

Thats not good.... If you find a solution i'd love to know what it is... in the mean time i'll keep tinkering with it... and hope it turns on...

[Nico]

Dear friends,

 

I have te same problem with my F900BT.

I get a black screen. No pioneer splash screen.

the lights turn on and the fan kicks in.

So it looks like it's on but the screen is just black.

 

Dus have some one fix this issue?

 

any help pls.

 

Best kind regards,

Nico

[gleal17]

Ne figureIs it out post quick mine did the same tryied to put the 3.1 udpate but all it does is get stuck on the pioneer screen looks like its trying to load but.then reboots trying it right now again hope its not serious.