F500BT buttons not working/white screen/power only on cradle *fixed*

[mkoz]

My avic took a fall over the winter months while it was not in use. When I recently connected it to the brick ac/dc power supply I got the blue led but nothing else. In the car, once mounted in the cradle I discovered it powered on and booted, but there was no response from the hard buttons. Today I decided to take a look inside for loose connections.

 

NOTE: there is a hidden screw in the battery compartment under the large black sticker the battery sits on, it's actually shown in the service manual had I paid enough attention, instead it took a while to figure out

 

In the process of discovering the screw the click wheel stopped working and I got the white screen - unit still booted as I had audio. All these symptoms were related to pulled or misaligned ribbon cables. In my case, both ends of the hard button ribbon, the screen ribbon and the click wheel ribbon. If you venture down this road be very careful, the ribbon locks vary in type and are delicate. The battery has to be seated and the compartment locked for the unit to boot. As a side note there is backlight adjustment on the main board with an access hole behind the center serial number sticker - you can poke a small flathead through the sticker once you locate the hole. I wouldn't touch it unless your screen looks washed out or too dark and the software adjustment is insufficient.

 

My unit is back to normal. Hope this helps someone.

 

keywords: hard buttons don't work, white screen, power only on cradle, f500bt