HELP MY F500BT WONT STAY ON — AVIC411 Forum Archive

Posted Jun 02, 2009 · 17:53 UTC#1

OKAY I HAD DID AN UPGRADE SOFTWARE ON MY F500BT AND FOLLOWED EVERY STEP ON THE WEB SITE. AFTER UPGRADEING EVERYTHING, IT JUST POWERS UP FOR 5 SECONDS THEN TURN OFF. CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT IT WAS WORKING FIND BEFORE.

I TRYED RESET BUTTON ON THE BACK BUT DOESNT DO ANY THING.

Posted Jun 10, 2009 · 23:17 UTC#2

I had a exact same problem. (two time)

Posted Jun 11, 2009 · 00:31 UTC#3

You need to give a more detailed description of what happens once you have pressed the power button, does anything display on the screen, etc.......

Posted Jun 13, 2009 · 19:18 UTC#4

I had the same problem with 2 separate units! Now I am scared to upgrade the firmware. I bought this thing less than 2 weeks ago and I'm already on my 4th! unit! When this thing works it is incredible! But this has to be the most unreliable GPS in the world. If it weren't for 6th Ave Electronics not giving refunds on GPS I probably would've given up by now! I guess there is a reason it was only $169! Here is what happened....

Unit 1 : I downloaded firmware 2.0 from Pioneer's website. Followed the directions and installed. I received an error during installation. The unit still worked afterwards (and it showed 2.0 firmware) but the music player stopped working so I returned it.

Unit 2: I had Pioneer send me the firmware update on a pre-loaded SD card (I didn't want to take a chance downloading and possibly having a file corrupted or missing). I installed the update and it looked like it worked. The unit did its reset (step at the end before you remove battery and restart again... but it never came back to life! The blue light flashed, the Pioneer logo came on the screen then it flashed a white screen and shut off. (during this time none of the other buttons were lit up white like usual). Before I installed the firmware this unit seemed to have a mind of its own and would randomly shut off for no reason. Sometimes I hit the power button and it came right back on, other times it would do a cold boot. I thought there may have been a defect so I returned it.

Unit 3: SAME RESULT as unit 2!!! Everything looked fine then on the final reset it never came back to life!

Now I am on unit 4 and I am scared to upgrade the firmware since it seems like this will just kill another unit! I am using the SD card Pioneer sent me, a monkey could follow the instructions, yet my unit seems destined to stay on firmware 1.0! I do not have this hardwired into my car. I am using the cigarette lighter plug and the sound goes through my stereo using the 3.5mm headphone jack plugged into my stereos aux input. My GPS signal is pretty weak and inconsistent. I considered buying an external antenna. Not sure if the firmware will fix the time it takes to lock onto the signal but I figured it was worth a try. I know the firmware is supposed to fix bluetooth and "general" problems and I would really like my unit up to date. Can someone help?

UPDATE 8/13/09

I FINALLY have Firmware 2.0! After using the unit for 2 months and struggling to not chuck it out the window! I was getting fed up with having to do a hard reset EVERY day because the unit would randomly stop recognizing most of the music on my 8 gig SD card (it would only "see" the first song in each album). I went to Pioneers website to get info to send the unit back to them to have them update the firmware when I saw there was a 2.000000006 firmware updated late June. Ironically, one of the "fixes" had something to do with installing the firmware without bricking the unit.... go figure! I installed the firmware ALMOST hassle-free. After the update everything was working fine until I decided to turn it off without shutting off the car. When I finally got it back on it was doing the old hard reboot cycle, showing the Pioneer logo for 5 seconds then shutting off! I disconnected power, held in the reset button with a pen until it came on fully...it appears to be fine now. It still takes about 15 mins to get gps lock after a hard reset but it seems to be working better overall. Definitely turns on a lot faster from a cold boot. The TTS update doesnt appear to have worked but I don't care since that voice sounds like a robot anyway! I hope that the music player keeps working and hopefully I wont have to reboot it ever again!

Posted Aug 30, 2009 · 17:09 UTC#5

i am having the same exact problem as the poster above me. the only difrence is that mine finally shut off and will not power back on again. the blue light is on. the power button doesnt do ANYTHING. the reset button doesnt do ANYTHING. the white back LED lights dont light up. i currently have the wall connector trying to see if its just that the battery needs a charge. but the back of the gps just gets HOT.

in all honnesty it i am not happy with this unit. i paid A LOT more than most have paid for it. and i see my 65 yr old aunt use her small 60 dollar garmin simple unit with no problem at all. while i was under the impression that pioneer was a FAR superior unit i am sad to conclude that i was mistaken.

original purchase date of my unit was may 10th 2009.

Eddie Rosado

Posted Aug 30, 2009 · 18:01 UTC#6

I had the same problem with 2 separate units! Now I am scared to upgrade the firmware. I bought this thing less than 2 weeks ago and I'm already on my 4th! unit! When this thing works it is incredible! But this has to be the most unreliable GPS in the world. If it weren't for 6th Ave Electronics not giving refunds on GPS I probably would've given up by now! I guess there is a reason it was only $169! Here is what happened....

Unit 1 : I downloaded firmware 2.0 from Pioneer's website. Followed the directions and installed. I received an error during installation. The unit still worked afterwards (and it showed 2.0 firmware) but the music player stopped working so I returned it.

Unit 2: I had Pioneer send me the firmware update on a pre-loaded SD card (I didn't want to take a chance downloading and possibly having a file corrupted or missing). I installed the update and it looked like it worked. The unit did its reset (step at the end before you remove battery and restart again... but it never came back to life! The blue light flashed, the Pioneer logo came on the screen then it flashed a white screen and shut off. (during this time none of the other buttons were lit up white like usual). Before I installed the firmware this unit seemed to have a mind of its own and would randomly shut off for no reason. Sometimes I hit the power button and it came right back on, other times it would do a cold boot. I thought there may have been a defect so I returned it.

Unit 3: SAME RESULT as unit 2!!! Everything looked fine then on the final reset it never came back to life!

Now I am on unit 4 and I am scared to upgrade the firmware since it seems like this will just kill another unit! I am using the SD card Pioneer sent me, a monkey could follow the instructions, yet my unit seems destined to stay on firmware 1.0! I do not have this hardwired into my car. I am using the cigarette lighter plug and the sound goes through my stereo using the 3.5mm headphone jack plugged into my stereos aux input. My GPS signal is pretty weak and inconsistent. I considered buying an external antenna. Not sure if the firmware will fix the time it takes to lock onto the signal but I figured it was worth a try. I know the firmware is supposed to fix bluetooth and "general" problems and I would really like my unit up to date. Can someone help?

UPDATE 8/13/09

I FINALLY have Firmware 2.0! After using the unit for 2 months and struggling to not chuck it out the window! I was getting fed up with having to do a hard reset EVERY day because the unit would randomly stop recognizing most of the music on my 8 gig SD card (it would only "see" the first song in each album). I went to Pioneers website to get info to send the unit back to them to have them update the firmware when I saw there was a 2.000000006 firmware updated late June. Ironically, one of the "fixes" had something to do with installing the firmware without bricking the unit.... go figure! I installed the firmware ALMOST hassle-free. After the update everything was working fine until I decided to turn it off without shutting off the car. When I finally got it back on it was doing the old hard reboot cycle, showing the Pioneer logo for 5 seconds then shutting off! I disconnected power, held in the reset button with a pen until it came on fully...it appears to be fine now. It still takes about 15 mins to get gps lock after a hard reset but it seems to be working better overall. Definitely turns on a lot faster from a cold boot. The TTS update doesnt appear to have worked but I don't care since that voice sounds like a robot anyway! I hope that the music player keeps working and hopefully I wont have to reboot it ever again!

UPDATE 8/30/09

Its still a piece of crap.

It must be reset on a daily basis. At least once a day it only plays the 1st song in any MP3 album! Doesn't matter if I use the 8gig SD card, or if I plug in my SanDisk Clip MP3 player. Still randomly cuts off songs before theyre over. The only positive is that the unit now turns on faster so I can have music back faster after my at least once daily reset! Still takes 15-30 minutes!!!!! to get a GPS lock after reset! WTF!?!?!?! It seems like whenever I need to use this damn thing is when its waiting for GPS lock! Am I supposed to wait in my car for a half hour before I need to go somewhere? More times then not I end up using the GPS in my phone! I'll probably put this thing on Craigslist... That is if I dont put it on the freeway first doing 80mph!!

Posted Aug 30, 2009 · 18:04 UTC#7

i am having the same exact problem as the poster above me. the only difrence is that mine finally shut off and will not power back on again. the blue light is on. the power button doesnt do ANYTHING. the reset button doesnt do ANYTHING. the white back LED lights dont light up. i currently have the wall connector trying to see if its just that the battery needs a charge. but the back of the gps just gets HOT.

in all honnesty it i am not happy with this unit. i paid A LOT more than most have paid for it. and i see my 65 yr old aunt use her small 60 dollar garmin simple unit with no problem at all. while i was under the impression that pioneer was a FAR superior unit i am sad to conclude that i was mistaken.

original purchase date of my unit was may 10th 2009.

Eddie Rosado

Eddie, make sure it is charged. This is exactly what mine did. I took out the battery for 30 seconds, put it back and held a pen in the reset hole on the back while holding the power button. I held the pen in until fully turned on...this stopped the cycle. hope it works for you...good luck.

Posted Aug 30, 2009 · 22:24 UTC#8

nothing we should both meet up some where where we can just sledge hammer these things into the pavement.

i too have been using my tiny iphone google maps application to get around. its so dangerous to have to hold the cell in the hand and try to drive. this thing was fenomenal when it WORKED. i cannot believe 3 months is all the life they have.

Eddie Rosado

Posted Aug 30, 2009 · 22:30 UTC#9

do we have the factory service manual anywhere? the blue led lit up what does it represent? it is the only sign of life in my unit at this time. and only when charged.

Eddie

Posted Aug 31, 2009 · 14:39 UTC#10

do we have the factory service manual anywhere? the blue led lit up what does it represent? it is the only sign of life in my unit at this time. and only when charged.

Eddie

Unless the unit has a hardware failure, for which you should probably have cover under warranty, you can try to enter the service menu and re-flash the appropriate wince image file. Check this thread viewtopic.php?t=25838 for howto. I would do that as a 1st step towards reviving it.