Ladies/Gents,

I purchased the 3.0 upgrade from Pioneer for my F900BT. I did the install following the manual meticulously. Everything seemed to go fine. No errors, nothing weird and at the time I was dually impressed. When it was complete, I restarted my nav for the first time with the 3.0 upgrade installed and the "System startup in progress, please wait.." banner stayed on the screen. I couldn't get into most of the menus and there was nothing I could do. Whenever I would press the Map button, it would seem to freeze up. My issue lacked the constant rebooting problem, but I'm sure my fix will correct that too. I knew I had to reinstall the update but needed to figure out how as the update won't run a second time. It just says it's already updated.

I have been in the IT field for 11 years now and have worked on Windows PCs/Servers/Devices for as long as I can remember so this is why I think it will fix most issues like this.

Here is what I did:

1. If you have purchased the 3.0 upgrade or "own" it somehow, copy the Windows CE BIN and CKS files to the root of a freshly FAT32 formatted SD card

2. Go into "Service Mode". If you dont know how, search it cos there are threads describing the process in this forum.

3. Selected "FORMAT and intall Windows CE from SD/MMC (I know for sure it's the 1st option in the list in the service mode dialogue)

4. After the install completes, remove the SD card with the Windows CE BIN and CKS, reboot the unit and quickly insert the 1st SD card that you got from Pioneer (or whichever one you own that has the 3.0 software on it)

5.The update should start like it normally did the first time. Follow the process like you did before and it should work. I know from experience that when in doubt with a Windows machine, reinstall!!!!

Any questions or further info needed, let me know.

Neo.

where can i find the Windows CE BIN and CKS files ?

thanks

Depends on where you got the 3.0 update from. I can only speak for the official Pioneer version which is what I had purchased. The files are on the SD card marked number 1. Just browse the few folders on it and you will find them.

Sintacks, my hat is off to you!

My F900BT started having this very problem about 3 days ago. After trying reboots, resets and everything else I could think of I finally took the car into my installer this afternoon. He suggested a "battery pull" of at least 15 minutes to clear all memory. I disconnected my car battery for just over 1 hour and guess what ... NO difference! My installer had also told me that if the battery pull didn't work he would have to remove the unit and send it to Pioneer and they would charge me $250 just to look at it.

Needless to say, before I shelled out $250 for Pioneer to look at a 2 year old unit I did some homework here on AVIC411. I saw your post and it made perfect sense. Having my original upgrade SD cards I gave it a try and low-and-behold SUCCESS!!!

Neo, you saved me a bunch of agro and $250 to boot! Thank you for your post.

***NEIL***

Hey great news! I'm glad it worked for you too. I was almost at the point of thinking about contacting Pioneer and dreading the fact that they would want me to rip out the unit and ship it to them too. I was trying to avoid that at all costs lol. Great news!

Now if I can figure out how to get my bluetooth connection to not hang up the phone if I turn off the unit while getting out of the car. (the previous version of the Pioneer software never did this).

Neo.

How do go into service mode?