New member here. Purchased a 700bt from ebay a couple months ago for the car build.
A couple days ago I installed it - everything started up properly, I spent maybe 5 minutes paging through the menus. Being aware of the customized 3.X, I was ready to go with that. Installed no problem. Screen changes had been snappy, and it was identifying clicks perfectly.
After getting into 3.X, I settled in to get my settings configured. Started with FM radio presets. After I was done with those, I left the local NPR station on while I chose settings for the illumination et all. At some point, the speakers began to sound as though I had turned up the volume too much - the distortion you get when you overcrank the volume above what your head unit, speakers, or amp can handle. I hadn't messed with the volume though, it was still at 25. If I lowered the volume, the distortion went away for a few seconds, and then reappeared.
After a couple minutes the sound dropped out altogether. No menu sounds, nothing. I restarted and still had no sound. Restarted a couple more times and had sound. Checked out the ipod input - it did the same thing with distortion. What's more, the avic started freezing after a couple minutes of use. The touchscreen would, anyway. I would still be able to press the physical map or menu buttons, hear the audible button press sound, and move to those screens. But the touchscreen would not register, with stylus or finger.
I decided that something must have gone wrong with the 3.X install and put the SD card with the update back in, went through the install process again. Only when I got to test mode, I would get to the desktop, and no programs would run. The touchscreen stylus would work to navigate the start menu, but wouldn't launch *any* of the programs. Once you were navigating the start menu, you could not tap out of the start menu, say back to the desktop. After restarting back into test mode, I found that if I tried to open a shortcut on the desktop, it would highlight the link, but wouldn't open it. Basically that meant that I could never fully install any firmware. WindowsCE always flashes perfectly, but testmode, regardless of the version of testmode, would never allow programs to be run. Even using the USB testmode version, off a thumb drive.
That began two days of frustration. I've since tried downgrading with OEM pioneer 2.x builds, tried every "unbrick" trick on these forums, and in general beat my head against a wall.
At some point I worked out that if the avic has been off for a long time - at least 6+ hours, I'm not sure exactly how long it needs to be - the touchscreen in testmode will work, for a period of time. Long enough to copy over the "My Flash Drive" files from the 3.X SD card to the avic internal. By the time the files are done copying, the touchscreen is unresponsive again. But since they have copied, I can get back into the AVIC's 3.X GUI.
The first screen asks what language - I can get past this 90% of the time. The second screen is speech selection. I get past this 20% of the time, but usually the touchscreen freezes here. The menu and map buttons still work, but no stylus or finger imputs are possible.
After a long break, I can get past both screens, all the way to system settings, where I attempt to calibrate the touchscreen. I can usually get through the first calibration tap, before the touchscreen freezes up again.
I'm not sure what to think so far as what is going on. that it acts normally for longer after being powered off for a long time makes me think it's a heat problem, although the fan is working, and even after the touchscreen freezes, I can leave it on for hours and it won't shut down, as I would expect an overheating system to do. I looked inside the casing and there is no dust at all. Neither could I see any sort of burned components or loose cables. A bad solder joint could be expected to work best when the system was hot, versus totally cool. I looked for an internal battery, as I read somewhere that other avic models had one, but couldn't find one.
At this point I'm afraid the hardware is bad and I've been ebay ripped off. Has anyone else seen behavior like this?
Would anyone be willing to send me a copy of their "My Flash Drive" for 3.X or preferrably 2.X? The only one I have is the one that comes with the torrented 3.x, though I have also tried reconstructing a few from files in the Pioneer 2.x firmwares.
SOS!