Fixed it....... well sort of

 

Did the thermaltake coolers actually work?

 

LK

it helped in that it only takes about 8 minutes for my display to start working instead of an hour.

Fixed it....... well sort of

 

Did the thermaltake coolers actually work?

 

LK

 

 

it helped in that it only takes about 8 minutes for my display to start working instead of an hour.

Mine stays frozen until I restart the car, which is not always easy depending on where i'm going.

I've started keeping a little log of the Z2s performance at each startup ... outside temp (according to my car), AC on or off when car is started? windows up or down? ipod playing? or xm? or FM? etc. and time of day. So far everything is consistent with heat.

soon i will run a temp ground wire to the battery as pioneer suggested and continue the log and see where i get.

odd - I called in today and was told to register the unit online and they hope to have a fix (he mentioned software) sometime in September.

 

oh well - doesnt hurt!

 

Kinda silly tho that all these Z1 and Z2 owners are having problems and its taking so long to figure out what really is the culprit.

After you register Pioneer will email you a survey for the Z2 asking what features you like, what prompted you to buy, what other unit you considered and the 2 most important things .... How you would rate the Z2 and what comments you have for Pioneer.

I hit em with both barrels.

GeekGrl

I wish I was so lucky. Working on the edge of the desert in California it takes my unit a long time cool down. Before I put the coolers on my unit would freeze while stopped at the gas station. At least that problem is gone........ I hope.

I'm just really pissed that

(1) Pioneer didn't test these things better

(2) Pioneer doesn't acknowledge that there is problem - NTF my a$$

I've been having the same problems everyone else with the freezing. Although some days when its very hot it starts fine. Two days ago it started freezing on cool days. Wed. it was cool (78) and raining and it froze up in the middle of the day. After 4 or 5 resets it started working fine. Fri. morning temp 76 and it freezes but this time no resets will correct it and the radio will not play. I thought the theory of it getting worse with time was directly associated with the fact that this time of year it gets progresivly warmer but I think that may be wrong.

How do you know when the unit is made? I would like to return mine to the installer for a replacement but would like a newer manf. date.

Has any one tryed a newer unit to see if this still is a problem?

should say on box i believe

 

How do you know when the unit is made? I would like to return mine to the installer for a replacement but would like a newer manf. date.

 

Has any one tryed a newer unit to see if this still is a problem?

My unit was made in March of 07 and it's got the same problems as everyone else. It's sunny and about 75 here and my unit took 5 tries to start up and would not play ANY music from the library, just skipped through it all. I took someones advice and put the HD in the freezer for a few mins and it started up just fine and immediately started playing any song I touched.

I'm putting a regular head unit in today and sending the avic back for repairs to see it it makes any difference if they replace it.

I think I saw someone say they were glad they had a N2 because of this heat issue. Does that mean the Z1/2 is the only units that have this problem? Does anyone know if the D3 has heat problems? I really don't like the D3, but this Z2 is starting to wear me out.

i have been following this forum for awhile now... i had a z2 and also had same problems with heat.. i did return it a got the d3 and it has never once over heated.. the nav sucks on d3 cus of disc but better then waititng for the radio to turn on

OK. Add one more person to the list of freezes. I am also certain that heat is the culprit. I am south of Houston and just got frozen all the way home from the office. Resets wouldn't fix it nor would turning car off turning back on. I talked to Pioneer on the way and they gave me the "14 gauge wire" fix. So I stopped at the store to pick up some wire and when I got back in the car - guess what -- unit is working now! It has been going on for a few weeks and is progressively getting worse.

Has anyone had luck with the thick wire? Just curious before I go ripping up my dash again.

I have had this happen on days where our peak temp is 70 degrees out here in CA so I find it hard to believe that heat is the cause.

I did call Pioneer today and was told they are aware that alot of folks are having this problem and they are actively looking into it...

70 degree day is not the temp in your car. heat is the problem end of story. once it starts it gets worse and it wont work properly till you replace some boot files and installthe update like the one in the bypass section.

do some rersearch next time your unit doesnt boot pull out the HD and put it in your hand and feel the heat. heat starts it and makes the HD buggy. laptop style HD,s dont handle heat well

It was in the high 70s in the car. I did check this. I have been having this problem for some time and following all of the threads..

I have also checked the temp on the hard drive (the tool to remove it sits in the car for now).

There is something other than heat involved...

what your not taking into account is that heat affects all the HD,s differently. once my unit went south due to heat it would give me the freezes on mild days exactly as your describing. i did the bypass update and now its back to only frezzing at 100 degree days with no sunshade.

once the unit gets hot theres a good chance that the boot sectors may become corrupt causing more frequent freezes at lower temps.

still dought its heat try this for me. [you have the tool]

next time it freezes pull out the HD put it in front of your AC duct for 3-5 minutes then pop it in and if it doesnt boot it never will. in that case your HD has become fried from the excess heat.

Well I have done that. The first time mine froze. I took it out after reading the suggestion here, put it in front of AC vent and put it back. No go. Tried this a few times. Nada.

Next day, works fine. No problems for weeks. I have worked in Software and Hardware for a long time so I know plenty about hard disks.

I am just saying there may well be something more than just heat to this and we shouldn't get stuck on one train of thought only. I am not saying its not heat. I am just putting in my 2 cents that I feel there is more to this..

my only point is that 95% or better of the Z2 owners say heat brought it on.

on a 100 degree day mine freezes till i cool the HD

i have seen my HD degrade to not working on cool days like yours after getting too hot. your boot files or drivers are probably corrupt from the heat. have you done the bypass update?

you know that electrical components dont like heat and it has been confirmed by doing read test on the these toshiba HD,s in the HU that they trow many read errors once hot and when i say hot it still meens well below the 75C threshold we have now. if you still think about it many interiors of our cars dashes are getting hotter then 75C on hot days also confirming the heat issue.

heats the culprit for the vast majority of the freezes hands down the only people who think otherwise are the pioneer tech,s trying to wish a different solution before sending these units back NTF

Well I was just sent an email from Pioneer saying they have a software update that they believe resolves the issue. If this is correct then it is not just a hardware issue.

I've installed it so time will tell.

since they say dont install the update unless your unit is freezing that would indicate that it is a hardware problem. if it was software they would install it in all units.

without 100 degree days it will be hard to test.

hope everyone that doesnt boot at mild temps has luck

Has anyone installed the firmware update (for the lockouts/freezeups) that has the bypass? Does the bypass still work?

yes and yes

Thanks bobmun

Has anyone found out what the new firmware update (for the lockouts/freezeups does ? to fix the z2 heat problem?

well pioneer released the update when the weather cooled down atleast here it did so i wont know till may\june 08. i wont install the patch till then.

funny how pioneer waited to release the patch for heat when its not that hot anymore.

Well did it fix everybodys lockouts/freezeups it seemed to fix mine?

Nope, didn't fix mine. Well, haven't had a freeze yet, but a new problem popped up right after the update. I can't enter an address / destination anymore ( even when in park ).

I dont know what to do. I'll probably call Pioneer, don't have too much hope on getting any help from them though. I might have to do a reset and see if that works.