Yeah, it started a few days ago. Today, it did it at least 5 times. Nothing fixed it, no reset, nothing. I get the intro screen and thats it.
Im highly pissed the fuck off.
Is the bypass screwin these up? I had ZERO issues before the bypass. Now i get freezing. However, it has been hotter than all hell too. So, I dont know. I seriously doubt its the "update/bypass" that would make zero sense.
Its going back to the shop I got it installed at tomorrow though.
its not the bypass. its heat related.
buy a T8 and the next time it wont boot slide the HD out its way to easy and just feel it in your hand it will be HOT cool it in front of the AC duct for 3-5 and throw it back in and it will boot. dont do it for me lol do it for the cause lol
im hoping once this is settled and were noisey about this problem and get in toshibas and pioneers face and let people know that pioneer bought a bunch of bad HD,s from toshiba and they both will play the blame game but im hoping 1 of them will pony up to this.
we all need to be on the same page and we need this to become common knowledge that there just faulty HD,s that dont hold up to there heat rating
Yup, 100% without a doubt its heat. After sitting over night in my garage, I drove today and sure enough the unit worked like it did the first day I bought it.
Had some funky issues with cd play back and record today though. Each track would play a few seconds, then move to the next. This was all while the cd was being recorded onto the HD. However, when the songs are played back from the HD, they play back perfectly.
What is the deal with this machine? Pioneer shoulda named it the Emily Rose.... friggin possessed damn thing. 
I'm getting more and more concerned hearing about this, cause mine has not froze yet.
Does that mean mine is going to join the band wagon as well?
Where do you live? If you live up north and it's really not all that hot and/or you park your car undercover and in the shade you've got nothing to worry about. However, if you tell me that you live in Las Vegas and park your car in an asphalt parking lot 8 hours a day, and still haven't had a freeze I'm going to need to know what the build date on your hard drive is...
djmixmac my guess is only about 35% of ther units are affected lol [my guess only] but wouldnt that be funny if the 35% all lived in hot area,s.
I think that would be an important data to collect (Pioneer *cough, cough*).
Demographic data collection on units that freeze and the average daily high temps in the summer season.
BTW, I am in Seattle, and it does not get too hot here, but my Z1 has survived hot days where it reached close to 90.
the heat at which they can withstand is update dependant
the only way to know the real temp there failing at would be to have sensors letting us know hot the HU is actually getting.
the other problem is once they start failing the temp threshold drops dramaticaly.
it should be on the box you buy this in, or better yet they should give you a sunshade with every purchase lol.
honestly we get the 85C HD,s and a sunshade i think we have this whipped. and im not really game spending another buck fitty on this unit for a HD when i know in a month or so ill be good for 8 months of colder weather. by then maybe the toshiba HD will be made public and the prices will be cheaper to.
I just got mine exchanged by Pioneer and is working fine.
The old unit was freezing in 95F with a sunshade.
The old radio had a built date from March 2007, New Radio Jul 2007
I got my deck back a couple of weeks ago, pioneer didnt send any kind of info as to what the problem was. It was good for two days that were in the 100's but now its back to freezing again. i have a switch for the power and as long as i drive it for about 20 minutes with the air full blast and turn it off and on it will work fine.
Did you get the same one back or a new one?
same one and warranty ended this month so now im stuck with it.
i have a feeleing more of them do it in hot weather then we suspect. laptop HD,s dont hold up well in heat.
My Z2 has been freezing up recently. It wasn't hot at all, 65 degrees and freezes up.
My unit will eventually get passed the start up splash screen after an hour of waiting and multiple resets. When its does, the music in my library will scroll by songs without playing them.
Has anyone experienced this problem as well as frequent splash screen freeze ups?
yes if you read the whole thread in the 2 you posted with your problems youll get a good background on whats going on.
mine did that like yours you need to do the bypass update ISO for one
second the heat has different effects on each HD in its own way and how much heat the HD was subject too
My Z-2 also freezes up. It has been getting progressively worse over the last 2 months. It is under warranty so I am sending it off for repair tomorrow after I take it out of the dash.
yes if you read the whole thread in the 2 you posted with your problems youll get a good background on whats going on.
mine did that like yours you need to do the bypass update ISO for one
second the heat has different effects on each HD in its own way and how much heat the HD was subject too
I did the iso bypass update, two wire ground bypass. Unit was working fine for about 2 weeks and started freezing up at the splash screen. I tried at night when the temperature was in the 60's and the unit still freezes. I then tried again this morning when it was 57 degrees and the unit will not get pass the splash screen.
Its been raining and in the low 70's and when I got home from work tried to start it up again, and still same results.
I guess my only option is to contact pioneer and send it in, since its still under warranty.
Well guess what, my new unit is freezing now 
I'm having the same problem. I just removed my unit to send in. The tech at Pioneer was poo pooing our theories stating that the unit needs a 14 gauge wire direct to the battery itself and and a direct ground for the HD to run properly as (he says) is stated in the install directions. Hes stated that the HDs are not getting enough juice and that's why they are failing.
Don't kill the messenger....
Pioneer just emailed me a survey for the Z2. I basically told them that it was a POS and that their tech support was full of it.
I work in San Bernardino where it gets into the high 90s during the summer and my Z2 has frozen everyday last week. It's fine in the morning but when I leave in the afternoon... no joy. I recently stuck 3 video card coolers on top of the Z2 which seems to cool it a lot faster but for a $2200 unit this is F'n absurd.
Pioneer was more worried about law suits from people having accidents while watching DVDs than from consumers being ripped off on equipment that only works during fair weather.
Funny thing... Pioneer no longer takes walk-in service requests. I am 15 miles from their Long Beach location. They must be overwhelmed or just ashamed to look you in the eye.
The tech at Pioneer was poo pooing our theories stating that the unit needs a 14 gauge wire direct to the battery itself and and a direct ground for the HD to run properly as (he says) is stated in the install directions. Hes stated that the HDs are not getting enough juice and that's why they are failing.
The only reference in the manual to direct connect to the battery is on Page 3 & it says not to directly connect the power lead to the battery.
There is no reference to the manual to a 14 Guage wire.
I plan to monitor the voltage on the yellow wire when I get mine back from the warranty repair to see if there is a problem with the supply voltage. Maybe the HD needs to have a delayed startup when the vehicle is being started.
Here is the link to the manual on the Pioneer support site:
My Z2 has froze for the first time yesterday when leaving work. I to believe its heat related. I had radio ,cd ,xm, hard drive functions with remote. None of the face buttons worked except face down left it down and felt back and it was very warm to the touch, as soon as it cooled down i switched key off ,on and like magic it returned to normal. My question is its close to no warranty time, should i send it in or live with it.
Assuming the freeze up problem you had is similar to what I experienced the frequency of the freeze ups will increase and they will happen at lower temperatures.
I would send it in once you have had a few more freeze-ups along with a description & timing of the events, before the warranty expires. You may need the unit to deteriorate some more so it does not get returned "NTF". You will need a copy of the sales receipt.
for those with questions regarding this issue.
it is a toshiba HD problem, it wil get worse as time goes and people\users are confused because there are two problems hardware and software.
hardware meaning the temp threshold is lowered and possible as a few have reported the HD itself my have degraded. the problem with the software\drivers is its hard to tell if its read errors or software\drivers not letting the HD read properly.
i thought my HD was toast but after the bypass new files it does just fine if you already have the new files and the problem gets worse you may want to try and delete/format the drive and re-image the drive to replace boot files from a clean image.
if you go through the nightmare of sending it to pioneer to get NTF and then send it back in another time if you have a warranty to get a new unit your only going to get another weak HD and after the first hot day start this whole ordeal again.
I HAD MY FIRST Z2 INSTALLED IN APRIL , IN JUNE IT WAS REPLACE WITH ANOTHER EARLY PRODUCTION UNIT. IN THE CASE OF BOTH OF THESE UNITS THEY STARTED TO FREEZE, ON BOOT WITHIN 6 WEEKS OF INSTALL.. TODAY DEALER INSTALLED A MANUFACTURE DATE OF JULY UNIT AND I WAS TOLD THAT THIS UNIT PLUS AN UPDATE TO BE RELEASED BY THE END OF THE MONTH WILL CURE THE PROBLEM WITH BOOTING IN HOT WEATHER...I HOPE I AM
GETING A STRAIGHT AND TRUE STORY OR I AM GOING TO USE THIS UNIT AS A $2200.00 BOAT ANCOR..