I was enlightened by a tech at the Ohio service center that they have in fact found a way to resolve the freezing on startup issue. It is to be fixed by way of a firmware upgrade (cd), possibly to be realeased by today he said..
Dont shoot the messenger, Thats all I know about it right now and will update as I know more.
Tim
Another one..... well, like I said in the other thread, I'll believe it when I see it. And then i'll sing your praises!
shoot the messenger NOW !!!
I know where you live. So this better be true 
Nah but seriously, I hope this is true. I'm sick of having a $1500 paperweight in my car
It really has taken them too long to figure out what was going on
What I have experienced with Pioneer is that you call in one day and one tech tells you one thing, call in another day and the next tech has no idea what you're talking about.
I would be delightfully surprised to see any firmware fix for this issue (ever), and if we do see it, that it would be released anytime in the near future.
the problem is so widespread they know they have to save face.
dont expect a sorry from them lol
oh and dont expect a miracle either at best they may run a patch that turns the fan on more wa hoo!!!
Well shit, you gotta figure they're losing lots of money repairing this shit too. I mean, i bet if we really gathered the number efficiently, I would say at least 1 in 3 units does this shit.
atleast that many, i made the same statement a while ago.
oh there not repairing anything boxing it up sending it back NTF
Alright tim list the phone # for the service center and I will call to speak to somone there ,because i dont care to ship my unit in because it has worked for 2 days now and dont want to go without it.
I called today to report my problem and the rep told me that this was a common problem and to expect an update out within a week that should fix this problem.
sweet more fan time 
unless there idea of a patch is that summer is over get redy for winter
now that was funny...mazdaspeed
Thank you 
Alright tim list the phone # for the service center and I will call to speak to somone there ,because i dont care to ship my unit in because it has worked for 2 days now and dont want to go without it.
Google, thats how I found it the first time.
My unit was in repair when the firmware update was released internally and they applied it to mine in the shop!!! The rep said the update will be online next week. YEAY!!!! I mean...it's abou f***ing time you idiots!
unless it gets hot again we will not even know if the update was any good or not. perfect timing for them the ole winter patch lol
The issue has nothing to do with hard drive heat.
The fault lies in the cable connecting the drive...the current speed is too high thus resulting in errors being transmitted while data is being sent from the drive to the board...
The fix...slow down the data
Interesting. Wonder why I haven't seen any with issues in my area if its not a heat issue
Interesting. Wonder why I haven't seen any with issues in my area if its not a heat issue
It is heat related, but not from the hdd being too hot
so its a miracle that i cool my HD down in 3-5 min and it works perfect? when the HU stays the same temp?
oh and i pull out my HD and its hotter then heck just shy of not being able to hold it in your hand which i would say is getting close to the 75C threshold of the toshiba. [on 100 degree or 100 plus days]
this has everything to do with HD heat. if its not hot it works fine. so your theory has holes in it cause if it was a data transfer problem it would do it at any tempature.
others have reported cooling there HD down and had there units work perfect like mine
so its a miracle that i cool my HD down in 3-5 min and it works perfect? when the HU stays the same temp?
oh and i pull out my HD and its hotter then heck just shy of not being able to hold it in your hand which i would say is getting close to the 75C threshold of the toshiba. [on 100 degree or 100 plus days]
this has everything to do with HD heat. if its not hot it works fine. so your theory has holes in it cause if it was a data transfer problem it would do it at any tempature.
others have reported cooling there HD down and had there units work perfect like mine
However, on the flip side of that, my unit froze on me on a very cool day as well. AFTER having sat in my closed garage all night.
However, on the flip side of that, my unit froze on me on a very cool day as well. AFTER having sat in my closed garage all night.
Yeah, mine has frozen at night before as well...
Actually... Now that I think of it, its frozen 95% of the time
believe it or not the avic z1-2 retains the heat a long time. [not that thats your case]
like you mine froze on mild day,s too. ive had mine freeze in the 70,s but since ive done the last bypass update that raised the heat threshold and replaced some boot files mine only freezes on really hot days and it can be fixed by cooling the HD. [if i didnt see first hand that only cooling the HD fixes it i may have a different view]
im not saying heat is the only culprit but i do know that these HD,s are throwing read errors when warm this has been confirmed we also have another guy who says his HD was trashed because of so many bad sectors he needs to reimage his drive.
i am a computer tech and have seen a ton of HD problems and there tricky and no one drive acts like the next i have done testing to mine in and out of the HU and the only time this HD throws read errors is when its warm in the pioneer HU.
so far to my knowledge this is whats taking place
when the HD heats up on hot days you will/are getting read errors after enough read errors there are sectors that are getting damaged because its common knowledge that this heat problem gets worse and worse till they wont even read correctly or boot on mild days. at this point there are so many bad sectors that cant be read your kinda screwed hence everyones frustration on mild days. after replacing bad areas or reimaging the HD imagine that it works in the heat again. im now very carefull at this point not to let my unit get too hot then try and start it. if it doesnt boot its really funny just cooling my HD down and watching the unit function perfectly..
now are there drivers that could be updated to help the read errors possibly, and are there boot files that can be changed that will help possibly. can they turn the fan on a little more yes that too but this is not a easy fix because its more of a hardware problem then software. the new software patch is going to be just that a bandaid to hide the real problem. computers and electrical equipment do not like heat and when pioneer skimped on our HD,s we had/have to pay the price.
its common knowledge that heat is the problem the only ones saying different are pioneer techs blowing smoke up your @ss or the pioneer techs in this board
so what is the chance that we get new hard drives and a software patch when this is all said and done?
Because I agree, I think heat hammering down on the drive will eventually make the HDD damaged.
Can't believe how many people this is affecting. My dad and uncle have the same unit, both were brought after mines, they haven't had a problem yet. But it took a few months before mine even came to light (when my dad had my car mind you, lol).
I first read that the Avic was skipping, then freezing, then found out both were linked to each other. As I found these things out, it started happening to my unit slowly. I've sent in my official compliant, don't know about you guys (even though they are telling us to just send it in for repair...). If I can come to this board and see 20 to 30 people having the same problem, it has to be a real problem........As I see it, it will graudally happen to everyone.
They need to send us a new HDD and the Patch..............