2020 S blank dash and display - what to check?

[LarryC]

Both displays on my 3 month old 2020 S did not come on yesterday or this morning, and nothing in the cabin operates (HVAC, interior lights, radio, garage door auto opener, etc.). Also, my exterior turn signals are not working. Of course, one can no longer speak to anyone in service at Tesla and the first mobile appointment I can get is a week from Saturday.

The failure seems different from eMMC failures I've read about as neither the dash or large display will come on, and the HVAC is not stuck "on" as others have reported.

Any suggestions on how I might try to reset the system or other fixes I could try so I can drive the car? I can't find any information on the location of the fuse boxes on a 2020 but read they were changed from where they were on my previous 2014 S. It's a leased car so I don't really want to pull out all the interior trim looking for a fuse box that might have nothing to do with the problem.

 

[Chaserr]

I've heard both displays are the same computer on a 2020 unlike on older MCU1 cars, so a single computer problem could make both go dark. Have you done the 2-scroll wheels reset? Do you have turn signals working OUTSIDE and only lost the noise inside? That's what I get when the MCU is off on my older car.

Call roadside for help, they aren't as helpful as they used to be but at least you will reach a human being.

 

[LarryC]

Yes. I tried the scroll wheel reset but nothing happens.

I considered calling roadside, but the car is physically driveable, though perhaps not legally so (no turn signals or speedometer). If I can't find a fuse to try and pull-and-re-seat, I will call them.

It seems the turn signals are not operating outside - at least I could not see their reflection in bumpers of cars ahead of me. I will check more carefully.

 

[dannycamps]

I've learned that just because you can't hear the turn signals in the car, they are still in fact working. The sound in the car is artificially produced and not made by a relay as in traditional cars.

I would check to confirm they are in fact not working outside.

If you do not have turn signals, also assume you do not have brake lights, etc... and I would definitely not drive the car. Call Tesla roadside and have the car towed to the nearest service center.

 

[Bill_75D]

I would call roadside assistance.

 

[LarryC]

I called them and they set up an "Urgent Mobile Service" that should arrive or contact me within 6 hours. I didn't know that had an "Urgent" version of the mobile service. Let's see if they can fix it in place or end up towing it to a SC.

Have others experienced this type of failure with a 2020 version of the car?

 

[LarryC]

Update: Urgent Mobile Service asked me to try the two-top-button reset, which didn't work. After thinking about it they decided it had to be towed. The service center this morning said normally one of the displays is "on" and they can OTA update or troubleshoot but in this case with both displays off it's more difficult to diagnose. It sounds like this is not a routine failure.

 

[Helipaddy]

I have the same problem except that I can reliably recreate it by browsing to certain websites. Both displays freeze for around 30 seconds and then both go black. A standard reset worked but with a very long delay of around 2 minutes. I have told Tesla a few months ago but they seem to be too busy to deal with it. The problem now is that the same website tries to load again after the reset so it is in a loop.

 

[whitex]

This is probably not it, but might be worth checkin, @LarryC do you have anything plugged into any of the USB ports? If so, have you tried unplugging everything and the double thumb reset? Bad or incompatible USB devices have in the past caused issues with MCU's. In a 2020 model S MCU2 controls both of the screens, if for some reason it's hanging on USB device (maybe tries to load some drive for it on boot), both screens will be blank.

 

[lowtek]

Did you do the brake pedal reset? Hold the two control wheels and the brake all the way down for about a minute then release. This is a hard reset of the system, whatever that means.

 

[dannycamps]

Did you try the Contra code (up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-start)?

Kidding of course. Seeing as the MCU2 drives both the center display and the instrument cluster, I would assume you need a replacement MCU2 unit installed. You just may have unluckily gotten a bad unit.

 

[Joelgjr]

I've called tesla roadside assistance when I had an issue with my keyfobs. They are happy to help and its much faster than making an appointment.

 

[aerodyne]

If you can verify the turn signals do not work, I would file an NTSB report.

 

[seaweed]

I had an identical problem Sunday with all screens blank on my 2017 S with updated MCU2 and FSD computer. It was towed to the dealer and they determined it was caused by a software update. The fix was to reinstall the software.

 

[seaweed]

Latest firmware update caused the problem. Service center reinstalled the firmware today.