Alpine unit freeze after 12v battery change

[NigelM]

Just posting this so that someone may find it if the same bug pops up again....

Had my annual service done on Wednesday and went to collect the car on Thursday. Service included swapping out for a new 12v but when I went to drive home I noticed that the Alpine NAV-10 didn't power up at all. Went back in to the service center and by holding down the power button we did eventually get it to boot but all unit controls were frozen, the screen was unresponsive and unreactive to the remote. Searched TMC and couldn't find it had happened before.

John at Tampa Service (thanks John!) checked out the battery and power supply and found it all ok; pulling fuses and replacing them didn't seem to make any difference. Next he removed the left waterfall trim inside the car (Roadster 2.5) and one by one reset each of the control units in there (nav, sirius etc.), that fixed the issue. Music, nav, satellite all working again and all my original settings were still there.

 

[Habious]

I've had the system freeze up on me a few times...also had it refuse to recognize that the GPS module was installed. In all cases, the only thing that fixed it was to hit the recessed Reset button on the front of the unit. You have to use something small and pointy (end of a paper clip or something like that) to hit it.

The audio settings (bass, treble, etc) are reset to default but, all of the GPS memory locations, Radio presets, etc. are all preserved.

 

[NigelM]

I should have mentioned that we tried the recessed rest button but all we ended up with was the blank screen. That's why John ended up looking at the main unit cubby.

 

[Rotarypower]

Just posting this so that someone may find it if the same bug pops up again....

Had my annual service done on Wednesday and went to collect the car on Thursday. Service included swapping out for a new 12v but when I went to drive home I noticed that the Alpine NAV-10 didn't power up at all. Went back in to the service center and by holding down the power button we did eventually get it to boot but all unit controls were frozen, the screen was unresponsive and unreactive to the remote. Searched TMC and couldn't find it had happened before.

John at Tampa Service (thanks John!) checked out the battery and power supply and found it all ok; pulling fuses and replacing them didn't seem to make any difference. Next he removed the left waterfall trim inside the car (Roadster 2.5) and one by one reset each of the control units in there (nav, sirius etc.), that fixed the issue. Music, nav, satellite all working again and all my original settings were still there.

Ok I've got the same issue. My car had the 12v battery recently replaced at the San Rafael SC right before I took ownership. Car arrived today and Alpine unit was stuck on the USB screen, completely unresponsive. I reset the unit with the recessed button on the front already 3-4 times, but now it's stuck on the FM radio screen, completely unresponsive. So...how do you remove the "waterfall" trim and where are these control units? What is the process to reset each?

Thanks!

 

[LP925]

Ok I've got the same issue. My car had the 12v battery recently replaced at the San Rafael SC right before I took ownership. Car arrived today and Alpine unit was stuck on the USB screen, completely unresponsive. I reset the unit with the recessed button on the front already 3-4 times, but now it's stuck on the FM radio screen, completely unresponsive. So...how do you remove the "waterfall" trim and where are these control units? What is the process to reset each?

Thanks!

Did you figure out how to reset from the waterfall trim? My screen is completely black/unresponsive as well... Thanks!

 

[Rotarypower]

No luck. I have tried everything. I disabled the APS system on the car, I've reset the front panel button on the Alpine unit at least 20 times, in different car and startup configurations to try to put the firmware in a different loop in hopes that it would self reset into a running configuration. No luck. I am thinking maybe the unit is just plain bricked. I hesitate to go to the trouble of a dash teardown in an attempt to fix this unit, as I've never pulled the dash pieces apart, and on my new to me car, just don't think it's worth it as I have little confidence in a "reset" of the various modules to resolve the issue. I've already pulled fuses and disabled the APS, so whatever was powered inputs on the car, I would think, have been cycled already. Perhaps the radio is intolerant of perturbations in the 12V rail and has been zapped by the battery replacement? Who knows. It's ashamed as all I want is some music to listen to while enjoying this awesome car, and I am not prepared to spend another $1000 quite yet on a new radio (really want a fully featured wireless Apple carplay unit, but other than the new crappy Alpine that just last week started shipping, no one else is offering a wireless carplay version yet). Anyway, I would again ask the experts if they believe the unit is permanently bricked? Reverse camera works, and the radio goes to 87.7 FM and is just stuck there to all eternity. Very frustrating. Please post back if you find a working solution.

 

[LP925]

No luck. I have tried everything. I disabled the APS system on the car, I've reset the front panel button on the Alpine unit at least 20 times, in different car and startup configurations to try to put the firmware in a different loop in hopes that it would self reset into a running configuration. No luck. I am thinking maybe the unit is just plain bricked. I hesitate to go to the trouble of a dash teardown in an attempt to fix this unit, as I've never pulled the dash pieces apart, and on my new to me car, just don't think it's worth it as I have little confidence in a "reset" of the various modules to resolve the issue. I've already pulled fuses and disabled the APS, so whatever was powered inputs on the car, I would think, have been cycled already. Perhaps the radio is intolerant of perturbations in the 12V rail and has been zapped by the battery replacement? Who knows. It's ashamed as all I want is some music to listen to while enjoying this awesome car, and I am not prepared to spend another $1000 quite yet on a new radio (really want a fully featured wireless Apple carplay unit, but other than the new crappy Alpine that just last week started shipping, no one else is offering a wireless carplay version yet). Anyway, I would again ask the experts if they believe the unit is permanently bricked? Reverse camera works, and the radio goes to 87.7 FM and is just stuck there to all eternity. Very frustrating. Please post back if you find a working solution.

My issue is it just doesn't power up at all, do you know how to check the fuse for it?

 

[Nvbob]

When I was having issues with my Alpine, resetting the unit with the reset button on the front panel did no good. What I did was to pull the two fuses (5 & 24) to completely power the unit down. After putting the fuses back in, the unit worked for a few months.

Having to do this procedure multiple times over a few months gave me time to research which unit would be a plug-and-play replacement. I replaced it, with the blessing of my SC, with an Alpine W957HD with built in NAV. It does not have CarPlay but it's heads and shoulders above the W900.

 

[Sparrow]

The Alpine W957HD was the unit Tesla sold me when I upgraded from a single din to double din earlier this year.

 

[Rotarypower]

My issue is it just doesn't power up at all, do you know how to check the fuse for it?

Fuses are easy on the roadster, see attached images from the manual. I did notice that my fuse layout differed from the manual, not sure if that's because my roadster was originally a Canadian car....ehh?

As @Nvbob said above, try 5 and 24. It didn't help me, but your situation seems more like it could be a fuse issue.