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Consolidated eMMC Thread (MCU repair) (Black Center Screen)

Discussion in 'Model S' started by Wiki, Jan 8, 2020.

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The first post in this thread is a WikiPost, and can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
  1. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    Whereas I am on the same coast as Tony; the west one, so it is just a 25 hour drive :D (without supercharging)
     
  2. Cavell219

    Cavell219 Member

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    Mine had the music skipping for 1 week it was really weird. Then about 3 weeks later is when I got the black screen of death. My board was fixed by @TonyT and will be delivered in a couple days.
     
    • Like x 3
  3. kpeters000

    kpeters000 Member

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    SAY investor call questions are up for the 1/29 call. Please upvote my question regarding MCU 1-> 2 and maybe we'll get some answers:

    https://app.saytechnologies.com/tesla/a287460a

    I know this is a point of passion for a lot of us with AP2 FSD reservations, dying eMMCs, perpeually dysfunctional web browsers, or frustrations with how each software update makes our MCU look more like a Commodore 64
     
    • Like x 1
  4. GlmnAlyAirCar

    GlmnAlyAirCar Active Member

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    Hey that’s totally uncalled for! I adore my 64!
     
    • Like x 3
  5. ChooseGreen

    ChooseGreen Member

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    #45 ChooseGreen, Jan 23, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
    I thought I would share my story here in case it helps others.

    Four months ago, I bought a used 2014 S60 (pre-autopilot). Over the moon that our family was finally able to go electric! I have followed Tesla for many years so had vaguely heard of the eMMC issue, but learned a lot more about it when a lot of these TMC posts started to grow in October (after getting the car of course).

    The reason I say that is driving the car for the first four months, the software was a bit buggy, but I chalked a lot of it up to "this is an old PC running newer software". The 3G would drop out for 10 minutes at a time (a reboot would always take the 3G offline for 10-20 minutes), playback would skip occasionally (including FM radio), the whole screen would crash and reboot every two-ish weeks, I noticed if I were demoing it to a friend and showing off a bunch of features (fireplace, whoopy cushion, lots of map moving, etc.), there would likely be a crash shortly thereafter (great to have that happen during demos of course).

    January 5th I did a short road trip with my kids and all was working as it had been. The following morning I went to grab something from the car but had forgotten my keys inside. I was able to connect to the car through the app, but it wouldn't respond to the commands to unlock. A few hours later I went out with the keys to investigate and sure enough the screen was black (IC screen still working normally). I had a strong feeling what I was in for. I tried rebooting but didn't have any feedback as the main screen stayed black. I wasn't able to reboot the IC screen.

    I called Tesla and the process of brake pedal and hold the scroll wheels for a full minute, exit the car for 2 minutes, re-enter at least got the Tesla T logo to come up, but screen still wouldn't reboot. They scheduled me in for a service centre visit in a week. I inquired about drivability a few times and was reassured every time that the vehicle was safe to drive which was nice to hear Tesla say.

    I drove the car around for a week, but as it is below -10 C here, I didn't subject my kids to that. I had to drive with the windows open a bit to keep air moving through the car to avoid fogging up. Key vehicle systems remained operational (lights, ABS, gear selection, wipers (even auto), washer fluid, etc.). The speedometer number switched to miles per hour despite a 'km/h' directly underneath it. The blue sweep speedometer remained in km/h and was correct (confirmed by GPS watch). I still had app connectivity and could see vehicle and charge status, but couldn't send any commands to the car. The horn was spotty, but its functionality seemed to have more to do with the temperature so my guess was corroded leads.

    I had my Tesla appointment and when I got to the desk, the lead technician said that he had tunnelled into my car the night before and found two corrupted files that were not able to be accessed. He sent a request to engineering who also tried at about 02:00 am to tunnel into the car and came to the same conclusion. I was given a quote of $3300 CAD for a remanufactured MCU1 (or over $4k CAD for a new MCU1). I told him that I was going to third party as that is well outside of my budget. He seemed understanding and even supportive of the decision which was nice to hear.

    Enter my knights in shining armour! I got in contact with @zax123 and @Kalud here and I have to say that I really appreciated the time that they took to explain the whole process to me and calm my nerves about having irreversible consequences. They referred me to VE Mtl which is a new shop which opened up in Montreal. I booked an appointment and steeled myself for the cold drive there.

    Funny part of the story is that before this all happened I was still charging at 110V at home as our complex situation here required a 200A upgrade to accommodate even a low-powered wall connector and future kitchen renovations. I had turned the current down to 10A from the default 12A. Once the MCU went, I thought all was okay as I could still charge at 10A and up to 80%. I charged at a public J1772 one evening and noticed that I was still limited to 10A because my car still thought it was at home. I was pretty sure that supercharging would step around this limit, but had this sinking feeling that it wouldn't and it would take me all day to drive to Montreal. I went to my local supercharger and charged for 10 minutes to confirm that I could indeed supercharge. Whew!

    Once I met the two owners of VE Mtl (former Tesla service technicians themselves who had trained a lot of other service techs in the area), I knew I was in good hands. They took my car in almost right away while I was able to warm myself up in their waiting room, plug in my computer and work from there for the day. They got the MCU out frighteningly quickly without incident and got it off to @zax123 and @Kalud. By 15:00 that day, the fixed MCU was back in the shop with word that the recovery went well. Once they got it all together, they discovered that the 3G module had died (which would explain the crappy connectivity issues I had been having). He made me very happy by having a used LTE module on hand which he was able to put in there (now I have LTE, yay!). They put it back together again and went through and tested everything. One thing that hadn't come back was the horn which had been spotty, but they already knew that the horn had corroded so installed a 3rd party horns for half the price of the OEM ones (again, yay!). They were able to get me all put back together (I couldn't tell that the MCU had been removed) and ready to roll well before the end of their day which I thought was pretty impressive. They even went over my car, poking around to make sure that there weren't any other unrelated niggling issues and taking the time to talk random Tesla stuff.

    I was able to drive home WITH HEAT which was pretty fantastic as well as being able to let the car figure out how much I needed to charge rather than doing the math myself. Final cost was about $1k CAD less than the Tesla quote, but that included the LTE upgrade and the new horn. Of course it also includes the peace-of-mind that I have a bigger eMMC that won't get overlogged. I plan on having this car for another 10 or so years so this is big for me.

    Big thanks to @zax123, @Kalud and the wonderful people at VE Mtl. Anyone over this end of the continent, I would recommend reaching out to them for help.
     
    • Like x 8
    • Informative x 5
    • Love x 1
  6. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    I was wondering how much it would be in Canada for us from a service centre. 1800 US = 3300 CDN Is an exchange rate of 1.83. Hmmmm, not good. :confused:

    Thanks for the writeup.
     
  7. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    Wow that's a lot less than the $2300 here, local prices I guess.
     
  8. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    #48 dark cloud, Jan 24, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
    I recall seeing a few quotes like this, but including tax I guess it rounds to 2100. I am assuming the $3300 CDN quote does not include tax- ?

    Using the proper exchange rate of 1.31 2100 should be $2751.

    edit* Actually using some better math: Before tax it was 1965 US. 1965 x 1.31 plus 12% tax = $2883. Yup, that is a lot of money.
     
    • Like x 1
  9. MorrisonHiker

    MorrisonHiker S 100D 2021.4.11

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    The price is about the same if the correct exchange rate is used.
     
  10. ChooseGreen

    ChooseGreen Member

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    Sorry, I should have been more clear. The $3300 was the installed price with tax. $2382 for parts, $542 labour, 13% tax.
     
    • Informative x 1
    • Like x 1
  11. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    No $2300 here is parts and labor. I didn't do the math, but above list to conversion to almost $2900. It's not a huge difference but it's pretty big. And if anyone wants to say that $600 is not a big deal I can give you my PP address and your welcome to send me $600 anytime :D
     
    • Funny x 2
    • Informative x 1
  12. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    The 2382 for the unit is bang on, but it makes me wonder why they wanted 542 for labour when Florida sc can do it for 165.

    But that quote of 3300 taxes in is within reason of what the Americans are paying, so I stand corrected. Still way too much though. There will be a lot of people who will not buy a used model S for this reason, if they are made aware.
     
  13. SmartElectric

    SmartElectric Active Member

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    Not really. I’ve paid as much for gas engine control module identification and replacement which is a tiny fraction of the parts cost or computing power of the Tesla MCU.
     
  14. supratachophobia

    supratachophobia Active Member

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    Does wk057 do this officially, he's probably the closest to Ohio geographically unless someone else has another suggestion. And are all the different people doing the repairs in contact with one another for best practices? It seems like each suggested person has really good reviews from other owners, kinda like a blackmarket cartel of repair goodness.
     
    • Like x 1
  15. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    Yes, but he and his boys are so busy he has this quoted on his FAQ:


    Q. My car is fine, but I want to replace the flash preemptively. Will you do this?
    A. No. Honestly, we have more than enough work to handle in just helping folks with units that need this repair now.




    Services | 057 Technology


     
    • Informative x 3
    • Helpful x 1
  16. supratachophobia

    supratachophobia Active Member

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    Any idea if he's using Tesla's threshold to determine if it needs done now or if he's only fixing ones that are DOA?
     
  17. dark cloud

    dark cloud Active Member

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    Well hell, if I was only 6 hours away from his shop I would drive there and ask him: and drive away with a few grand worth of spares and upgrades :D
     
  18. dzmconstr

    dzmconstr Member

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    Love it but it's "promised and paid for" not just promised...
     
    • Disagree x 1
  19. MP3Mike

    MP3Mike Well-Known Member

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    No, there has been no promise, or paying for, MCU upgrades. (FSD upgrades yes, MCU upgrades no.)
     
  20. supratachophobia

    supratachophobia Active Member

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    If he could throw in a 100kwh battery, I just might.....
     
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