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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. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    For the past month, about once every two days, my screen is freezing, requiring me to reboot, after which my screen works fine for another day or two, then it freezes again. Is this a sign that my MCU is about to fail? If so, does anyone have any idea how long until that failure occurs? I'm looking to trade my car in but want to wait until after battery day but I'm afraid my MCU will fail in the meantime.
     
  2. Akikiki

    Akikiki A'-Lo-HA ! y'all

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    That's not enough to go on, yet. You need to keep an eye on it. Read this first post in this thread. Tony has some good info that will help you spot any other signs. I would, when the screen freezes, see if you can access the car with the app. If not, check you WiFi, BT and GPS connections. Those are other signals. You don't have to read but the first post, but other posts will tell you more. These causes of the problems are not anything that we as owners/drivers are doing.

    Where are you? What year is your car? What's you mileage. Do a lot of city driving?
     
  3. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    2013 Model S with 126k miles with 80% freeway driving. Three years ago my screen was replaced because of bubbling but I don't recall if the MCU was replaced. When my screen freezes my phone app is not able to connect with the car. I also sometimes see a message that says "not able to access traffic data" even though I'm able to see the various traffic colors on my map.

     
  4. Akikiki

    Akikiki A'-Lo-HA ! y'all

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    Making me earn it - huh? You didn't say where you are.

    So, you are seeing signs that more than one service is failing. Freezing could be video is failing, and not refreshing.
    Unable to remotely connect, remote service is failing. Unable to access traffic data, sounds like lost Internet access (also explaining loss of remote access), and the traffic you see is buffered - not getting fresh.

    You ask me? Yes, its failing. I can't predict when its going to go. But yes, I now believe dying.
     
  5. goRt

    goRt Member

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    I would suggest that they're all going to fail and fail in the short to medium term, so the choice is upgrade the eMMC at a time convenient to you, wait for a failure at a very awkward time and hope for a repair or try and force tesla to replace all eMMCs as it owns this, but the current legal action only covers ap1 cars
     
    • Informative x 1
  6. ahkahn

    ahkahn Active Member

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    I'll chime in here now. @TonyT did an amazing job.

    My MCU1 was showing all of the tell-tale signs - it was crashing periodically, would take 10-15 minutes to reboot, super slow and completely unbearable, music would skip or stutter, etc.

    After @TonyT redid my eMMC, here is the final result. If yours isn't running this smoothly, I strongly recommend having your eMMC replaced.

    I've said elsewhere, it's not MCU2 speed, but it's like NEW MCU1 speed.



     
    • Like x 2
  7. ohmman

    ohmman Plaid-ish Moderator

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    An interesting note - I had very few warning signs on mine before failure. Yes, I had the garbled text from time to time, but nothing more. An early warning system from Tesla would be very helpful.
     
    • Informative x 1
  8. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    Texas. I don't see how that makes a difference though. Like right now, my app isn't connecting to my car. My app says "vehicle connection error." I last drove it 15 hours ago and did a reboot. Does rebooting repeatedly expedite failure? Thanks for the feedback.

     
  9. Solarman004

    Solarman004 Member

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    Based on Tony's info in Post #1, here's what I did to buy some time: 1) removed my home WiFi network from the wifi setup to prevent or delay the downloading of any software updates, 2) stopped streaming music and only used radio. I didn't do it, but I wonder now if turning off traffic info in the nav system would also slow writing to the eMMC.
    But yes, based on Post 1 it sounds like you have the symptoms of a pending MCU failure.
     
  10. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    Yes this is a failing sign, please see first post for details, we can help with repair. Dont wait long the fix is much easier now.
     
  11. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    if your mcu is still showing, and your mcu has internet connection, but does not connect in app, then your certifcates recovery chances are lower. What version software do you have?
     
  12. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    bubble screens are typically screen replacement, however you need to check the paperwork, I have seen some who received full mcu replacement. I guess its at discretion of SC and what they have on hand?
     
  13. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    2020.20.1

     
  14. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    There may be a chance to recover. Are you under warranty, if not are you interested in 3rd party upgrade?
     
  15. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    Not under warranty. I'd consider it but not if I have to do any labor or if it costs too much. I'll probably order a Model Y this week and trade in my current Model S.

     
  16. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    Where are you located?
     
  17. CravingMender9

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    Just got the fixed Tegra board back and installed it! Thank you @appleguru for helping me out with it. Special shout-out for being very communicative and answering all my questions throughout the process. Excellent work and highly recommended!

    For those who are in 2 minds - do it ASAP as a preventative measure. I had ZERO signs of failure, no random reboots, no slowdowns, nothing. Only random 3G connectivity issues that I had was fixed after upgrading to LTE. In fact, even my browser was working (for simple google searches / checking menus of restaurants). It just died all of a sudden. Working perfectly at night, next day morning - black screen / dead. Still had mobile connectivity, but couldn't take any actions from the app. Based on @appleguru's analysis, the main firmware partitions were very corrupted and had to be flashed from a fresh copy of the firmware and the user data partitions were also corrupted, but fully recoverable (luckily, since I removed it as soon as it failed without waiting too long).

    So please take it seriously even if you are not showing *much* signs of damage, and get it replaced soon.

    EV-Fixme, Appleguru & others here are excellent to work with if you want to go the community route!
    Getting it replaced through Tesla is also cheaper now than before (around $1100) with 2 yr warranty, but there is a 3-4 week wait at many SCs, so be prepared to wait in such cases.
     
    • Like x 3
  18. txs_italy

    txs_italy New Member

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    Italy
    I replace eMMC at your home in Italy, southFrance and "Canton Ticino" Switzerland in 4 working days. contact me in private if you need
    TXS
    Thomas
     
    • Like x 1
  19. EV-Fixme

    EV-Fixme Vendor

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    We offer 2 year warranty on our eMMC part of the work to match Tesla's. Still working out the details for the official announcement.
     
  20. bigsmooth125

    bigsmooth125 Member

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    Dallas

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

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