Preventive eMMC replacement on MCU1

[ruffieuxh]

Hi I did two last week and had the same problem. When I toke the whole image, it didn´t work. My solution was to take each partion and run fsck on partion 3 and 4 to remove any logical fault in the filesystem. Then it worked.
About soldering: do not use to much flus - it is a large chip

Thanks jrhansen.

When you say "take each partion and run fsck on partion 3 and 4", what do you mean exactly? Did you extract (dd) each partition seperately or did you dd the entire image, mounted the image and then run fsck on P3 and P4?

Best regards
Heinz

 

[ruffieuxh]

I am pretty sure that I read somewhere in this thread, that the Tegra board is a standard board from NVIDIA.

If that is the case some of us should have some spare boards I assume.

Can somebody shed some light on this? What board is really in the MCU and can it be ordered separately?

Thanks

 

[MP3Mike]

I am pretty sure that I read somewhere in this thread, that the Tegra board is a standard board from NVIDIA.

If that is the case some of us should have some spare boards I assume.

Can somebody shed some light on this? What board is really in the MCU and can it be ordered separately?

The board is based on a standard Tegra board but it is custom for Tesla. (I think someone mentioned that the pin-outs are backwards.)

It can't be ordered separately.

 

[jrhansen]

Thanks jrhansen.

When you say "take each partion and run fsck on partion 3 and 4", what do you mean exactly? Did you extract (dd) each partition seperately or did you dd the entire image, mounted the image and then run fsck on P3 and P4?

Best regards
Heinz

I dd first the whole chip just in case and then dd p3 and p4. I then used the p3 and p4 after fsck to clean them up. There was problems in both.

regards, jesper

 

[ruffieuxh]

Does anybody know how the MCU1 boot process works?

I understood from other posts, that the first part of the boot does not involve the emmc chip. Is that correct? In other words, the emmc does not require any boot sector and related boot files?

 

[EVTuning]

Great Video if you haven't removed the MCU before.

 

[ruffieuxh]

My MCU still does not boot. We suspect that p1 and/or p2 have problems. Although we sucessfully used "unsquashfs".

Does anybody dispose of a 2020.8.1.1 p1 and p2 image which he could provide to me? Can p1 and p2 be identical (copies)?

Or does anybody have an idea on how to "fsck" p1 and p2?

 

[Altes]

Many stories out there tell that the flash storage (eMMC) on MCU1 will wear out sooner or later. This is known with flash memory and at that moment your Tesla will die. It won't charge and possibly only drive in limb-mode.

I have a 2013 S85 and a 2018 100D and the first one still has an MCU1 which has been running for 5,5 years now.

If the MCU dies Tesla will charge EUR 3000 (I'm in Europe) for a MCU replacement while only a small memory chip has failed.

I found this blog: Replacing eMMC in MCU

The same is shown in this video:

I've just ordered 64GB of eMMC storage for ~EUR 80 and a AllSocket eMMC programmer so that I can re-program the memory.

I'll go to a local electronics repair shop to help me with de-soldering and soldering the eMMC on the MCU. I'm thinking about doing this preventive to make sure the car doesn't die on me while driving. It's not a question of "if", but "when" it seems.

Has anybody replaced the eMMC memory on their MCU1 and can share some more experiences?

Congrats man glad you have the skills... I have a 2016 nov delivery one of the very first AP2 cars and my MCU is dead at 65K miles killed two steering control units on the way there. Scheduled for april 6th service as they didnt have parts for march 15 or 26 appt. super disappointed at the in warranty and out of warranty support. Whole infrastructure failing. looking seriously at BMW I4 if when they arrive

drove by local service center last week asked if they could do MCU 2 on my car they had no clue "maybe" they said standing in front of their computer with ny car on the screen. Super disappointing but not surprising that a tech company cant deliver service or customer support for what is basically the second biggest financial investment for most folks

 

[T.R.T.e.s.l.a.]

Great Video if you haven't removed the MCU before.

Awesome!
Thank you so much!

 

[LuckyLuke]

My MCU still does not boot. We suspect that p1 and/or p2 have problems. Although we sucessfully used "unsquashfs".
Does anybody dispose of a 2020.8.1.1 p1 and p2 image which he could provide to me? Can p1 and p2 be identical (copies)?
Or does anybody have an idea on how to "fsck" p1 and p2?

PM me

 

[Trebek1762]

Is there a way to change the active partition? I've got the same FW version on both, but want to switch to the other partition.

 

[martinwinlow]

Hello, all.

I have a 2015 Model S 60 up in the Hebrides (Scotland). 4 days ago I got into the car to find the MCU permanently black and unresponsive. I tried ever-increasingly severe re-boots and finally pulled the MCU fuse, all to no avail. I cannot access the car via smartphone app. It still drives and charges (but only up to about 100 miles range - I assume because the charge limit was set to about ~60% before the MCU failed). I have not tried a SuC, yet. I have contacted Tesla and they have confirmed an MCU replacement is needed (they have not said what the problem is).

I have complicated things a bit by asking Tesla if an upgrade to 4G/LTE is possible to have done at the same time - apparently the answer is 'yes' but I have received no covering info as to what I will get for my £1900 at all. Screenshot of quote attached. I had next to zero warning of MCU failure - ie next to no reboots etc in recent times. The car has only about 28k miles on it (it's a small island!).

1/ From the above can any one advise if this is a likely eMMC failure?
2/ Is it the case that a more up to date MCU will be fitted along with the 4G upgrade and what can I hope for in the way of MCU performance improvement or any other benefits?
3/ Anything else anyone can add that might make it easier to decide if I should save some money and get the EMMC fault fixed (assuming that is all the problem actually is) and forego the 4G upgrade?

Any help/suggestions gratefully received.

MW

 

[brkaus]

1/ From the above can any one advise if this is a likely eMMC failure?

Sounds like yes.

2/ Is it the case that a more up to date MCU will be fitted along with the 4G upgrade and what can I hope for in the way of MCU performance improvement or any other benefits?

It will be the same MCU version that you currently have with a newer communication board. It will feel a bit faster as the performance goes down as the MCU wears out. And the new comm board will help a bit. From what I know, the new MCU2 is not yet available for the older cars and I have not yet heard of them installing them on a 2015 model

3/ Anything else anyone can add that might make it easier to decide if I should save some money and get the EMMC fault fixed (assuming that is all the problem actually is) and forego the 4G upgrade?

You may ask for clarification. I think they are including the communication board on all the MCU replacements.

BTW - no screenshot attached.

 

[Krash]

I have a 2015 Model S 60 up in the Hebrides (Scotland)...

If it were me, as long as I could charge, I would wait for availability of the MCU2. And if I stopped being able to charge I would do a third party eMMC repair. The last thing I would do is pay for an MCU1 replacement, even with 4G/LTE.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Great Video if you haven't removed the MCU before.

Thanks for the video, that was fun to watch. But I'm just curious why you don't unscrew the two rubber hood bump-stops instead of just yanking the trim pieces over them, and then futzing with them to get them back through those two holes?

 

[MP3Mike]

Thanks for the video, that was fun to watch. But I'm just curious why you don't unscrew the two rubber hood bump-stops instead of just yanking the trim pieces over them, and then futzing with them to get them back through those two holes?

My guess would be so that he doesn't have to re-adjust them correctly. (Or count the number of turns for each one.)

 

[HankLloydRight]

My guess would be so that he doesn't have to re-adjust them correctly. (Or count the number of turns for each one.)

In the video (at least) they look like they're screwed all the way down, which is the same for my P85D. I think for most cars, that's fine.. I can't imagine there are many cars where they need to be adjusted "up" for the hood to close properly.

 

[eligs]

Does anybody know how the MCU1 boot process works?

I understood from other posts, that the first part of the boot does not involve the emmc chip. Is that correct? In other words, the emmc does not require any boot sector and related boot files?

Have a look at this article, it also covers the boot process and how the content of NOR and eMMC interact:
Reverse Engineering the Tesla Firmware Update Process | Pen Test Partners

 

[Majerus]

Got through about 12 pages last night before going to bed. Looks like my MCU is black, I see that it is connected to wifi and I can still see it from the App. However when I try to say turn on the air I get failed to do so. Also the car is charging at 2Kw. Any point in trying to replace the EMMC with a new one or is it likely gone ?

 

[EV-Fixme]

Got through about 12 pages last night before going to bed. Looks like my MCU is black, I see that it is connected to wifi and I can still see it from the App. However when I try to say turn on the air I get failed to do so. Also the car is charging at 2Kw. Any point in trying to replace the EMMC with a new one or is it likely gone ?

Yes, if you can still see it from app, then likely you can have a good recovery. We provide a free verification before beginning.
Consolidated eMMC Thread (MCU repair) (Black Center Screen) I consolidated the information so you dont have to read many many threads.