Radio Freeze

Turned the key today, radio came on. Can't change channels, can't change volume, can't turn the radio off. Anyone know a fix? Tried turning car on and off, (when the car's off, so's the radio, tho) - nothing seems to work.

Start by disconnecting the battery - wait about 10 minutes and then hook it back up. This should re-set all the computers. 9 times out of 10 this re-set/re-boot works and all will be normal again... if not, the next stop will the the dealer for a warranty visit. brad

its happen to myself and others. i took the car into the dealer and they replaced the entire unit under warranty. it works well now.

That happened on my Boxster. I pulled the fuse. The radio worked fine after I replaced the fuse.

Guys, thank you for the tip! Yup, after 2 weeks of ownership, I had radio freeze and on a very irritating radio station. Glad I checked the forum first before running to the dealer. I would add that after reconnection, the PSM fault comes up and I followed the manual that required one to turn the steering a couple of times and then drive straight. The fault light should then go off. I am grateful for the information and that I was able to sort it out myself.:thanks:

mine does it once in awhile, i just turn the radio off and on. it takes two times doing that and it works. don't know if it will get worse.

I have it happening very randomly but my dealer says there is a firmware update for the radio which I havent done yet--I also added the Ipod and bluetooth to the existing radio--if that matters.

Take two aspirin and call the dealer in the morning.

The radio froze on me again! But knowing how to fix this, it was a case of disconnecting the battery and rebooting. Now, what is the real root cause of this? Do I need to upgrade the software (if it runs on some software program) or do I need the dealer to replace the radio under warranty? Has anyone found out the reason why it freezes?:helpme:

Yup. It's a faulty radio. I'm the OP here, and instead of disconnecting the battery, I took it to the dealer and had the friggin' thing replaced under warranty. Never happened again. :cheers:

I still don't understand why anyone listens to the radio in these cars. I's MUCH rather hear the hamster.

The dealer asked me to go a a specialist (I think they are specialist tuners) and had the head unit removed. After "reprogramming" which he said they reset/rebooted the software, the unit was reinstalled and has been behaving today, so far. Will advise if this is a permanent fix. Not sure what the guy did, but said he hooked it up to some computer and re-programmed? I think the dealers went down this route (I did not buy the car from an OPC, but a parallel importer). Guess they were reluctant to put in a new head unit at S$1800 (USD1200) before making sure that it was not repairable.

When I purchased my car I had it CPO'd and during the inspection this occurred with the original radio and they simply replaced it and no problems so far; much happier with a new unit.

Sorry, probably a stupid question, what is CPO'd?

Not a dumb question; CPO = certified pre-owned. I bought my car a few months ago, it was a 2007 dealer car with 3000 miles (had not been titled). The problem with that was the original factory warranty had been "punched out" as soon as the car was put into service as a demo so it only had a little over 2 years left. By having it CPO'd you get an additional 2 years/100,000 miles of protection; pretty good insurance for $1800.00.

Thanks for the explanation. I believe the have a similar scheme in Singapore where the local dealer provides a 2 year warranty on pre-owned cars they sell (factored into the price, for sure!). Well, the re-programming did not work and an attempt was made to replace the head unit. When this was attempted, a message on the new unit came up "Protect" and was locked out. They did not proceed further and said that we probably needed to replace the enitire set i.e. with the amplifiers as they are paired!!?? Is this nonsense? How does one overcome/reset the "Protect" lock out? The CRD 24 is not a good radio, but the entire process of owning a new car is just driving me nuts with this temperamental radio! Any further suggestions?

After much research and talking to various "experts", I believe the problem with my radio is down to the car not being set up prior to delivery. I was advised that as part of the PDI process, the vehicle is plugged into the diagnostics/tester and a whole range of parameters are specified e.g. bi-xenon, PASM, and whatever the options the car comes with. It also appears that for my vehicle there is an "Asia" setting. Once the parameters are set, the program is uploaded, and thats it. This was referred to as the "handover" process and has to be performed on every car prior to delivery. The problem experienced with radio freeze was likley due to the fact that the vehicle was not set up for all components to be "paired". Is what I am saying (based on what I have been told) correct? I would really appreciate some input.