Firmware corruption can cause all sorts of issues. Much more common than hardware faults really.

Fair point.

It's having issues reading the hard drive for the maps, so very likely having issues reading the hard drive partition for the music as well. Cheaper to try software fixes first than throwing hardware at it.

Definitely something broken or missing on the board.

Rustynuts, sent you a PM.

Yeah, looking at the pics there's a component detached itself. Just unlucky I reckon. Pm'd you back.

New GPS board fitted ( old one definitely damaged) but Columbus still seems to be looking for hard drive and asking for map disc. (As per original problem after removing parts ). Checked connections and all seems ok.

Hoping to borrow firmware and map disc and see if I can load.

Any advice welcome.

What's the Columbus part number??

3TO 035 680 A

You can therefore download and install 4120 on rnsfirmware.com for the firmware.

You can therefore download and install 4120 on rnsfirmware.com for the firmware.

Borrowing a copy from fellow Briskodian, do you think that's could be the problem?

Would stripping it down poss cause this.?

Thanks

Edited 16 December, 201411 yr by jerbear

Well its a little odd to have both a software and a hardware issue but its not impossible I guess. I suppose it could be a hard drive failure as well as a board failure but that would be even less likely. Definitely worth trying a firmware upgrade to see if that helps I would say before looking at other elements of the hardware. Its not impossible the disc you used has a corruption or didn't install properly if you have tried it already.

More likely the fault has been caused by the faulty GPS board and this has corrupted something on the main board. As you've had it apart you'll know that the power comes into the GPS board and (rather strangely) the main board is piggy backed onto the GPS board. So any GPS fault can cause issues with the main board. Usually it'll be a firmware issue and reinstallation will (hopefully) sort it, but if you're really unlucky then it may be the eeprom chips on the main board which have been corrupted.

 

There's a way to reformat the hard drive so that you can reinstall the maps and music without going through a firmware update. I would possibly try that first rather than go straight into a firmware. However, that really requires the service tool. There's a disc floating about the internet which is said to do the same thing, and it probably will. But I'm not a particular fan of downloading any old stuff and having a stab to see what happens.

I tried one of those discs Rusty mentions to format the map and music partitions when installing maps kept failing (due to a weak laser in my older unit). It did work in that I got a success message and music was cleared. Whether it really formatted the partitions, I can't be totally sure, but I did then eventually manage to install maps onto the supposedly reformatted partition, albeit via the SD card route.

Thanks for the help so far.

I will try firmware update firstly with friends discs, different to what I borrowed before as he has had a few problems with these.

Hopefully my problems haven't escalated to far......

Tried to load firmware today and keep getting this message.

SWL detected but invalid clamp state.

Remove cd and

Change the clamp state to hour mode and re insert CD.

Any ideas what this means?

Thanks

Remove the cd as instructed. Change the clock on the car from 12hr to 24hr (or the other way round), then try again.

Thanks,

Will try tomorrow.

Just had a quick search on here too as Adamal had similar problem.

Edited 18 December, 201411 yr by jerbear

I thought it was to do with dates.

But now you've said that it has jogged my memory and I agree with Rustynuts.

Yes I did but in my case the connection to the gateway was knackered and I couldn't change it! It was fixed by flashing the firmware outside the car but hopefully that won't be necessary for you.

Failed to load firmware.

Turned on, inserted disc, Message to say starting to load. Turns it's self off and doesn't restart.

Had to turn ign on and off to be able to eject disc.

Have tried quite a few times but no luck.

Any clues?

Have you changed the time from 12 to 24 hour (or vice versa)?

Does the unit still fire up and the radio work?

Yes, changed the clock.

Works exactly as it did before, cannot access Hard drive. No music or navigation. Radio and SD card fine.

Sounds like you've got a fried mainboard mate, unfortunately.

Don't think I will bother spending any more if that's the case. Still got my old Tom Tom.......

Mainboard price?