Infotainment System Restarting endlessly

[Pete]

Thought to just add…I’m another one with the restarting infotainment on 1896, but not the VW stream.  
 

Been like it for many weeks, with occasional weeks with no restarts. However, lately it has been doing it multiple times per day and multiple times per journey.  Off to the dealer next week.  I do not expect a resolution. 
 

Two days ago, I started getting a warning, Fault: vehicle lighting, and Warning: Check Adaptive Frontlight system.   My lights are now on all the time and cannot be turned off.  My switches for the lights are no longer illuminated.   I also get the occasional error for this and that including parking sensors, manoeuvring braking, front assist etc. While I cannot say for certain, other than the infotainment restarting, the car had settled down for a spell…and then there was a couple of OTA updates and my error hit rate went up!   

[kreeker]

Hi Pete,

 

Does your car OTA update without notifying you? Not sure my car OTA updates in Australia. But had a wierd gremlin yesterday where I got all the same faults as above and the car wouldn't start. Does your car start when it does this?

 

 

[Pete]

6 hours ago, kreeker said:

Hi Pete,

 

Does your car OTA update without notifying you? Not sure my car OTA updates in Australia. But had a wierd gremlin yesterday where I got all the same faults as above and the car wouldn't start. Does your car start when it does this?

 

 

Car starts fine.  Yes, you do get notifications for the OTA updates.  

[Gibbonm]

Had the limp mode a few times. 

I just stop and turn on and off and it goes away.

I have obd 11 and the amount of errors it is showing up on their diagnostic is staggering. 

I am scared or reluctant to delete them. Has anyone done this? 

I just can't rely on it. In the month of may apart from obvious things. I have had the keys locked inside it twice, numerous activation of Alarm after locking, car won't lock or unlock with fob, and even a fail to start 😂 changed both batteries in the fobs let's hope it all goes away now and I have a trouble free june....

[SkOmk4]

On 09/06/2023 at 14:13, SkOmk4 said:

This weekend I'll try the "no wireless" solution

As I was mentioning, I did try to see if the random reboots go away if I'm using AA with wifi & BTB off. (Just a reminder: in my case, the MiB reboot would occur immediately after the engine start - within the first 1-2 minutes)

 

So as @Combi_NX5 mentioned, I turned off wifi and BT before approaching the car, started the engine and after that connected the phone via cable. The infotainment DIDN'T reboot in about 10 such tests over the weekend. Since I had several long trips, I took one step further and enabled the wifi on the phone while already being in AA for several minutes - an there was no restart! However, for each new trip I was approaching the car with wifi&BT off on the phone.

Encouraged by the lack of MiB reboot, I also tried starting the car with phone wifi & BT ON - epic fail!!! In 2 out of 2 attempts the infotainment restarted...

 

As @Combi_NX5 already indicated, the BT on the phone will be turned on after the cable is connected, and phone's BT will also connect to the car; but wifi stayed OFF on the phone, unless I decided to turn it ON during the trip. During all those tests I didn't touch the car's wifi and hotspot - it was always ON.

To conclude, as Penguins of Madagascar were saying:
"There's good news and bad news: the good news is we're landing! The bad news is we're crash-landing!" (scene at 1:20 in the link bellow for the original citation)
And since the link is here - if any of you wants to know how I'm imagining the Skoda technicians are dealing with all the errors in MK4 - please have a look at the video between 0:45 and 1:20... ☹️

Later edit: King Julian seems to behave like the Skoda CEO  😉

 

 

Edited 12 June, 2023 by SkOmk4

[Edela]

17 minutes ago, SkOmk4 said:

Since I had several long trips, I took one step further and enabled the wifi on the phone while already being in AA for several minutes - an there was no restart!

If you first connect via cable, and then switch on wifi, the data still goes via cable until you unplug it. So no surprise it didn't restart.

Anyway, guys, if anyone is interested in my case still. As I told before, I got my car with MCU replaced and on 1668 software. Since a few reboots the next days after I got my car back, indeed, as workshop promised, I had no more reboots. No surprise, since on this software version I have no wireless AA and I'm only using cable now. However, the amount of random errors which hadn't occurred before is increasing every day. Just a few examples: sound volume may be only lowered and won't go back up, sound doesn't play via infotainment at all (AA is connected, Waze is running, but music only goes via phone loudspeaker), sudden failure of backing camera, sudden failure of parking sensors, etc. It all gets fixed either by restarting car or, if it doesn't help, manual reboot of infotainment.

We had quite cool weeks here in Madrid and now as heat came back, I expect infotainment again to go into constant on-off loop and drain by battery. Will see.

I contacted dealership and Skoda's customer support to reject this car, but till now we found no solution. The only thing dealer offers is to buy this car back (with depreciation of price), on which I have to tell them that if they'll by this car for less money, that basically means that I paid that amount for not having a car half of the time and constantly bringing it to a workshop, which is ridiculous if you think about it in that way. If there is someone from Spain and could give me advice on how to legally proceed from here, I'd be happy to get some help.

[SkOmk4]

23 minutes ago, Edela said:

If you first connect via cable, and then switch on wifi, the data still goes via cable until you unplug it.

You're right; I forgot to mention - I also unplugged the cable for that part of the test and there was no system reboot. But I was 10 or more minutes into the trip (after the engine start).
 

I was wondering: is this infotainment restart occurring also for those using Apple CarPlay? I don't quite remember seeing such posts on this topic...
I remember them having problems with Waze or GMaps displaying with strange colors or lines, even freezing, but no restarts...

[PoloPaul]

Beginning to wonder about Over The Air updates. I assume my 2020 Octavia 4 receives OTA except for major fixes (they are main dealer) However as you can see my Navigation is on 22.6 whereas others in this thread are showing 22.8. 
 

I went into Menu-System-Updates on Colombus an hour ago and pressed ‘Update’. It tells me not to use vehicle whilst updating. I’ve done this before but have never seen confirmation of success or otherwise. The Colombus built-in Navigation is poor and I rarely use it preferring Google or Apple Maps through Airplay. However 22.6 navigation when others have posted photos above showing 22.8 makes me wonder about OTUs and whether they are happening for my car. 
 

Any insights from users of this thread gratefully received. 

[djmartzian]

New updates from my side:
1. During the past days (including Today), I've tried different combination suggested by @Combi_NX5, but also mentioned by @SkOmk4 above.

1.1 WiFi completely turned Off on the unit side.

1.2 WiFi and BT turned off on my phone.
1.3 AA started on wired smartlink only.
In 1 of 3 trips my unit still rebooted just after started my trip (car started to move). BUT, based on my tests and all the details that this great community collected, I've conducted a new theory:
The reboots are not caused only by the WiFi connections, the latest OTA updates ("Error Fixes" + "Service Campaigns") have broken the software, on top of the regular heat that is comming during these days (summer is almost here!) causing sort of CPU overheating. I'm saying this, because my unit restarted 4 times in a row, last week when the car was parted in direct sunlight for a couple of hours and with AC systems completely off on first ignition start.  

 

 

Infotainment Software Updates

For all the cars that have been delivered from the factory the SW train is: VW.
If the cars has received a major update change via the dealer, the SW train will be changed to: SK.
QQ: Will we be able to update our units with any kind of software afterwards? E.g. Someone with SW version MOI3_EU_SK_R8960L(1896) can process an update directly to MOI3_EU_VW_R9410L(1941)?!

Edited 12 June, 2023 by djmartzian

[PoloPaul]

Ok - other than checking in ‘System’ to see if versions are updated dated to a higher number - how do you confirm that OTU updates are complete. Only time I seem to get updates is through main dealer. 

[SteveTheElder]

6 hours ago, SkOmk4 said:

 

I was wondering: is this infotainment restart occurring also for those using Apple CarPlay? I don't quite remember seeing such posts on this topic...
I remember them having problems with Waze or GMaps displaying with strange colors or lines, even freezing, but no restarts...

Yes, it affects mine with CarPlay, seems totally random as to whether I get no reboot, just one or multiple!

[Pete]

36 minutes ago, SteveTheElder said:

Yes, it affects mine with CarPlay, seems totally random as to whether I get no reboot, just one or multiple!

And me...using Apple CP.  Yet to try to suggested turning off BT and Wi-Fi. 

[SteveTheElder]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

And me...using Apple CP.  Yet to try to suggested turning off BT and Wi-Fi. 

I put my iPhone in flight mode one time. Infotainment system rebooted and the phone told me to turn on Wi-Fi to enable CarPlay - so even in flight mode the phone worked out I was in the car…

Edited 12 June, 2023 by SteveTheElder

[Ctflr]

Until now, reading the whole thread through time, is there a single person who managed to get this issue fixed at the Skoda dealership? And didn't experience it afterwards? Because I think I never heard of anyone from this forum thread or other facebook groups who managed to get it fixed for good. I am really curious if they collect and centralize all this reboot issues somewhere.. because it seems the problem is only getting worse. 

[add017]

I to am blighted by this problem since the latest over the air update a couple of weeks ago.

 

There seems no end to the amount of people effected by this.   I have posted on twitter. (i think linking Skoda UK) to highlight the problem. 

 

Please post on there, maybe they might do something. 

 

[OftiK]

22 hours ago, SkOmk4 said:

You're right; I forgot to mention - I also unplugged the cable for that part of the test and there was no system reboot. But I was 10 or more minutes into the trip (after the engine start).
 

I was wondering: is this infotainment restart occurring also for those using Apple CarPlay? I don't quite remember seeing such posts on this topic...
I remember them having problems with Waze or GMaps displaying with strange colors or lines, even freezing, but no restarts...

I use both. (Carplay/AA)

Unfortunately, I haven't paid attention. But Inwill do so this week. I will keep my Android phone with the wifi and BT off, so that only the Iphone can connect to the system. 

Let's see how that goes...

[iPod]

knowing that currently my 04 is from 12/15/20 is in 1896 + OTA if I press the "reset factory values" key. am I going to return with an old version prior to 1896?

[iPod]

knowing that currently my 04 is from 12/15/20 is in 1896 + OTA if I press the "reset factory values" key. am I going to return with an old version prior to 1896?

I contacted the SKODA FRANCE service by email. they called me back 2 hours later to tell me that the opinions of people on the forums did not count and that

the defect was not related to OTA updates. 0 coincidence... you have to go to the dealership and pay for the diagnosis to fix their own mistakes...

[Ctflr]

Some time ago someone asked if anybody knows if this reboots are also happening on VW's side. I hade some time to search a bit and found 2 threads on some VW forums for Golf MK4 and there are some similar issues. 

 

https://www.golfmk8.com/forums/index.php?threads/infotainment-system-rebooting.415550/page-2

 

https://www.golfmk8.com/forums/index.php?threads/infotainment-hardware-and-software-updates.391952/page-73 

 

Maybe the info here is of interest, but there is quite something to read, especially on the second thread. I only had the time to read the last few pages. 

 

Edited 13 June, 2023 by Ctflr

[djmartzian]

Hello @Ctflr,
Yes, some of us are aware of those threads. Please see one of my posts, asking for advises 🧐
https://www.golfmk8.com/forums/index.php?threads/infotainment-hardware-and-software-updates.391952/post-7972639

 

Indeed, the Mk8 guys managed "to fix" the reboot issue by upgrading to 1941 version. The same solution was proposed here, in one or two pages behind in this thread. (from top of my head, @varooom was the one).

BUT (always it's a but), this version has been released with the VW and SE(Seat) software train, and unofficially yet. I'm not aware of such release by SK.

https://mibsolution.one/#/1/9/MOI3

The process to upgrade is also unclear (for me at least) - please see one of above posts with my concerns.

Another issue is related to the warranty!! Is your dealer going to accept  the new software version  on any of the service inspections? OR they are still waiting to invalidate the MIB warranty with the pretext that you updated by yourself?

RO: Numai bine!
EN: All the best!
 

Edited 13 June, 2023 by djmartzian

[cliff_moher]

Been reading through this. Based in Ireland so I have a 1.0 TSI Ambition Octavia. It's the 5th Octavia we've had from new (2 car household) and our 6th Skoda overall. The car is a 221 reg meaning it was first registered in H1 2022.

 

The car has been plagued by SoS warning lights and issues with the reversing camera blacking and freezing. 

 

The car has been back to the dealer numerous times. In fairness to them they're decent enough and have provided me with a replacement car but Christ it's frustrating. 

 

I was told that the fault log in the car, didn't register any of the SoD faults but I had photos to back up my claim. Anyway, after the 1st visit they advised they did a software update. On the reversing camera, the standard response was its working and they couldn't see any issues. 

 

Anyway the issues continued and eventually they brought in a few weeks ago. I managed to catch a photo on my phone of the reversing camera showing a clear space behind the car but the sensors were red. So the sensors were picking up the wall, contrary to what the camera was showing (image attached). 

 

The car was with them for a week and upon its return I was told that there was a number of tweaks made to the software. Should there be any further issues the media unit would need replacing. My sales guy mentioned the same as others "Skoda force dealers and customers through a ridiculous troubleshooting process before replacing the unit under warranty". 

 

So this evening my camera froze again. It's already caused one minor tip. I accept that ultimately the responsibility is mine but if my car has a safety feature such as a reversing camera, I should be able to rely on it. The car is already due to go back because the central locking is banjoed after the last software update. The internal central locking button won't unlock the doors or boot either. Only way to unlock the car now is to open the driver's door. On top of that, turns out the rear passenger door won't lock at all - I don't know if that has always been the way though.

 

My patience has run out at this point. It's a shame, such a lovely car but let down by very shoddy IT issues. 

[TheWanderer]

8 hours ago, djmartzian said:

Hello @Ctflr,
Yes, some of us are aware of those threads. Please see one of my posts, asking for advises 🧐
https://www.golfmk8.com/forums/index.php?threads/infotainment-hardware-and-software-updates.391952/post-7972639

 

Indeed, the Mk8 guys managed "to fix" the reboot issue by upgrading to 1941 version. The same solution was proposed here, in one or two pages behind in this thread. (from top of my head, @varooom was the one).

BUT (always it's a but), this version has been released with the VW and SE(Seat) software train, and unofficially yet. I'm not aware of such release by SK.

https://mibsolution.one/#/1/9/MOI3

The process to upgrade is also unclear (for me at least) - please see one of above posts with my concerns.

Another issue is related to the warranty!! Is your dealer going to accept  the new software version  on any of the service inspections? OR they are still waiting to invalidate the MIB warranty with the pretext that you updated by yourself?

RO: Numai bine!
EN: All the best!
 

 

I'm thinking that if you have a USB C memory stick you could load it onto that and plug it into the USB ports and enter engineering mode, it should find it in theory. 

[Roman_K]

I hope my experience how I solved reboots will be useful for someone. I had the problem within 1 min after start engine, sometimes 2 times one by one. I changed user settings from default to “not share my position), it’s mode after incognito with letter “i” on the picture. It disabled some services like traffic jams and parking positions but no restarts since that time.

[SkOmk4]

Nice! How long have you been using the car without any reboots? (Sorry it sounds like a question at an AA meeting... "how long have you been sober???" 😂 )
Just asking to find out if it's a statistical effect, or if indeed it solves the problem.

Mine was reboot free with the phone wifi-OFF, but it's testing over an entire weekend, for about 10 different drives - so statistical error ~30%...

It's crazy when you think how many users encountered this problem (far more than those posting here), and how much time they must have spent surfing the web, looking for solutions, then testing those solutions on their cars, then reading some more, testing again...
I wonder how many man-hours were ridiculously spent because of a faulty OTA update. I'm betting it's close to a year's work of a full-time employee. And the fault is probably something that Skoda might fix using a few SW-dev guys over a couple of days. So frustrating!!!
It seems the fix is already out (not yet for Skoda) with v.1941, but should we expect receiving it OTA in the near future, or will it be an update requiring a service-trip?

[Roman_K]

1 minute ago, SkOmk4 said:

 

Nice! How long have you been using the car without any reboots?

 

2 weeks of active driving. Also I tried before to disable downloading radio logos, but it did not help, though it’s still disabled now.