plb540

I recently changed from a HDD to a SSD in the PCM 3.1 (ver 3.40) of my 2012 991 Carrera S. At the same time, I added the NM Automotive CarPlay kit and a backup camera. The PCM wasn't having any problems, but I just wanted to be proactive.

I was prepared for a SATA conversion (Samsung SATA drive and WEme disk cloner), but when I opened up my PCM, it had the Toshiba 40GB IDE HDD. I then ordered the following from Amazon: KingSpec 128GB 2.5 inch PATA/IDE SSD (KingSpec was the only IDE SSD I found on Amazon and I ordered the 128GB version because it had one day delivery) and two AGPTEK SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cables.

I ran Clonezilla from a USB drive (Clonezilla's website described how to make a bootable USB drive) in 'Beginner Mode'. Here is a good tutorial that walked me through using Clonezilla for the first time - . The cloning had no issues and I put the SSD in the PMC and reconnected power. Everything worked! I did remove the master/slave jumper from connector on the SSD since the PCM connector uses these pins.

It does seem like these IDE SSDs are getting rare.

ozzythething

Yes they got phased out in June 2013 as far as I know..

I will do an IDE repair/preventative upgrade for free (or at cost) to someone who has an IDE drive. Otherwise SATA drives are freshly restocked, anyone having the reboot issue can PM me for a freshly written SATA SSD.

Close to 100 pcm’s fixed with my repair kits

dan_189

On the back of that great work, if anyone needs Australian SSD fixes I have those. I have IDE fixes for AU drives as well.

heeltoejunkie

Does the hard drive have any potential to causing battery drain? My 2015 cayenne was just in for a diagnosis of a check engine light and they said my battery was drained by the PCM and suggested they unplug it to not leave me stranded while I wait for parts on a completely separate non battery draining issue. They said it was hard drive related, that the hard drive wasn’t turning off and causing battery drain and it’s either purchase a new PCM or fix the hard drive. I installed a mr12volt if this makes any difference.


I remembered this thread but will also call Porsche tomorrow to get more info on this issue I’m having with battery drain. Curious if anyone has had something similar to this issue. Nonetheless swapping to SSD seems like a better overall plan so I’ll probably reach one to ozzy sooner than later or look into cloning my existing hdd. Porsche navigation worked last no issues, but it’s useless for me using CarPlay

ozzythething

It does not unless you made a major modification. The whole PCM system gets powered off 30 minutes after the doors are locked.

That being said you do kinda have a major mod. Where does the mr12volt get its power?

ozzythething

nice. How did you get a coveted IDE drive in Australia? Did you find a valid drive off a working PCM or did you partition a blank one yourself from scratch?

ozzythething

this is 100% the way

If without a drive your unit works but loses functionality, you can get a SSD kit from me to restore functionality.

If without a drive it still reboots, that PCM is likely toast…

also, before your HDD dies, I recommend getting an SSD upgrade as a preventative maintenance. Some of these drives are now 10+ years old and it’s not a question of if, it’s when.

heeltoejunkie

Thanks for the quick response @ozzythething ! The mr12volt gets it's power from the quadlock square plug harness that goes inline with the existing quadlock square plug (sorry I don't know what this is called but it's the huge plug on the back of the PCM). The PCM board is also installed inline between the existing ribbon cables inside the PCM itself with a two wire plug that goes into the mr12volt 'brain'. Logically I believe it's like this: mr12volt PCM > mr12volt brain > inline quadlock square plug > original PCM fuse > car battery.

I'll also inquire on the mr12volt thread but it's possible that they didn't lock the car since it was in the workshop bay and maybe the PCM never turned off...

ozzythething

Could be this.. or maybe it’s really the hard drive?
It’s a 2.5” laptop style SATA drive that runs on 5V and draws 1.6 Amps. That’s like 8 watts of power consumption. Even if you shorted a 8 watt load straight on the battery, it shouldn’t even make a dent considering how big the battery is in comparison.. right?

Ericthecool

I am lucky enough to have ElCid86 helping me with a clone of a healthy PCM hard disk. Though NAV and map is not loadable (probably needs to activated again), the rebooting issue is solved. Big thank you to ElCid86 for his help.

kent9272

I ended up shipping my PCM to Albania and received it back today and it was fixed. Thanks to @ElCid86 and @ozzythething for trying to help me. Now just trying to get the wires all the way back so I can install the PCM.

dan_189

What was the issue with it?

kent9272

@ElCid86 was kind enough to clone a new SSD for me, after replacing it with the old one it still rebooted every 10 seconds. It only got as far as the Porsche logo. I couldn't even update to the latest firmware either. Local dealership wanted $4k and I got Porsche NA involved but they gave me only 50% for goodwill. Shop in Albania fixed everything with shipping for $700 and it took about 2 weeks.

dan_189

Nice one, definitely beats 4k for a new one!

ozzythething

this folks, this.. if it doesn’t work without a drive, it won’t with.