I don't have a mac, so I have no idea. I do this purely on a hobby basis, so I pretty much have only used what I have. Sorry.

 

I'm glad that worked!

 

Thanks to help and advice from jslo and Kari, I am pleased to report that the PCM3.1 system in my 2015 Cayenne S-E Hybrid has regained full functionality. However, it was not without a lot of effort and stress and certainly the outcome would not have been as inexpensive and effective without the support I received from this Forum. As can be seen from scanning this and other forums, Porsche has been less than effective over the past few years in helping its customers fix this recurring and very frustrating issue, even to the point of ceasing to sell the 3.1 Update Disk. I believe many out-of-warranty customers experiencing this problem ended up with a lot of expense and frustration, when a simple update might have resolved the situation, if the update disk had been readily available.

In the hope that this might help readers experiencing this issue; I will describe my chain of events.
My Cayenne was 5 years old in April and I was considering replacing it with another Porsche. In my 5 years' of ownership it had been completely trouble-free. Then, on its 5 year anniversary, I received an e-mail from Porsche/Vodaphone notifying me that I would be losing some of my Porsche Connect Services unless I paid them an additional subscription fee.
Since I was considering changing the car, I did not pay up. 1 week later, I found that the App on my iPhone had been de-activated.and it no longer communicated with the car. Moreover, the 3.1 Nav, Jukebox and phonebook no longer worked and the system was rebooting every 5 minutes or so. After 2 days, the car's battery was exhausted as the rebooting occurs even when the car is just sitting in the garage. I did not order the Sirus/XM module with the car so this problem was not related to the recent over-the-air Sirius/XM Update Issue, although the symptoms are similar. My advice to anyone experiencing the rebooting is to first pull the PCM fuse or put the battery on a trickle charger, otherwise you will sooh have a flat battery.
My first thought was that this rebooting problem could be purely coincidental with the Porsche Connect over-th-air cancellation, but then I did some web research. First I found that this was by no means an isolated occurence and many PCM 3.1 units have been replaced to fix the issue, perhaps unnecessarily.so, since often the problem recurred. Secondly, the rebooting invariably started when there waa a change in the wireless interface or protocol between the PCM and a Third Party provider (like XM or Vodaphone) or a third party device such as a new smartphone. The symptoms were invariably similar and the RAM/Hard Disk residing in the PCM unit may have become corrupted or damaged.

With some trepidation, I removed the PCM from the dash and then tried to clone the HDD.to a SSD, as recommended by jslo. I then downloaded the ISO PCM Update file from the link recommended by Kari and proceeded to update the PCM from v4.75 to v4.76, using a burnt CD. This seemed to be working but after 13 minutes it went into the Emergency Update Mode. With help from jslo, I eventually managed to obtain another update file on a USB Memory Stick. I thrn resumed the Emergency Update through the USB input and, lo and behold, the Update worked! Not only did it work, but I also regained rhe NAV Maps and all other functions. In the expectation that, even if Ithe rebooting was fixed, I might not be able to recover the Porsche NAV Maps, I had also ordered the JoyAuto Carplay KIt for the Cayenne. Emboldened by the success of the rebooting fix, I went ahead and installed the Carplay unit. To cut a long story short, I now have full PCM 3.1 functionality with the added benefit that I can switch to Apple Carplay and use Waze, Google Maps, etc. It really works well and transforms the PCM 3.1 Infotainment System.

I've decided to keep the car since I now have a more reliable SSD system with the added benefit of Carplay, which is a major improvement on the outdated original Porsche PCM. However, I won't be buying another Porsche since, as a 73 year-old, I can't take the stress of ownership! This was pushing my aging capabilities to the limit!
Once the PCM HDDs start failing in the field, I hope Porsche can do a better job of supporting its customers.

 

Glad to hear you were able to get this resolved! Out of curiosity, what is the procedure to boot from a USB drive, i.e. what keys are you hitting to have the PCM reference the USB port? I had extracted the v4.76 ISO to a USB drive to try it out as an alternative to the DVD, but wasn’t able to find any instructions to boot from USB.

 

Fantastic to hear you got your system back up and running. Would like to hear more about the carplay/Android auto adapter you used. Can you provide a link?

 

The PCM was stuck in the Emergency Update loop - it just kept trying to reload the update files from the DVD. I turned off the ignition and inserted the USB stick containing the Update Data. Before I could turn on the ignition, the screen lit up where it left off and, after a few seconds, it continued the emergency update from the USB stick, with no intervention from me. After a few minutes it came up with Update Successful!

 

jslo,
If you do a search on this forum for PCM 3.1 Carplay you will find there is a thread which is very helpful and which led me to the $400 JayAuto solution. The cost is less than the Porsche Map update and you have the choice of Google Maps, Waze, etc.
This is a picture of the Homescreen after I'd just installed it. You can use wired or wireless carplay with the iPhone but need wired connection for android phones. Screen mirroring is also available so it works well with Youtube!

Carplay Home Screen

 

Thread bookmarked. Awesome @jslo ! Winter projects: preventative upgrades of 3 PCMs...

 

Hi Dan,
I definetly have the same problem... and was wondering how to opérate on a SSD instead of my old 40GB Ide . Hopefully u did thé tests before me 😂. I also plan to buy the same ide disk available on EBay or orner sites... did u manage to fix the problem with the ide ? I have à Cayenne of 2011... PCM 3.1.. rebooting and no Bluetooth... please help ... + apparently no way to clone the Ide disk ... no possibility to read it. If u fix yours, can u please make me a iso. File from your disk. Thanks

 

Hi jslo,

New to the forum. I am having the re-boot problem with my 2014 Boxster S. I understand that you may have a fix for it. Are you still accepting units to do the clone? I would be interested. I don't want to spend $3200+ for a new PCM. Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Also my issue pre-dates the new PCM re-boot issue that Porsche has put out a procedure for. I have tried that with no luck.

Thanks!

 

Your mileage may vary, but I went into a dealer near me yesterday to get a diagnosis on my constantly rebooting PCM 3.1 (I knew it was toast, but they need to come to the same conclusion). After hooking the car up to PIWIS for an hour and scratching their heads, the service advisor came back with "there's an internal fault and the only remedy is full replacement"—he quoted me the $3200 for parts + ≈$500 for labor. I'm well out of warranty (about 11 months) and more or less expected this, and so I wanted to explore other options (there's a shop that works on Becker units a few towns over from me)—I asked him if he could just print me out a quote for everything and that I'd think about it. He said "sure", went off, and when he came back told me he'd "talked to the warranty advisor, and can discount the cost of parts and only charge you labor for the install and programming", which I accepted. I'm willing to shell out a few bucks if it means that the parts and work will essentially be warrantied.

I had read in a couple other threads that these PCMs are kind of part of an internal recall (unclear if it's a service bulletin), and that Porsche will comp the cost of parts in some instances—it seems to have worked out that way in my case. I think since service departments make the bulk of their money on labor costs, my asking for a quote and time to think inadvertently shifted their calculus towards making something rather than nothing. I don't think they'd have done the same if I came barreling in saying "I know this is part of an internal recall, etc. etc. etc."—that would've just put them on the defensive from the outset, so playing the hapless consumer seems to have done the trick here.

 

Thanks for the info. My CPO warranty ran out at the end of December, and neither my dealer or Porsche have been willing to do anything for me. It was working fine when I put the car away for the winter at the end of October and not working when I got it back out in late March. I filed an inquiry with Porsche customer service, and they said sorry, can't do anything for you.

 

Hi! Just send me a private message and we can get you fixed up.

 

I'm so new, as soon as I figure out how to do that I will PM you. Thank you.

 

aardy,
I believe,as a new member,that once you've posted 3 or more messages, you can go to your profile and select private messaging. It worked for me. and jslo was far more helpful and knowledgeable than the Porsche dealers, who are pretty clueless on this issue. The dealers,however,are very good at selling overpriced replacement "black box" PCM units, even when the problem can be fixed permanently with a $25 SSD drive and a firmware update, which is a much better long term solution. The fact that Porsche customer service said that they could do nothing for you is truly disgusting.