Upgraded PCM 3.1 Hard Drive to SSD
 

QUICK NOTE!!!!!

Apparently there is an issue that recently came up as of 5/20/20. Something about XM service causing a reboot. Try this first, before assuming the hard drive is dead:

Start car or just turn to "accessory"
Push "CAR" on the PCM
Push "Option" > Set PCM System > Reset PCM System > Vehicle Handover > Yes > Yes

All preset and bluetooth settings will be erased as well as saved addresses, and any music on your jukeBox, but it will stop the rebooting issue.
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If you are still having problems after this, then you should look into whether or not your hard drive is dead.
vvv

I've cross-posted this in a couple of places so sorry if it's redundant, but last week my PCM (3.1, 2014 Cayman S) was on the fritz. The Nav stopped working, and the unit kept rebooting every 5-10 minutes. I tried "resetting" it by pulling the fuse for 30 minutes or so, but that didn't resolve the issue. I then tried re-applying the 4.76 update via the DVD, but the update would fail about 90% of the way through with an error that it couldn't write files, and then the system just kept rebooting in to emergency update mode.

As a hail marry, I pulled out the drive (it's a 100GB sata 2.5 inch drive located at the top of the unit.) to see if I could get my pc to at least see it. Sure enough I was able to see the partitions, so I ran some diagnostics on it. These came up with bad blocks.

I ran down to Best Buy and grabbed a 120 gb PNY solid state drive off the shelf for $20. Using Clonezilla, I cloned the failing drive to the new SSD. There were a few bad blocks on the old drive, but it was mostly successful. I was primarily trying to get the boot sector anyway. Inserted the cloned SSD into the unit and bench booted it. It did boot into emergency update mode again (I suspected it would), but I popped the update disc in figuring "what's the worst that could happen?"

The update ran completely and successfully! I popped the entire unit back in the car and everything works flawlessly. It didn't copy over my jukebox files, but the nav, saved destinations, phone settings, presets, and even my lap recordings all copied over. Overall the unit seems a little quicker and more responsive - likely as a result of the SSD - and I suspect the SSD will be more reliable as it's less sensitive to vibration and heat than the traditional drive that was in there. If your PCM hasn't failed yet, perhaps this would be a preventative measure? The SSD was $20, and the Software Update disc is another $23 shipped. It may not be needed for straight clones, but as my drive was stuck in emergency update loop anyway, it was a necessity for me. Still, for under $45 seems like it would be an opportunity to save some cash in the long run vs. a Porsche replacement. I also imagine with proper access to the OS (QNX), storage partitions could be expanded (fdisk), or you could even create a new partition of a different type on any available space.

I did order a full replacement unit as a last resort, so I'll experiment with that unit a little to see exactly what might be required.

Thanks for You notice. My 2 cars (718/991.1) are still Porsche approved but this will change next year, so it's always good to know. Would have proceeded as you did.

Great info. Pat's when you know what your doing tho. I'd need help

Got the back up unit in on Friday. As I didn't actually need it now, and the seller wouldn't take it as a return, I used it to try a few different things. What I learned is that with a good, functioning drive, you simply need to clone the drive to your replacement. Then you can just install it in the PCM and everything will work. No need to run the update disc. I tried Acronis True Image software for cloning with poor results. I'd recommend Clonezilla based on the success I've had. I'm going to pull my existing drive out again, clone the clone and keep it as a backup in case I get another failure in the future. Cheap insurance at this point.

Other things I learned:
You can't just swap in a drive from another unit, it doesn't play nice.
There are several different software versions. The Update DVD will scan your unit to determine which version you have, and what it will upgrade to.
There is a lot less stored on the drive than I thought. I was able to run the PCM without a drive in it at all. Navigation and jukebox were the primary things that didn't work, but pretty much everything else functioned normally.

So if you are going to simply replace/upgrade a working drive as preventative maintenance, you would do the following:

• Make sure you have a computer that you can attach SATA drives to (most modern computers can handle sata, or you can get usb and power adapters.)
• Get a Sata SSD larger than the capacity in your existing PCM. (
  Amazon
  Amazon
  )
• Get Clonezilla Live on a bootable USB drive (https://clonezilla.org/)
• Remove your hard drive from your PCM
  • Remove PCM fuse, or disconnect battery (I pull the fuse)
  • Remove side panels from center tunnel (pop off starting from the rear)
  • Remove screws holding PCM in place (T25 bit)
  • The PCM should now be free to slide forward. You may try and slide it forward enough to just remove the hard drive, or attempt to remove the unit entirely - either one is fiddly.
  • The hard drive is at the top of the PCM. Remove the two T8 screws and pry the back of the drive tray up and out of the PCM. Unplug the ribbon connector from the back of the drive, NOT from the PCM end.
• Attach the drive you just removed and the new drive to your PC
• Insert your Clonezilla bootable USB drive into your PC and boot/reboot to start Clonezilla
  • You may have to go into the bios and change the boot order so that your pc will boot from usb
• Run Clonezilla, chose to clone from device to device, select the source drive (from PCM) and the destination (new SSD)
  • The cloning process will take about 45 minutes to an hour, so don't worry if it seems like it's going slow.
• When cloning is complete, shut down the computer, remove the drives, and re-install the new drive into your PCM.
• I recommend testing the unit before you button everything back up. Just plug the fuse back in and ensure your PCM is working, then put everything back together.
  • I also have a bench top method. If you have a spare car battery, you can hook up the PCM to power and ground and run it on your bench. Obviously, anything that needs an antenna won't work, but you will be able to conduct basic functions and verify the unit is working correctly.

If all of this seems overwhelming, I'm considering offering an upgrade service. Let me know if there is interest and we can discuss.

jslo - i might just be in love with you! PCM on my 2013 991.1 just started rebooting every 5 minutes a few days ago. i took it to my dealer and they said what everyone on the web says -- only cure is replacement (for $4600 installed). my car is not under warranty anymore. they recommended pleading with porscheusa and they are currently 'investigating my case'. rep i spoke to was not very helpful. said things like 'well, $4000 isn't bad for a $140k car' -and- 'well sir the car is 6 years old' -and 'this is the first time i've heard of something like this'. hard not to have some edgy replies.

i'm not a technical wiz like you but am very mechanically inclined and not afraid to take the car apart - i may try taking out the drive now -- i can live without Nav and Jukebox for awhile. the damn resetting every 5' i cannot live with!

thanks man!
brian

Well, I took my hard drive out (easy with instructions as above). Everything works except Nav and Jukebox as expected. STILL resets every 5 minutes as before. I also tried removing fuse for > 30 minutes after removing HDD. So currently, no HDD in, still resetting every 5 minutes. Ideas?

Hello,
From yesterday, I have the same problem with my PCM 3.1 on my 991.1
Did you solved your problem on your side ?
Thanks
Olivier

I wrote more in another thread: https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1175...e-booting.html

Most pertinent part copied here:

Fixed! Member 'jslo' was willing to take a look at my PCM. I sent it to him and he did confirm the HDD was dead on arrival. He copied a drive of his to a solid state drive and installed it back in my PCM and sent it back to me along with the software update disc. While he was bench testing, a silhouette of a different 911 (T) showed up, but otherwise appeared to be working.

I re-installed the PCM in my car and fired it up. Silhouette of my 4S Cab showed up, so clearly that image is being fed by connection to your car. Unfortunately, it continued to reboot every 5 minutes as before https://rennlist.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif I then ran the update disc, and voila - has never reset again. In speaking to jslo about this after, we both think what is happening is the hard drive is crashing, and then corrupting the flash memory of the PCM unit itself. Replacing the drive alone was not enough for mine, but re-installing the software solved the flash problem. So there you go! $20 hard drive, $20 software update disc. $40! But Porsche's solution was replace the whole thing for $4600! Thank goodness for these boards and you clever people! Thanks to all that gave advice.

I've emailed jslo to see if he is interested in being a go-to for this problem. I paid him so money for helping me, and I would perhaps encourage others to get their drives copied to a more reliable solid state drive before this happens to them. If he gives me the green light, I'll happily share his contact info.

PM 'jslo' if you'd like some help.

Hello,

I dismantled my PCM and unfortunately the hard drive is completely out of service. Unable to clone it on the SSD.
I have the same symptom with the blank SSD, my PCM always reboots every 4 minutes. Do you have any idea to find an ISO image from PCM 3.1 hard drive so that I can clone my SSD ?

Thank you in advance

I had same problem. jslo was able to make me a new drive. PM him would be my recommendation.

Thanks Brian, I sent him a message, I hope that he could help me.

I've now done a few of these upgrades and recoveries with success. If the hard drive is still functional, I've found I can clone the good data to a new drive, install it back in the unit, and run the PCM update to restore any missing or corrupted files. If the drive can't be read at all, it can be replaced with another cloned drive, and the update disc should help initialize the new drive to the car, but not all functions may work without taking it to Porsche to re-enable features like navigation even if the originating drive has the same options.

I have SSDs available if anyone needs a clone, pre-cloned SSDs, and update discs available.

Hello,

My hard drive was completely out of service, I managed to find a company that gave me a new hard drive and clone it from another drive. This company also informed me that I had to return to Porsche to reactivate all the functions of my PCM.
It seems that the PCM checks the chassis number of the car and the PCM. Since cloning is carried out from another disc and therefore from another vehicle, the functions are therefore not all activated due to this protection check.

Once Porsche has "reset" the PCM with my chassis number, if I clone this new hard drive afterwards to have a backup copy, I suppose in this case that if one day my drive fails and I clone a new hard drive from my disc image again, it will be useless to come back to Porsche to reactivate all the functions because this hard drive will already have my chassis number.
Is my reasoning correct?

In any case, thank you again jslo for your return. I hope this message can help other people in the future.

Olivier

If you clone your drive which is already coded to your chassis, you should be all set - no need to go back to Porsche. I did this with my previous cayman and it worked perfectly as well as to another rennlister that had an issue with their hard drive. That's why it's always best if the original hard drive can at least be partially cloned.

Cloning the existing drive to an SSD is the first thing I will be doing with my new-to-me Cayman which I collect tomorrow!

Hi jslo, I have the same issue with my PCM3.1 - Nvi doesnt work and it reboots....
I already clones my HDD to a SSD and istalled it back to the car.
Unfortunatly nothing changed - Navi still doesnt work.

Currently my PCM is on V4.63 - do you thing updating it to V4.67 will fix the issues?
Thanks for your reply.
Best, Johannes