coffeeisgood

a 2010 970?
you are posting this in the wrong forum, I think
what PCM # does the 970 use?

Obrevik

it´s a pcm 3.1 from what I can tell.

so it should be the same procedure for both cars?

kari

yes, the 3.1s are all similar from a hardware perspective - any differences are more from a fitment point of view- ex: faceplate, the plastic trim etc.. infact, the 3.0s have similar IDEs (like the early 3.1 PATA disks) and recovery methods are the same.

A pcm 3.1 unit restart is a full restart of the entire unit - its like pressing the restart button on your laptop - does not matter if its aux or any other functionality that's active- everything restarts.

Now, a restart can occur due to many reasons - the most common one is a failed HDD but there are many other causes like PCM unit circuit board hardware failures, corruption of the internal flash memory, system overheating, corroded internal contacts of key firmware connectors etc. Of these the easiest to fix is the HDD issue and for HDD issues, the system usually restarts every 2-4 minutes or so. If the system keeps restarting every 10-20 seconds, then its more likely an internal hardware/flash memory problem than a HDD problem and its more likely that you will have to look for a replacement PCM unit..

Even if one were to assume that the current problem at hand is with the HDD, its not easy to say if removing the HDD will stop the constant restart. Bad sectors or data corruption in the HDD could mess up various files or partitions and depending on what is messed up, the system may be more susceptible to a restart or less. Also, while cloning helps in many cases, if the HDD is too far gone, then cloning propagates the underlying partition corruption issues and you will continue to see a restart with the new SSD or even if you have no drive installed at all.

If you have time to pick up the vehicle, I would suggest you build a new HDD or SSD from scratch using Clonezilla. See post 24 from this thread where i listed the options. Option 3 is about building a SSD or HDD from scratch. when you take possession of the vehicle, try removing the old HDD and see if there are no restarts. If it continues to restart, then put this newly built SSD in and run the firmware update disk - that should get you out of the restart issue though you will not have any maps/navi. Note that since you have a 2010, you cannot use the SATA partition details I listed in that post. Instead, post 24 has a link to the partition/sector details for IDE/PATA disks - click that link to get the details . The rest of the steps are the same.

hope this helps...good luck!

Obrevik

Thank you Kari for that detailed post, really helpful!

I¨ll ask the dealer for how often the pcm restarts and I¨ll take with me the tools needed to remove the pcm so that maybe just maybe I can listen to music on my way home. probably not gonna need it with the roar of that v8 engine.

maybe a little off topic but the dealer said that the faulty pcm causes the car to throw a code on the air suspension, it works fine and doesn't sagg he says but the lower/raise button inside the car does not function after a while.

found some info about the different communication protocols in the Panamera and from what I can tell the pcm has no ability to talk to the air suspension let alone throw a code on it, have anyone else with a pcm failure experienced this? thankfully the car comes with a warranty so I'm not too concerned about this

kari

AFAIK, PCM unit is standalone (Except a link to the multi-function display). There are other computer systems that deal with the suspension - you will have to get the dealer to read the codes to figure out whats wrong. Maybe you can create a new thread in the relevant forum - you may get more responses from people who have dealt with suspension issues as I dont think this problem is PCM3.1 linked.

One thing you may want to get tested is the battery - the air suspension is not easy on the battery and voltage issues due to a weak battery can cause wierd behavior including PCM restarts

Obrevik

That's what I thought as well, getting the codes tomorrow from the dealer. and ask them to check the battery.

If I build the partitions on the new drive from scratch will I get the emergency update screen? would be nice to have music on my 10-hour trip home but if I have to update the firmware I most likely have to go to the dealer to activate maps and Bluetooth regardless if I can clone the old hdd? since they would be out of sync?

Obrevik

what do you make of this Kari?, the dealer told me that the pcm varies in its restarts from a few seconds to some times up to 15-20 minutes.

that would tell me that the firmware is okay?

kari

that is quite a variation - so cannot for sure but does not look like firmware. It is also possible that the PCM has a completely different problem (ex: weak battery or overheating PCM internal unit ). If the battery is fine, then replacing the HDD yourself is still worth a shot in my view as its fairly cheap compared to replacing the unit. Try the approach of building on new SSD from scratch - if that stops the restarts then you know for sure its the HDD. You can always restore the map partition or attempt a clone of the original HDD again later on...

FOBioPatel

a quick screenshot of the settings you discussed in the Expert Mode of Clonezilla, I used these to recover my corrupt HDD when cloning it to an SSD.

briik

Hi all,
This thread, and others on rennlist, have been super useful to diagnosing the HDD failure issue I'm having on my 2015 Cayman.
However, the PCM software update disk is no longer available from Porsche, from Porsche affiliated stores/shops, and is nowhere to be found on eBay or otherwise.
Y'all may have bought the entire stock! A private shop near me is said to be offering a "rebuild" for up to $1000... A bit more than the $23 the DVD used to cost.

So could somebody please make a v4.7x update disk image available?
At this point I'm willing to pay, though I'd also be willing to trade the backup data from my failed HDD (I have partitions 1,2,3,5,6 of v4.73 in a 17.8Gb tarball) in case that's somehow of interest to anyone.

briik

The update disks are no longer for sale by Porsche or any affiliated supplier - there aren't even any on Ebay!
Would somebody be willing to sell their PCM v4.7x disks, or a copy of them, or a USB with the image on it? I'm open to other solutions like google drive or something too.
I've searched far and wide with no luck

dan_189

The ISO file to download somewhere in this thread

FOBioPatel

download the iso: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sV...smE7jBXCngUn8p

While running the DVD if the disc ejects and it says "emergency recovery", reinsert the DVD so that it can continue.

Obrevik

so I got the car home, fairly usable pcm on the drive home, sometimes it restarted after 20 minutes, other time up towards an hour...but the touchscreen freezes up after 10 seconds but it still plays music fine. but if start pushing the buttons it freaks out and reboots.

when the touchscreen does work I can navigate the menus just fine but every time I try to push info and source to check the version history it reboots. but as far as i can tell it´s running system version v2.20 so a pretty old one?

burned the iso image to a disc to update it but no luck, think I need a dvd-r, not a dvd+r?

is there any way to force the pcm into emergency update so I can use a USB?


cloned the old hdd with disk genius and verified the sectors on the new hdd to be correct, but now it restarts every 1-2 minutes like clockwork. so it¨s even worse than before.

kari

Based on your description cannot rule out corruption of the filesystem in the hdd or filesystem internal to the pcm unit or both.. would suggest running the update disk as it does resolve some scenarios but beware that if the update does not fix the issue the unit will end up stuck in the emergency update mode.

A 2.20 version indicates an early unit, so not sure of the features it has. In newer pcm3.1 units enabling the engineering mode using piwis activates the usb ...so maybe you can try that..

Not sure of the +r vs -r ..that is more specific to the dvd player hardware... areyou sure you copied the iso to dvd correctly? did you burn the iso as a file or as an image? ( The new dvd should be created as an image..iit should not show an iso in the main directory.. you should be able to directly see all the files and folders in the corresponding root folder/drive on the computer ) These errors could occur if the dvd burning software truncates file names or extensions.. so try tweaking the software options to make an exact copy..