Lars997

OK Guys - a quick update on my progress. First of all - thank you to Kari for his enormous support!!! It helped so much to have someone giving tips and hints!

However, even after trying all steps and ideas, I didn't succeed. I figured out, that the little light at the controller of the HDD/SSD doesn't flicker at all. So as my system never went over the HDD-Initialization process, I thought that maybe the HDD Controller was broken. Luckily, I found a company in the south of Germany which makes this kind of fixes. Those guys could source a new controller. Once this was added, everything worked like a charm.

I am happy that I got it back to work. The expense I had was around 400 EUR. Much better than the Porsche official swap-fix. However, still too much considering that such a controller might be around a couple of bucks only. Nevertheless, I am happy the car works well again.

Thanks Kari - without you I would have been much more frustrated and helpless

simaservis1108

To be honest,I think the company only did swap of MoBo.
HDD controller is also a CD controller and a lot of other stuff,so the HDD controller being dead goes out of the window.
FM wouldnt work,USB wouldnt work also.
It never goes bad.
In my experience where I have repaired over 100 of these I have never replaced it,it is simply bullet proof.

swalsh

Hi,

I've been working through the various steps above to build a new SSD drive which I believe I've successfully done (partitions map against the details Kari provided) and plugged back into the car. Now I'm trying to run an update to fix the reboot (every 4-5 mins) problem. I've downloaded the ISO provided and extracted (using 7-ZIP) the files (outside of the initial single folder) to a USB on windows, and separately copied and pasted the files to a different USB on from the ISO using a Mac, both which appears to work. But when I plug the USB in the car, nothing happens! Current PCM version is 4.73

Can anyone help advise on next steps or what else I should try? I've got some DVD-R discs on order but I've seen above that USB is recommended as a better option so keen to try any other suggestions for that.

Thanks in advance!

tdidriver

Hi friends,
I have also problem with emergency mode, what appeared by itself.
Its a 2014 PCM3.1
Here you can see the steps.
What I tried:
- other DVDs, but same result ( I did update a friends PCM with the same DVD succesfully)
- other DVD-loader, but same result

You have any ideas?

Step 1

Step 2 , with insertet SW476

Step 3

Agyle

@Lars997 Where is the light you mention? Is that on the HDD/SSD itself? Or is it on the PCM itself next to the ribbon cable attachment?

If you have any pictures, that would be very helpful.

Agyle

[removed post]

Wellwood

I pulled the unit from the car - is there a way to operate the PCM3.1 on my desk to see if it works or not?

What do I need to have to do that?

Can anyone help?

simaservis1108

Your PCM has a corrupted identifier.
You can't fix it yourself,need some special tools which are expensive.

dan_189

What special tools are you referring to?

tdidriver

Thats also my question...I dont think there are some "special tools" for repairing it

simaservis1108

Yes they are factory repairs tools that the HBAS repair centers have.

Wellwood

the same happened to me and I fixed it. First you need to replace the HDD with and SSD then use the 4.76 Update DVD - I created 3 from different sources and after in and out got it to complete the update - no special tools need

porschegasm

I faced a similar issue and I was successful by just reinserting the software update disk and trying again. I think the update disk has utilities on it that "fix" the drive, sort of like chkdsk on a windows machine.

porschegasm

I was prepared to do the drive upgrade as well based on all the excellent stuff from JSLO on multiple forums. I had version 4.52 to start. I was in rebooting hell, my PCI was rebooting every 60-90 seconds. This was an eBay purchased PCI that I had installed in place of a CDR unit (Bose system) with the help of some VERY long and involved threads. Everything worked but I could never get the NAV to load despite having uploaded all the proper Russian hacker codes using my dealers PIWIS. I then installed the JoyeAuto Apple Car Play module which worked very nicely and I was mostly content. Then the rebooting started this winter. I was desperate. I got the 4.76 upgrade ISO file from one of these forums and made a DVD out of it. I then attempted to see if I could just upgrade the software/firmware and spare myself the disassembly. By just being persistent with the update disk, I found I didn't need to replace my drive-at least not yet. First, my PCI rebooted during the update procedure (of course) and I got some abort message but the rebooting magically stopped when I repeated the software update procedure. Then the PCI entered "Emergency Update Mode" with both English and French messaging. Then, the thing said I could not update due to disk read/write error or some such but I tried again in the emergency update mode and it somehow completed the upgrade!! The PCI is a pretty cool device but man is it prone to trouble! I am not particularly computer savvy-about average I think. I will keep everyone posted.

porschegasm

I faced a similar issue and I was successful by just reinserting the software update disk and trying again. I think the update disk has utilities on it that "fix" the drive, sort of like chkdsk on a windows machine.