Harman Becker RNEG problem

[justjohn51]

My previous 407sw was fitted with a RT4 Head unit which developed a fault and became unusable. I have just purchased a 2010 407sw which is fitted with the Harman Becker RNEG and once again I have problems with this stereo as well! The issue is that the unit resets randomly, it can occur shortly after startup or after an hour or so of driving or perhaps not at all on any particular day. The screen blanks for a few seconds and then the unit boots up as normal and the only noticible error is that the aircon switches off. I have read posts that refer to the same problem regarding this head unit and a suggestion that it could be due to a corrupt nav sd card. I have removed said card but the problem persists. I have also read that it could be due to a malfunction with the units EPROM chip. In any event I have lost faith in the audio systems fitted to the 407's of this era! My question is ,can anybody suggest an after market head unit that would still allow me to keep the important controls of the various systems i.e Aircon/climate control, Date and Time, reverse sensors/mpg data etc? I did see a post from 2013 where a guy apparently managed to do this and actually posted a you tube video of the installation. In his case the original unit was an RD4. Since that was 11 years ago I am wondering if it is far more likely that I would be able to upgrade my RNEG and still maintain the original functions. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[GiveMeABreak]

These will not be related issues in the slightest.

The RT4 utilised a physical Hard Disk Drive, so was probably at end of service life if it was rebooting due to disk issues.
The RNEG in your later vehicle will be the MyWay (or WIPNAV as Peugeot name it), but these later systems have done away with HDDs and replaced them with Flash storage. These also have a finite service life, as the memory cells can only be written to a certain number of times. Once the flash memory can no longer write data, the system will start to exhibit this sort of behaviour.

As it's had 14+ years of service life, this will be the most likely problem, or the chips on the motherboard have become corrupt.

As for aftermarket - I can't advise on this as the units are heavily integrated into the vehicle's systems, so expect to lose functionality like parking assistance, any control of vehicle configuration that was done via the Head unit etc. You will need correct CAN compatible cable interfaces to interface with the steering wheel controls, but as said, expect to lose some functionality - just how much, will depend on the specification of the unit you intend to buy, so these are questions for the individual manufacturer to be honest.

[justjohn51]

Many thanks for your input Marc. What you have said makes absolute sense of course. On my previous car I just installed a single Din pioneer head unit and purchased interface cables from Connects2 and it all worked very well. Obviously I lost rear parking sensors via the car speakers but still maintained a somewhat reduced volume from the unit itself. The apparent loss of control of the Aircon was,on your advice, restored by simply hitting the Auto button. Range of distance/ MPG info not that important as I had a fuel gauge lol. Things like follow me home lights etc were unaffected. So, obviously I would prefer to have working original equipment but not the end of the world I guess!