DS3 RT6 suspected memory card failure.

[42daud]

Good morning all. I hope all is well.

I'm writing this post with hope that some of you fine people can give me a hand and advice in the following.

Iv read extensively into the fault that the Mrs car has developed.

She has an RT6 head unit in a 2012/2013 citroen DS3. It's developed the dredded blank screen (not black) I can see the back light.

It has a cadenced cd drive / eject noise. When I input a cd it stops and appears to try and read then chucks it out.

Leading up to the failure she mentioned that it would intermittently work and gradually the system just would not operate.

I suspect that the sd card internally has failed ? Correct me if I am wrong.

I have a brand new class 10 8gb memory car ready to be put in and I have the firmware for 2.86 ready to be loaded.

I did attempt to back up the Configuration with mirascripts following the process on another thread which if I do say so was very detailed and comprehensive.

The unit did not seem to respond .

My thought process going forward is to replace the card. Upgrade the firmware via the disk drive.

And if all going well then to re configure with Diagbox which I have taken delivery of today and in the process of setting up .

I believe there is a chap on here who can find the original configuration from the vin ?
I think the same chap talked another member through the reconfigure process. If he could respond or make him self known I would really appreciate it.

I have experience with coding modules on the VAG group of vehicles but next to no experience with the PSA / citroen group.

Cheers all

Thankyou

Daud

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi Daud

The CD is being chucked out because the system has lost some of the data on the internal SD card moist likely, and is looking for the firmware CD to restore the files that can be purchased from Citroen mentioned in my guide. It is unlikely, however not impossible that this will fix the system, as this is symptomatic of the internal MicroSD card memory cells having reached end of life.

Otherwise use the USB to update the firmware - however caution is advised:

Depending on your existing firmware version, if you manage to successfully install version 2.86, there is a high possibility that your head unit will lose it's vehicle configuration and you may be left with loss of functionality. If this happens, it is extremely unlikely that Diagbox on its own will be able to resolve this, as the ECU goes into secure mode and prevents configuration without a valid log in and connection to PSA servers. This is why it would be helpful to know what your current version of firmware is, so I can advise on the likelihood of this happening.

If this were to happen, then your only option would be to get Citroen to reconfigure the RT6 themselves and restore functionality, for which they would charge diagnostic time to do.

[42daud]

Goo evening Marc. I'm unable to extract any data from the head unit it self. Is there anyway of working out the firmware from the VIN ?

I understand I probably won't be able to entirely re configure the head unit and I'm expecting there to be teething issues with Bluetooth handsfree echo etc.

So long as I can gey it to a point where the radio or music plays ill be happy. Just so it stops making the bloody noise it does


I appreciate your swift response .

Daud

[GiveMeABreak]

There's no way to ascertain firmware from the VIN as we don't know the version installed at factory and b) the firmware is end-user updatable, so could be any version unfortunately and some versions installed at the factory were never released as updates. All I can tell you is that depending on the initial firmware version it can mean the difference between a seamless update that retains all the settings or will reinitialise the unit to factory defaults, which can change the language and miss off features like your parking assistance etc.

But if this happens at least you can have it re-configured at the dealer.

[42daud]

Thats a point indeed I'll be sure to keep the thread updated with any progress I make.

Cheers for the advice

Daud

[42daud]

So just a little update.

Replaced the sd card

Ran the firmware iso I found on the net. It finished and all looked good there was a messege to say update but the system was running in English and the background looked like the original working one. The mrs only went and selected yes which totally changed the UI and language and there isn't a function on the unit to change the language.

I had a look with diagbox at the configuration and when I went to enable bits and bobs the configuration was returning with " configuration failed "

I did notice that there was a configuration that mentioned something like "list of languages " and that wasn't active. I did attempt to activate it but it failed..

I have a feeling mirascripts may be the only way forward

If anyone has an idea on how to configure with diagbox that would be splendid.

This outcome was to be expected and I'm not disappointed. The mrs is happy she can listen to music and not have to put up with that ridiculous cd mechanism noise.

Cheers all and Marc

[GiveMeABreak]

This is one of the issues that will happen unfortunately. The language change options will be missing from the Head Unit menu, which is characteristic of the configuration default. There is no way to reset it with stand alone Diagbox unfortunately - it needs to be in dealer-connected mode to unlock and configure, to restore those missing options, parking assistance / camera (if fitted) and to restore the missing language from the head unit in future.

Once you have it restored, take a backup using Mirascripts for future reference or in case the card needs replacing again in future.

Having said all the above, you may be able to change the language using Mirascripts (only use the specific version for the RT6) if that is your only concern

[42daud]

Afternoon Marc

Cheers for the response

I can confirm for some reason that the reverse sensors work. Its just the language that needs to be altered.

Again thankyou for all your advice.
One quick question if I were to fit another ad card and repeat the update and stop before the second update would that be a viable solution ? Is the firmware stored entirely on the sd card or Is there a flash memory in the rt6 where its stored ?

And is the firmware reversible? I assume it wouldn't be but just a thought.

Cheers

Daud

[GiveMeABreak]

The firmware is not stored anywhere on the Head Unit. The Firmware on the media source runs a specific installation and configures everything as part of the process, completely destroying / overwriting the previous firmware and writes data internally as well as to the Micro SD card. The MicroSD card has certain partitions for various functions, one of which is where the configuration files are stored for the vehicle and these are what Mirascripts can back up and later restore for you.

Even if you were to repeat the firmware update it probably will use the same default values. This is a major firmware release. Depending on the version you originally had, the results may be a flawless installation with no loss of settings, or be left in a default configuration mode, as your has partially been.

The firmware is not reversible at all - as in, you cannot install an earlier version. Even if this were possible, it would not help as your user configuration data has been overwritten with the new values.

The only way around this I can see is to try and recover the old User data files from your old card and overwrite these on the new card. But only the same files that Mirascripts extracts.