718 Spyder - PCM screen blanking out

[Tony B2]

I think this might be a fairly common problem with PCM 4.0?

Random blanking of the main PCM screen, sometimes when in normal Porsche nav/map view, sometimes when in Android Auto.

It comes back on the "home" screen after a moment or 2, so it is almost as if it is doing a re-boot.

Car is at OPC later this week, so some idea of the nature of the problem and potential fixes would be appreciated, hopefully all covered by the Porsche extended warranty.

TIA

[Mabosh]

What are you using to connect to Android Auto? We use one of these:

https://www.nmautomotive.co.uk/product-page/pcm-4-...

We have had it for a few years and it worked very well until about two or three months ago.

It's now become very laggy and unresponsive and pretty much unusable. It also seems to be randomly causing the PCM to go blank, sometimes as often as every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes it will reboot and reconnect cleanly, other times not.

I am but stumped but I am guessing a recent Android Auto update is affecting the dongle/PCM interface.

Edited by Mabosh on Wednesday 13th August 10:06

[elan362]

If it was a 981 with a PCM3.1, I would have put money on it being the onboard HDD failing. But AFAIK, the PCM4.0 in the 718 is SSD based, so that is not likely to be the problem.
If it is under warranty, then you should be OK to (unless you have opened the PCM For some reason and voided the warranty)

[john_1983]

Mabosh said:

What are you using to connect to Android Auto? We use one of these:

https://www.nmautomotive.co.uk/product-page/pcm-4-...

We have had it for a few years and it worked very well until about two or three months ago.

It's now become very leggy and unresponsive and pretty much unusable. It also seems to be randomly causing the PCM to go blank, sometimes as often as every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes it will reboot and reconnect cleanly, other times not.

I am but stumped but I am guessing a recent Android Auto update is affecting the dongle/PCM interface.

I had this exact problem - ended up buying a new box here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B7JK3M5K?ref=ppx_yo2...

LIke you, assume an update affected the dongle. I think I had the 3.0 before, with the 4.0 now it's fine. I'm sure you can find it cheaper online etc, but with the issues with the first one I wanted something that looked more official, and it's not that dear

[Mabosh]

john_1983 said:

Mabosh said:

What are you using to connect to Android Auto? We use one of these:

https://www.nmautomotive.co.uk/product-page/pcm-4-...

We have had it for a few years and it worked very well until about two or three months ago.

It's now become very leggy and unresponsive and pretty much unusable. It also seems to be randomly causing the PCM to go blank, sometimes as often as every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes it will reboot and reconnect cleanly, other times not.

I am but stumped but I am guessing a recent Android Auto update is affecting the dongle/PCM interface.

I had this exact problem - ended up buying a new box here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B7JK3M5K?ref=ppx_yo2...

LIke you, assume an update affected the dongle. I think I had the 3.0 before, with the 4.0 now it's fine. I'm sure you can find it cheaper online etc, but with the issues with the first one I wanted something that looked more official, and it's not that dear

Thank you very much for this. I had contemplated ordering one but wasn't sure if it would work. Great to get confirmation that it does, I've now ordered one.

I had contemplated buying an old iPhone just to use in the car so that I could use Google maps and stream music etc but that would also mean buying a PAYG SIM etc.

Cheers!

[Tony B2]

Mabosh said:

What are you using to connect to Android Auto? We use one of these:

https://www.nmautomotive.co.uk/product-page/pcm-4-...

We have had it for a few years and it worked very well until about two or three months ago.

It's now become very laggy and unresponsive and pretty much unusable. It also seems to be randomly causing the PCM to go blank, sometimes as often as every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes it will reboot and reconnect cleanly, other times not.

I am but stumped but I am guessing a recent Android Auto update is affecting the dongle/PCM interface.

Edited by Mabosh on Wednesday 13th August 10:06

I am using one of these, too, so it is interesting that you have had similar problems.

I was promised a link to update the dongle firmware but that was several weeks ago, and in spite of a chaser nothing has been provided since then.

Just to clarify - I am getting the screen blanking when using the dongle, as well as in the native PCM environment.

I have not yet, but should, tried running the car with the dongle physically disconnected.

[Mabosh]

Tony B2 said:

I am using one of these, too, so it is interesting that you have had similar problems.

I was promised a link to update the dongle firmware but that was several weeks ago, and in spite of a chaser nothing has been provided since then.

Just to clarify - I am getting the screen blanking when using the dongle, as well as in the native PCM environment.

I have not yet, but should, tried running the car with the dongle physically disconnected.

I've got a bit of an update as you'll have probably seen my post above where I ordered the official Carlinkit 4 via Amazon earlier today.

It came this evening and I only had a short time to connect and test it. It's certainly a significant improvement and much more responsive than the original dongle but I'm still seeing a little lag on Google Maps at times. It's not as pronounced as before and catches up quite quickly but it's not quite perfect.

I can switch between apps much more quickly and a test call and incoming WhatsApp both came up on the PCM more or less instantly. Oddly it seemed to respond best when I was parked up. The original dongle could take a few minutes to display these.

When I bought the original dongle from NM Automotive I was fairly sure it was just an unbranded Carlinkit. I found the original packaging tonight which would seem to confirm this, in fact my original dongle is also a V4 CPC200. This may suggest that only the pre-installed firmware is different so perhaps the original one will work with an update.

You can apparently check for updates and amend settings via these instructions:

Connect your CarlinKit 4.0 to your car's USB port and then connect your phone to the CarlinKit's Wi-Fi network. Open a web browser on your phone and enter the address 192.168.50.2 to access the Carlinkit's settings. Look for an "Update" or "Check for Updates" option in the settings menu.

A quick attempt failed to connect to the Settings page but I was probably doing something wrong. It'll be the weekend before I can have a proper try. There are some suggested Settings changes to remove or minimise lag (toggle "GPS" to Off and set Frame refresh to 20).

When I tested it this evening the PCM screen didn't go blank or lock up at all. I think it's the original dongle that was causing this previously just by being plugged in.

Anyway, a slightly frustrating exercise in trial and error but still decent progress. At least the current price is half what the original cost.

Edited by Mabosh on Thursday 14th August 00:08

[diffstar]

Looking here, they seem to have a 5.0 version too.

Anyone tried that yet?

https://carlinkitmall.com/collections/wireless-car...