# My radio frozen today



## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I'd go back to the dealer and report that.

This might have something to do that that: Special Coverage #14311: Negative Battery Cable. However, in absence of other glitches and having the radio totally lock up like that, I'd lean toward defective radio. Either way, it's the dealer's problem.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

While they're replacing the radio have them replace the Negative Battery Cable if your car is flagged for this service. Might as well eliminate a known possible problem.


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## trev2010 (Mar 27, 2013)

just curious what radio do you have?


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## victarro (Nov 19, 2014)

My link? I'm not sure who make the radios on the Cruze...


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## bluefirestarter (Jan 15, 2013)

My 2013 has had the MyLink freeze completely 3 times so far.. I couldn't figure out how to reboot other than letting the car sit for a few until it powers off completely. Whenever I plug my iPod touch and have my phone connected with Bluetooth it gets wonky (especially if it is pulling the songs off my iPod). I've also had the backup camera get stuck on one time as well..


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Take it from an old radio man, your Cruze is not a radio, its a computer, all digital, frequency synthesize tuning, phase locked loop all control by a microprocessor with code store in flashram. Perfect symptoms of a computer crash, can't turned it off, if you did have a mouse on it, the cursor would be frozen.

A glitch occurred, where the microprocessor tripped over its own feet, program counter got confused and could no longer read the code in a logical order. So it crashed, suggestions on a poor negative battery cable are valid, When you tightened the battery bolt was there a gap in between those two halves? 

Also this radio, er computer is always hot, so the only way to reboot it is like did, you have to remove the negative battery voltage, also has a scratch pad memory, resettable RAM that would be cleared when rebooted. 

If the terminal is good, possibility of a poor soldering connection, GM only means or repairing it is replacing it with a new one.

Yep see your dealer.


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## trev2010 (Mar 27, 2013)

I would take it in when its frozen, if its not they are going to say theirs nothing we can do..


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I think mine has rebooted about 3-4 times now. It doesn't hang or anything - just reboots. I know the game with intermittent problems, so I'm just logging it for now.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

I can walk out to my Cruze right now with my keys on top of the refrigerator and turn that radio on. Will play for about ten minutes unless I open the driver's door. Just some proof it is always hot.

Another stupid term somebody came out with, always hot, sure isn't hot when its 30 below outside. Enabled is a better word to use, always enabled. 

Ha, in my young days brainwashed with this new computer logic stuff, told a nice looking girl she enabled me, LOL wasn't a good idea. Another thing not to say is that she is hot, finally learned to say, you have nice eyes, then got someplace. Another good thing not to discuss is your work by referring to terminals as either male or female, then showing her what this means. Yeah by sticking a male terminal into a female one.


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## GRIMland (Jun 1, 2014)

Co-worker recently bought a used 2013 LT1 cruze and the MyLink radio started going out on him randomly while driving. He took it back to the dealer and they replaced the negative battery cable first but he still had the issue so he took it back a week later and they replaced the MyLink radio. He hasn't had issues since.

FYI his MyLink screen would just turn black and would not turn back on. To my knowledge the screen wasn't freezing like yours so the issue might not be the same


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## victarro (Nov 19, 2014)

Hello Guys,

Thanks for all your comments, I made an appointment with the dealer for tomorrow, I'm sure they are going to say there is no problem, that the Radio is fine...those guys always get the easy way to do not help you... let's see if I'm lucky this time.... I'll post an update about what happened tomorrow 

Thanks!!


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## hificruzer226 (Mar 27, 2013)

Mine has done this 3-4 times (2013 cruze with mylink). You have to shut the car down and open the door for it to reboot. Plus getting a phone call sometimes will freeze pandora... super annoying


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Use to be with radios, if it didn't play, hit it, this always worked. Now you will just hurt your hand.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

victarro said:


> I'm sure they are going to say there is no problem, that the Radio is fine...those guys always get the easy way to do not help you...


The real issue is not having what it takes to satisfy GM to pay for replacing something. Ask them: What would it take to convince GM there's a problem? I'm sure the dealer would be happy to do the work, but they have to play by GM's rules if they want to get paid.

You need to shift the thinking from you versus dealer to you & dealer versus GM. The dealer should be experienced at this game, but they need your help.


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## victarro (Nov 19, 2014)

Hello Guys,

The Dealer called me on Friday and told me they can't see my car until next Wednesday because Saturday is their busiest day and they cannot check that kind of problems on Saturdays??? ridiculous eh? I told them that I work all the week and have no time to go there in a week day, so they offer me to borrow me a car until my car is ready (a lot of conditions apply here) and I have to drop the car at 7:30 am.., so I'm thinking to call another dealer close to my job to avoid losing time (this one is very far from my job) and money...let's see what the other says... the history continue, but the good thing is that the radio is not giving problems until now...everything works fine..so I don't know what caused the problem before....


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

victarro said:


> Hello Guys,
> 
> The Dealer called me on Friday and told me they can't see my car until next Wednesday because Saturday is their busiest day and they cannot check that kind of problems on Saturdays??? ridiculous eh? I told them that I work all the week and have no time to go there in a week day, so they offer me to borrow me a car until my car is ready (a lot of conditions apply here) and I have to drop the car at 7:30 am.., so I'm thinking to call another dealer close to my job to avoid losing time (this one is very far from my job) and money...let's see what the other says... the history continue, but the good thing is that the radio is not giving problems until now...everything works fine..so I don't know what caused the problem before....


Hey there,

Did you decide on whether or not you'd be going to the dealership closer to your job for an inspection? I understand your Cruze is no longer experiencing radio issues. Because this matter is intermittent it may pose additional challenges for the dealer to determine what caused this to happen. Nevertheless, please keep us posted on your decision. We're happy to do what we can to assist as well.

Amber N.
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## Cruzin' 6th Gear (Mar 12, 2014)

Just wanted to throw this out there that your issue is not exclusive to the cruze. My wife has a 2014 equinox with mylink and this issue showed up two weeks ago. After scrolling through a few equinox forums they've been experiencing this for years but nobody has an answer as to why.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Cruzin' 6th Gear said:


> Just wanted to throw this out there that your issue is not exclusive to the cruze. My wife has a 2014 equinox with mylink and this issue showed up two weeks ago. After scrolling through a few equinox forums they've been experiencing this for years but nobody has an answer as to why.


I know why, its a computer with code stored in flashdrive that started in 1996 with OBD II augmented by the fact of using commercial grade microcontrollers in a military environment where leakage currents double with every 10*C increase in temperature.

In flashramm just a few electrons are trapped in and FET gate that is of sub picofarad capacitance that discriminates between a logical 0 or 1. One bit off will affect an instruction byte, microcontroller won't recognize it and will crash freezing the screen if not the microcontroller itself.

Key reason why a chose a white color and a light tan interior for my Cruze, in the hot sun, the interior is much cooler.

Wasn't near the problem with OBD I when PROM's were used for code, burnt in solid, then the internet came along, let's update this way the idiots demanded. Don't see where they are saving money, takes a mechanic forever to enter the VIN and to find the correct firmware, then download to a notebook then reload it into the vehicle. If this is the problem!

Engineers do not like this, like reliability, but don't blame them, blame marketing trying to please the stockholders. Should do a cost analysis on this along with customer satisfaction. This crap has been going on for 20 years now.

Not so bad when your radio freezes up, can be quite nasty if your ECU freezes up.


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## Cruzin' 6th Gear (Mar 12, 2014)

You went over my head with that one. In laymen's terms it's heat related? But is the problem in the tablet itself or is there a separate controller causing the issue?


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Cruze radio has its own microprocessor, actually a microcontroller that is a single chip with the processor and all of the required peripheral circuits built in. Has its own flash ram and own code that can be refreshed, can't do this at home like any other cheap digital piece of equipment. 

But the same crap is used in automotive what you will find in your home equipment. Except your home is normally at 70*F not at -40*C to even 125*C in the automotive environment. So temperature can be a problem.

In the integrated circuit market, we have what is called yield rates hundred of chips are printed at the same time, but the question remains as to how well they are tested before used. Typically at least 10% hit the trashcan, but can get marginal ones as well. Same chip is used in military applications, but undergoes a lot more testing, rejects for military applications fall into the so-called consumer or commercial class. Guess where you are. You can get a marginal component or one that meets full military specifications, call this luck.

MTBF is a common engineering practice that in my mind is a big joke, mean time between failures, based on guessed parameters where the cost of paying extra for good tested parts is opposed to warranty repair costs. Typically the warranty repair costs wins out for more profits. So are you filling lucky? But based now on 36 months, after this you are screwed.

But if it does last 36 months, normally you should be okay. 

Another huge joke is self diagnoses in automotive, as opposed to military, worked in both, secondary or tertiary references are used, won't find any of this in consumer grade automotive. So a component can be way out of tolerance and still not generate a code. And if the CEL comes on pointing to a particular component, that component may be just the victim of another component failure.

This is why your dealers are dead lost. We use to provide technical specifications for each component, but the attorneys stepped in to greatly eliminate this or at least restrict this all important information. Claim this increases the companies liability. 

For about the first 70 years of automotive manufacture, and ignition system consisted of the ignition switch to the high side of a coil, ballast were added later, to the ignition points to ground. Very simple that anyone could deal with. Today the same thing is done with millions of transistors depending on code stored in rather very temporary flashram. Namely to reach EPA requirements.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Cruzin' 6th Gear said:


> You went over my head with that one.


I wouldn't worry about it. What he describes is the corruption of flash memory, not regular memory. How many USB thumb drives have become corrupted while sitting in the car?

No, I think the most likely cause: It's a computer. All computers can crash if the programming is at all buggy. My feeling is that the MyLink wasn't that well tested for reliability. I've seen issues with mine that suggest it's not always waiting long enough for various modules to "report in" when booting.

I'm not sure about the crashing, but it could be it's not well protected from power issues, or it gets confused by something on the car's bus.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Voltage spikes can be the problem and the main culprit is the alternator. When you switch off a load, the field collapses and induces a high voltage in the stator they gets through the entire vehicles electrical/electronic systems. 

The only prevention of these voltage spikes is the battery, therefore it must be in good shape as its filtering capacitance is dependent on its capacity in AH.

Also the terminals must be clean as well as the terminals, and tight. Notice on my brand new Cruze, terminals were bone dry, need a dielectric type grease to retard corrosion. And even though the negative battery cable bolt was tight, I could still rock this terminal side by side. So I removed it, spread the tabs inside the where the bolt goes through and hand filed it, so there is now a 3/32" gap with a tight bolt. Now has been tight ever since then. I check these frequently for corrosion.

Ha, only took GM three years that this could be a problem. So simple, so obvious, but the average person is not aware of the voltage transient that this can cause, let alone, their engine won't crank.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

This comment should be posted in the political section because this is what this is all about.

EPA says firmware should only be downloaded by a "professional" for automotive applications due to emission requirements.

But we are not talking about emissions, we are talking about a radio. And just about any other entertainment device we buy that is also digital, we are free to download the firmware for this device. Either an update, or just to refresh it.

This firmware is also exclusive to a particular device, meaning its worthless for any other device.

So why can't we update or refresh our firmware for our radio in our vehicles? This radio is a worthless piece of way overpriced junk without working firmware. Heck with even my cheap 50 buck DVD player when I switch that on, get a message that a firmware update is available, would you like to update it?


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