Carminat Live - What is Wrong Here?!

[Joste]

Hi all,

Friend's Renault Espace 2012 has this problem with its TT Live since he bought her two years ago.
He does long international routes pretty often, so he'd appreciate very much if the Navi would work properly. But it never had.

When he got the car, it was showing something like " SD card cannot be found" (he uses German language settings), and the card which looks like original to me (attached), was in its slot. I tried to reset the Navi through its Menu (it was still accessible, temperature and time were correctly displayed) but nothing really improved. Then I updated the card through TomTom Home, there was a huge update, all went well, updated the unit including an upgrade from one Application version (I guess?) to a higher. I do not even remember versions, was 16 months ago. Then we got to the bootloop shown in the attached pics, as per the sequence of appearence.

Here is some info which I managed to take out of the config file from the old card, for which I hope will be useful for you to know, so you could advise on the next steps.
DeviceName=TomTom Carminat LIVE
DeviceVersionHW=beaumont
DeviceSerialNumber=IB2201JXXXXX
SDCardId=0941504146205344021383641D0XXXXX
DeviceUniqueID=AK6ZJ AJXXX
RamDiskVersion=20130627
BootLoaderVersion=839378
LinuxVersion=1099817
ApplicationVersionVersionNumber=9847
ApplicationVersion=1302316.550
UserLanguage=Deutsch
UserName=
LastConnectionTime=2013/12/13,08:37:10,UTC
LastConnectionPhone=
GPSFirmwareVersion=


Few weeks later, he bought an original SD card from Renault in France (attached photos - the blister), we upgraded and again some Application version upgrade, so now we have even shorter loop of the "Renault TomTom" logo, the sand timer and the black screen.




Pretty frustrating, as we're in the end not even sure if the model is really "live" (we were told so by Renault at the new SD card purchase), not having a clue what is going on and why we're in permanent regression with the results.
My friend lives 50 km away, so the inconvenience is that I rarely have access to the car and we lost pretty much time crawling in the dark.

Coud anyone enlighten our way, please?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Willy875]

When your friend bought the car, did the GPS work?

When a Carminat displays "map not found," it means the map was suddenly removed or the update didn't go well.

Normally, if you bought a new SD card from a Renault garage, it should work.

 

[Joste]

Bonjour Willy875,

No, GPS navigation did not work. But display was working, menu and clock, temperature, radio station frequency... all that was working well until he updated the system using the original card which was previously updated using TomTom Home.


If the SD card was not from that car, would it cause such problems? E g. the unit is not Live and the system was updated with such card?

Thanks.

 

[Joste]

OK, to simplify the question:
Could it be that I need much lower App version to allow the unit to boot, as it used to?
Does anyone know what was the factory version and if it would match with current BootLoaderVersion=839378?
Thanks

 

[Willy875]

The latest software version for your Carminat Live is 9.884, so if you connect to TomTom Home, you must have this version and no other.

Logically, if your Carminat is working fine, the SD card purchased from Renault should work.

Have you asked a garage to test your car?

Or the other solution, if you don't have a full backup, is to ask the previous owner if they kept a backup.

 

[Joste]

Yes, 9844, it updates and the same bootloop.

I agree, it is expected to work but it doesn't.

The car was bought 3 years ago from a dealer in such state, so going back and asking would not make much sense.
Asking Renault to "take a look" would easily go over the price of an used unit on ebay...


I think we jumped over some important updates, maybe downgrading would help? I'd like to try, but have no files.

Can anyone advise?
Otherwise, purchase of another unit would be an option, but I see no guaranties it would work... I don't know these units that good, but if it boots and can't finalize it, then the HW must be fine, I just need proper SW to fix it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Willy875]

The latest version is 9.884. I don't understand why Home is offering you version 9844.

If you're saying that if you insert the SD card into the Home computer, it recognizes it, I don't see the problem.

I agree, the other solution is to buy a used Carminat.

 

[Joste]

OK, I took another computer, installed latest "Home" from the website and updated the SD card.
I again have 9847. I wish I know what is going on.

 

[Joste]

Hi Willy875,

Yes, the card is recognized and here is what it looks like after it has been updated without any errors using TT Home:

Do you see any anomaly? Is this a normal content for this card and device, please?
Thanks.

 

[Willy875]

There are three files in red that shouldn't be there. Besides, I don't know what these files are.

There's one file in yellow that's out of place.

As you've seen, you have maps installed that aren't causing any problems.

What I recommend is that you make a full backup, including the hidden files on your SD card, on your computer, then delete these files and try again.

 

[Joste]

Thanx Willy875,

OK, the autoplay.exe does nothing visible on the PC, inside the file (seen through Notepad++ editor) it says "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."
cable_compatibility_db.s3db is actually database with info on charging cables for electric cars, I have no clue where and how did it end up on the card.
mctx.dat is a very small file, no clue what it is for.

splashw.bmp is actually the image of the Carminat's screen with the sand clock, as you probably already know.
Where is it's correct location?

Hidden files? I see none on the card (the view is enabled). Can this be the cause of the issue?

So, I did as you proposed, now TT Home shows the following:

After I accepted to update the SD Card, here's the epilogue:

 

[Willy875]

I found an old backup, the files you should find.

It's normal that the 2 GB Western Digital drive won't install; you don't have a subscription.

 

[Joste]

Thanks for the input.
I see now that I miss a few items
I guess the SD card which came with the car was (is still) missing a few items, hoping they are not critical.
It is a mistery why the new Renault card does not manage to bring the unit back to life. It does not even contain VIN (VF) number from the car, lime the old one does.

The friend took off the unit to check device's serial with the info on the old SD Card. They match, as well as VF.

We'll try the updated card once more tonight

 

[Joste]

Stil the same story: the display offers the upgrade, looks all good till the restart, and again the same bootloop.

 

[Willy875]

Maybe you're not patient enough?

It's normal to see the hourglass appear.

Once the SD card is updated and inserted into the Carminat, this sequence takes approximately 5 minutes.

 

[Joste]

Thanks for sharing, my friend says after the update process went through as pictured above, the unit was interchanging screens 1 and 2 from your screenshots. And so on for 15 min while he was driving after the update (there the car was standing still).