During a 450 mile round trip this weekend my MFD screen went dead. I am wondering if anyone has ever had their Screen on the car go "dead" while driving? What I mean is the radio shut off, the AC stopped, the Navigation Guidance was shut off. Basically, the screen just went black. Nothing. Couldn't turn it on while driving. I had to pull over, turn the car completely off and then cross my fingers hoping that it would start up again. It scared the hell out of me. Fortunately, everything came back on. It was like the car needed to 'reboot' or something. Which brings me to another point. How much power does the MFD really have? Can you imagine the MFD going out and then having the car 100% inoperable afterwards? That thought was most prevelent during the ramaining 100 miles on my trip home. Any insight from the expert crew in the forum?
It's working fine now. It was more like a system glitch. Just like my laptop does once in a while. I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this at one time or another. If it happens again I will be at the Dealer in a flash.
I've had a similar thing happen once. I've had my prius for a year now and its only happened once. I have an '05 with nav and all that jazz. I was leaving work, got in started up just like normal. I usually keep my MFD on the arrows screen. So I drive to the end of the parking lot up to the light signal. I glance at my MFD and for some reason it was on the "prius" logo again, like right when you start it up. I'm not sure what or why it did it, nothing else went out. No settings were cleared or anything, so I just never bothered with it. So ya its happened to me too...sorta. I'd say if yours doesnt do it again, I'd just leave it. Things happen with complicated electronics sometimes so maybe it was just a fluke.
no worries about the whole car being inoperable. i've driven ours without an mfd it's just the functions that are directed through it- a/c, music, etc.
Slair that's good info. I also didn't lose any of my settings. All my Preset Radio Stations were intact and all other settings were fine as well once I got home and was able to check them. So no problem there. It appears to be working fine now. I even had to use the GPS today to find an address and it got me there perfectly. Thanks for the input.
That's good to know. I can't believe how after 2500 miles I depend so darn much on the MFD. It's so weird considering that I'm the most independent person I know. Obviously I am more dependent than I thought.
Had a similar problem. The MFD simply went black when I changed from one of the energy screens to map. The MFD was totally nonfunctional at first, then the info and display screens began working. Hitting the map button displayed the message: "External device not connected". I pulled over and shut off/restarted the car and everything has worked fine ever since. Jeff
Same here today, first time with 08 at about 5000 miles. We were driving along on the Consumption screen, listening to CD. Suddenly the screen went blank and FM came on. At first, no buttons worked; after a minute, I could get the Energy or Consumption screens, but the Energy screen was showing only green battery, and the consumption screen numbers were frozen. However, the 5-minute timer continued to slide the bars off the screen to the left. We were able to restart the CD, and the CD screen came up on the Audio screen, which timed out as usual to the Info display The Climate button produced "Check the connection to the air conditioner" and the Map button produced "The external device is not connected". None of the steering wheel buttons worked. The touchscreen still worked. I immediately thought of rebooting it, but we were 50 miles from home and I feared it might not restart, so I waited until back in the driveway. Everything went back to normal on restart, including the fact that the Consumption screen updated the miles driven and MPG to numbers that are apparently correct.
if it was not a user error. like turning the display off... all mfd, av lan codes are logged. if your really nosey, chances are the mfd logged the issue. i posted the list of mfd codes in the knowledge base even something simple like playing a dirty or scratched cd, can cause your radio to lose its presets.
