Guide to Replacing the NG4 Navidrive 3D Hard Drive with a CF Card

[GiveMeABreak]

Remember, if attempting this, you'll need a copy of the latest and last firmware to reinstall the operating system on after the CF Card replacement. Let me know if you need this.

[Sp268]

Good morning, I do require that please. I have ordered everything required except the CF card, struggling to find a UDMA 6 one that is suitable and still on sale. Many thanks, Shane

[stefan21]

@GiveMeABreak

I recently bought a second Citroen C6 with a RT5. Therefore I need to backup the navi and a second CF-Card. You stated:
"
When selecting a Compact Flash card, I recommend that you ensure it is UDMA 6 as some people have had issues with UDMA 7 cards not writing data properly when trying to copy the image back or later during system operation. This may be down to the firmware on your card reader though - so I would stick with a UDMA 6 and 600x speed at least. Considering that the original drive supported was ATA 6 (100 MB/s) this will do fine as UDMA 6 supports up to 133 MB/s. I used a UDMA 6 CF 600x Card with min 90MB/second sequential read and Min 60MB/second sequential write. Link here:
CF Card Link
"

I'm located in Germany and it seems to be very difficult to find a CF-Card with these specs in our days.

By any chance, does someone have a tip or a hint where I can purchase one? Even a used one?
Or - is there a compatible one? I tried a Silicon Power CF, 64GB, UDMA 6, R 90 MB/s, 600x. This didn't work because of built-in wear-leveling and ecc (Error Correcting Code) I assume.
Anybody with a working different card?
Or another working solution?

Thank's for any reply,
stefan

[GiveMeABreak]

This guide is intended for the NG4 (Double DIN unit), so I can't advise on trying this with an RT5, but I suggest you have a look on Amazon as there are quite a few there - and if they are not compatible, you can always return them free (just keep the packing as original as you can.

[giggle_crunch]

Hi,
I want to make sure that hard drive is really the problem in my C5 before replacing it.
So my NG4 keeps rebooting every 3-5 minutes and gives no audio output. It mutes itself on boot and unmute does not seem to be doing anything. Volume setting gets stuck between 6-8 and still no output.

Once the car warms up really nice, I get all the functions back (with casual rebooting once an hour or so).

I am planning to do a visual inspection of the device today and wonder if anyone here cured similar symptoms to mine with hard drive replacement.
Also, in such case, I would need the latest firmware version. How can I get it?

[GiveMeABreak]

There can be several reasons - which one we can't help with, but certainly, the NG4 has an automotive grade HDD, but even so, it will at some point start playing up which could result in navigation route calculation slowing down or boot issues, but also a chip on the motherboard may be at fault.

I had no issues with my HDD, but replaced it with a CF card (Not an SSD - as these are not recommended) just to preserve the HDD. I had occasional reboots, but that was acceptable - but never replaced the original HDD to see if that resolved the issue - and sold mine a few years ago, and just gave the new owner the original HDD as I had no use for it (thinking about it now I could of made a fortune ! Given the lack of replacements available), but there you go, he was happy.

[giggle_crunch]

Update on my NG4 rebooting every 3 minutes.
I decided to start with simple things. I made a backup of my Toshiba and thought I would give it a try and update the software.

So today, I drove around for an hour or so , so that the car warmed up and the radio started to work properly and I could successfully update software to the latest version.

But it didn't help much...
Well, it helped a bit - reboots still happen every 3 minutes when the car is cold and there's no audio output (parking assistant produces sound however). BUT at least now user data persists: like language, time, display colour, etc (will still check it tomorrow).

Anyway, as I had the radio unit in my hands, I disassembled it and checked the components on the boards and didn't notice anything burnt, exploded, missing or suspicious.
So I guess I am back to where I started. Looking for at least something to begin troubleshooting with.

The problem again: as car is cold, multimedia keeps rebooting itself every 3 minutes. During those 3 minutes, there's no audio output on the speakers and volume adjustment kind of gets stuck at 5 or 8 or just mute. When the car gets warm, everything is working just fine. But again, only for 30 minutes. Then reboots come in 30 minute loops.
So I wonder, why 30 minutes (or 3 when the car is cold)?
Also, as I park and lock the car, radio may turn on even though the car is locked from the outside already and should be sleeping. So I now spend some extra time nearby after locking it just to make sure I don't have a dead battery tomorrow morning...

PS: strange that parking sensors produce sound during those 3 minutes before rebooting, whereas radio, USB don't. I am starting to look suspicious in the direction of amplifier, but still not sure...

[giggle_crunch]

Moving on with my 3 minute uptime problem
Noticed an interesting thing today during those 3 minutes, while the system is up and running but no sound output from radio, USB or disc.

So here's the thing: not all user data survided the rebooting, in particular all sound settings are reset to defaults (fader, bass, loudnes, etc.).
Moreover, it's not possible to set any sound settings during those 3 minutes, e.g. "Mute rear speakers" or "Loudness" (which must be controlled by the amp). What's happening: trying to tick the setting "Mute rear speakers" and the tick does not persist (appears on the screen for a second and then gone). Same when trying to set "Loudness". On the other side, "Speed dependent volume" can be set or unset with no issues.
Soo, I am wondering if there's a way to bypass the amp without much hustle.

[GiveMeABreak]

The issue may be with a flash chip on the motherboard. There is a way with specialist equipment to 're-animate' these by reloading the software onto the chip, but I personally don't know of nobody who has the equipment to do this on the Harman Becker units, sorry.

A possible link (but you may have to temporarily deactivate any adblocker used on your browser if it does not display):

[giggle_crunch]

What exactly is that flash chip responsible for?

[GiveMeABreak]

I can't tell you exactly, but it likely contains some part of the operating system / system programming which can become corrupt and the only way to fix it is to repair it by re-flashing it with a special tool. IIRC there is a specific folder on the firmware that details this:

HowToReanimateYourNG4.zip

(262.08 KiB) Downloaded 42 times

[Kees]

Today I try to copy the HDD to a CF CARD.
By copy to a image file i get 2 errors.
I wonder if the system still works when I copy this image to the CF CARD.

[djenson]

Hi there,

I recently acquired a 308CC with an NG4 head unit

The head unit currently does not boot, the pop up screen just shows the peugeot logo and after about 30 seconds, it goes blank and repeats

I intend to try and replace the internal HDD and try the firmware upgrade,

is there any chance i could get the latest firmware?

Many thanks

[Kees]

I did last time make a image file on the PC.
Then i bought a hdd from a laptop 40 Gb Toshiba MK 4032GAX.
This drive has the same connector and mounting holes as the original one.
So i put back the image file and the unit startsup, correct, but you have also must upload the navigation cards again.