black screen death got me

Still love this vehicle but the black screen of death got me yesterday. Tried the trouble shooting but that did not work.

To the dealer we go.

Happened to me too after it wouldn't connect to BT stereo. Then it restarted and the screen said it was doing scheduled self-maintenance or something to that effect. Worked fine after.

Pull the battery cable for the reset. How many miles do you have the x, curious, in all the other threads, I'm seeing a pattern for the maint. Reboot.

Update

To answer your question I have 1100 miles on the vehicle. I was working with syncmyride.com last night and tried both pulling the fuse and disconnecting the cable. Both did not work. I was able to download the new update to a flash drive but due to the black screen I couldn't download to the car.

Eaglelake2007 said:

To answer your question I have 1100 miles on the vehicle. I was working with syncmyride.com last night and tried both pulling the fuse and disconnecting the cable. Both did not work. I was able to download the new update to a flash drive but due to the black screen I couldn't download to the car.

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Hi, Eaglelake!

I agree with the person you spoke to on SYNCMyRide.com. Let me know how it goes and if you need any help afterwards!

Rebecca

Dealer is replacing computer mod. Dash was taken apart so they gave us rental. The rental counter stated we were the seventh one this week. Hope this resolves the problem.

Fixed

The dealer replaced the APIM. Not sure what that is but everything works Now. The notes show the tried to reboot at least twice but that failed so replacement was necessary.

Eaglelake2007 said:

The dealer replaced the APIM. Not sure what that is but everything works Now. The notes show the tried to reboot at least twice but that failed so replacement was necessary.

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That's good to hear, Eaglelake! I'm glad they were able to fix everything for you

Rebecca

CDN_Explorer said:

Happened to me too after it wouldn't connect to BT stereo. Then it restarted and the screen said it was doing scheduled self-maintenance or something to that effect. Worked fine after.

Click to expand...

This exact same thing just happened to my wife this morning as she was leaving the house to meet friend. She said when she started the vehicle, the MFT started up like normal (white screen), and then went blank. Then it had a "boot screen." After about 3 minutes, she said everything started working again.

Ours is a 2012 XLT, with just over 500 miles!

RocketNerd said:

This exact same thing just happened to my wife this morning as she was leaving the house to meet friend. She said when she started the vehicle, the MFT started up like normal (white screen), and then went blank. Then it had a "boot screen." After about 3 minutes, she said everything started working again.

Ours is a 2012 XLT, with just over 500 miles!

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Hi, RocketNerd!

The system maintenance screen occurs when the SYNC module determines the current amount of "data usage" is degrading its performance, and a reboot will re-optimize the system.

Some people may experience the reboot every day, whereas, others may never see it. It also depends on several factors, such as:

• If you have the Navigation option and how much you use it.
• How many devices you plug in on a daily basis (i.e. iPod, MP3 player, cell phone, etc.).
• Which version of software you have on your MFT.
• Which cell phone/carrier you have and how many applications you have running in the background.

I hope that helps!

Rebecca

Rebecca,

I don't mean to be impolite. (I is nice to have someone from Ford that is trying to get us information and help) However, what you said is worrisome. It sounds like you are saying that the reboot is a "normal" thing. I would presume that it will reboot when either it crashes or, if there is some kind of monitor, when it determine that the system is not longer responsive. If this rebooting is a normal, expected way for the system to react, that is going to be a problem for me. I expect to use all features of the system on a daily basis and assume that should not be a problem.

Also, I read elsewhere that an owner was told by a dealer that the new version will be mailed out on a USB drive to owners in January. Can you confirm that?

FordIVTteam said:

Hi, RocketNerd!

The system maintenance screen occurs when the SYNC module determines the current amount of "data usage" is degrading its performance, and a reboot will re-optimize the system.

Some people may experience the reboot every day, whereas, others may never see it. It also depends on several factors, such as:

• If you have the Navigation option and how much you use it.
• How many devices you plug in on a daily basis (i.e. iPod, MP3 player, cell phone, etc.).
• Which version of software you have on your MFT.
• Which cell phone/carrier you have and how many applications you have running in the background.


I hope that helps!

Rebecca

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I would like more information about each of these bullets, such as why should factory NAV cause a degrading of performance?

Which cell phones and carriers are problematic for the system?

RocketNerd said:

This exact same thing just happened to my wife this morning as she was leaving the house to meet friend. She said when she started the vehicle, the MFT started up like normal (white screen), and then went blank. Then it had a "boot screen." After about 3 minutes, she said everything started working again.

Ours is a 2012 XLT, with just over 500 miles!

Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me. First time was the day after I took delivery. The night before I was hammering the system trying to learn all the features of MFT.

About two weeks later it happened again. Although it's a slight inconvenience I think it's better that the system reboots when its bogged down or out of free memory then to continue on only to freeze up which would then require a battery/fuse pull.

Hopefully the rumored fix for this winter/spring will clear up the memory leaks and vastly increase performance.

Steve Jobs (RIP) was right. Flash ruins any OS its attached to. Hopefully the updated MFT will move away from flash!!! It's a product of the devil. FAIL :thumbdwn:

tpchristian said:

Rebecca,

I don't mean to be impolite. (I is nice to have someone from Ford that is trying to get us information and help) However, what you said is worrisome. It sounds like you are saying that the reboot is a "normal" thing. I would presume that it will reboot when either it crashes or, if there is some kind of monitor, when it determine that the system is not longer responsive. If this rebooting is a normal, expected way for the system to react, that is going to be a problem for me. I expect to use all features of the system on a daily basis and assume that should not be a problem.

Click to expand...

tpchristian, you aren't being impolite. No worries!

As with many electronic devices, rebooting every so often will make sure it's running as efficiently as possible. The 2.11 software update has implemented an automatic recovery if it experiences a blank or black screen, which in turn improves system performance and stability.

vfral1 said:

I would like more information about each of these bullets, such as why should factory NAV cause a degrading of performance?

Which cell phones and carriers are problematic for the system?

Click to expand...

Vfral1, I'm not saying that NAV will constantly cause MFT to reboot or degrade performance. I'm stating that if you have multiple devices plugged in, along with NAV running, applications you have running in the background of your phone while connected to MFT via USB or Bluetooth, it could take up more resources and in turn cause your MFT to reboot.

As far as a list of phones and carriers that have been tested and known to work with MFT, please visit the following link:

http://www.nsapp.fordtechservice.dealerconnection.com/sync/usEN/sync_us_EN_iop_2_00.pdf

Like I said before, some may experience a reboot once a week and others may never experience it. It's all in how much you use the system and what you use it for.

Rebecca

New to forum. Have done some research and still need help. My son has a 2017 Ford Explorer. The screen is black and wont come on. Radio doesn't work as well. I have pulled and replaced fuse. Still nothing. Any other advice? I would rather not take this to a dealership to fix. Thanks for any help.

Welcome to the Forum.
It could be the APIM (Accessory Protocol Interface Module) that is bad and needs to be replaced. One thing you can try is to disconnect the negative battery cable for a few minutes before reconnecting. BE advised that this will likely result in the loss of some saved memory settings.
FYI, your thread was merged with this one found using the 'Search' feature. There are also more threads on this issue.
Good luck and please report back.

Peter