Pioneer USB Issue

[dmo]

I have a 2014 GMC Sierra that I recently installed a Pioneer AVH-X2700BS head unit into.

The HU will not play USB on startup, it is stuck on "Format Read". If I swap to the radio and then back to USB it will play right away. Once I have it working I can swap USB flash drives and they all play. But if I turn the truck off and turn it back on, nothing. I once again have to switch to radio and then back to USB to get anything to play.

I phoned Pioneer and they said it sounded like a faulty unit. I got a new one, installed it, same thing. I've tried multiple flash drives, different USB cables, ipod through USB, nothing that is USB will work on startup. I will note that on the first unit it worked 3 times out of about 70 and on the second unit it has worked once out of about 60 times.

Any ideas? Could I have had two faulty units or am I missing something?

[dmo]

Hooked up the unit in my house using a 12V converter just to see if the truck was the problem. The Pioneer unit will still not read USB when first given power but will if you swap to radio and back to USB.

 

Also, the "Mode" button does not work on either of my two units. I'm pretty sure I have two faulty Pioneer receivers.

[Chris]

Well mode is for when you have the optional Avic-U250 add on nav adapter. It allows the AVH to go to nav mode. So that is working as intended. As for the usb, take a multimeter to the inside of the USB on the radio. The 2 outer pins are power and 2 inner are data. Test for power. Should be 5v

[&CDFiXER%]

Does the head unit support different file systems (FAT32,NTFS,EXT3,etc)? Perhaps one will read faster/more reliably/whatever than another?

 

Do you have lots of folders or a mass of songs? Perhaps the system is getting hung up on reading the folders?

[Chris]

The USB on these Pioneer units is really geared for reading off of an iPod/iPhone. If using a flash drive i believe it needs to be Fat32 with minimal folders

[dmo]

Does the head unit support different file systems (FAT32,NTFS,EXT3,etc)? Perhaps one will read faster/more reliably/whatever than another?

It only supports FAT32 format.

 

Do you have lots of folders or a mass of songs? Perhaps the system is getting hung up on reading the folders?

 

The USB on these Pioneer units is really geared for reading off of an iPod/iPhone. If using a flash drive i believe it needs to be Fat32 with minimal folders

It doesn't matter if I have one song on the drive or one thousand songs, I get the same result. We tried an ipod (although it was a newer ipod - see comment below) didn't work.

 

I talked to a car audio place this weekend that specializes in Pioneer and they told me that they have had a lot of complaints on this very issue. I was told that so far there is no fix and the only work around is to use an old ipod.

 

Not too pleased with this unit, I'd figure reading music of USB would be a basic idea.

[&CDFiXER%]

So it works with an OLD ipod?

 

The Pioneer must be expecting to interface with the iPod OS and the 'regular' USB storage devices are an after thought. Nice design. Guess you are stuck waiting for a firmware update (does Pioneer do them?) or return the unit.

[Chris]

So it works with an OLD ipod?

 

The Pioneer must be expecting to interface with the iPod OS and the 'regular' USB storage devices are an after thought. Nice design. Guess you are stuck waiting for a firmware update (does Pioneer do them?) or return the unit.

Pioneer has updates. It is on their site. I have a 160 GB ipod classic and it works greats

[&CDFiXER%]

Sounds like update time ;)

[dmo]

Replaced my AVH-X2700BS with a AVH-X4700BS and it works! Chances are if I would have got another AVH-X2700BS it would have worked as the 2700 and 4700 run the same software but the 2700 left a sour taste in my mouth...

 

The only time it will not play USB on startup is if I have a DVD in the receiver. Weird but I'll take it.

 

So it is possible to get two brand new out of the box Pioneer receivers that don't work. Hopefully Pioneer fixes this issue in the near future.