2010 Avensis HDD audio problem - losing memory/position

[TheLeech]

Hey Toyota Owners! Its my first post here - hopefully your expertise can help me!

I have a 2010 Estate 2.2 D4D T4, I have been really pleased with it aside a few niggles. Recently I am finding that when choosing an album on the audio HDD (hard disk drive), if I turn the stereo off and on again it will have completely forgotten what it was playing and be back at the start of all albums on the drive (first artist beginning with 'A') :( Very annoying!

I also tried ripping a CD to the HDD, after ripping it would not play - it just did nothing when I selected it. Deleted the album again and re-ripped but then it would go back to the first artist in the list when selected (!?) I guess this could be a faulty hard drive? All albums play fine, it just forgets where it is when you switch the engine off!! Is there a way to reset/format the drive?

Its hard to say when this issue started, but I'm fairly sure its since it has been to the official dealer for its full service but that may be unrelated. ;)

Help and thanks in advance!  

[alan333]

Some car radios have two power feeds: one switched thru the ignition for playing, and one which is live all the time so it remembers the radio stations and which track was playing when switched off.  I'm not sure if the Avensis has this, but I'd check the fuses to be sure.  BTW sometimes the fuse is the same one as something else which works with the ignition off, loke the cig lighter for example.  Is anything else nor working?

[TheLeech]

Thanks for the idea, I don't even know where the fuses are on this car! 

Only thing with that is, it isn't just on ignition - I can be driving along and turn the stereo off, back on again and it will have forgotten where it was. Sounds like the 'live all the time' wire you speak of might have a fault or fallen out? 

[alan333]

Does it "remember" the radio stations?  Or which track a cd was last playing?  If so it probably debunks my theory.

[TheLeech]

Radio stations - yes. CD position fairly sure it does as well. Will check. That would point to a HDD error of some sort right?

[TheLeech]

Ok, so I tried again last night. It works fine now when turning the stereo on and off while driving. But it does forget when turning off the ignition, which would point to what you originally said right regarding the ignition live?

[alan333]

Start by checking the fuses

[TheLeech]

Okay, so over the weekend I managed to somehow fix this issue. Posting what I did in case it happens to someone else. It's slightly strange, here goes - 

I started by checking all fuses as per Alan's suggestion. Wow, the one under the glove box was pretty awkward to work with to say the least! No blown fuses that I could see.

Tried the ignition again and the issue still occurred. Tried ripping a CD again to the HDD. When it had finished, if you try and play the newly ripped album it doesn't work - it just goes to the first album beginning with 'A' (exactly the same symptom as when you turn the ignition on and off) 

So I thought I would try deleting the first album in the list, to see if when turning off and on again it would go to the next one in the alphabetical list. Not at all what I expected - it now remembers position on turning on and off and also a newly ripped cd worked fine too! So I can only put this down to corrupted data somehow on the first album? Say if the Battery had been disconnected while it was playing or something... who knows. Just happy it operates ok again! Pretty weird though right? 

[Konrad C]

It makes sense that corrupt data could have cause the system to keep player the first album. 

I have a different system in my Mk1 Avensis, using a Connects2 iconnect into the factory Sony head unit. One of the tracks I downloaded and converted, had a bug that causes the display to act strange and the stereo to change playback mode. This happens if that particular track is played, and stays until the memory stick has been removed and the stereo switched off. Again the solution was to deleted the affected track from the memory stick! 

It is one of those things that happens with computer based music files.