Hi all
I recently purchased a 2002 Westminster. The SatNav computer was missing from the boot and the PO informed me his garage had blown it by disconnecting the battery before it had powered down so all he had was a blank white screen. He'd just not bothered replacing it, apparently, but a new computer and I'd be away.
I order a second hand replacement and fitted it but was gutted to still have the blank 'White Sreen of Death'. That said, it is and always had been my luck that i'd get a replacement part that turned out to be faulty and it's happened before so off it went for a re-fund.
I ordered another one which was apparently in good working order. I even rang the guy to check he'd physically had eyes on it functioning and it had been disconnected correctly. He assured me that it had.
He also said he'd found some other black box thing in the boot and had no idea what it was or did but since I was having the computer, I may as well have the black box too.
Second replacement arrived, connected and powered up. The usual two white flickers and then instead of going to the home screen... white screen of death again. Although this time it did at least periodically flicker some black lines horizontally.
At this point it occurred the issue couldn't be another duff computer. Even I'm not that unlucky! This was reinforced by the fact that out of sheer frustration I discovered I could power down and power up the monitor by blindly selecting 'monitor off'. So it must have been working.
I had no idea what this other item was that was shipped but it turned out to be a small black box much like an amp and was clearly integrated into the sat nav loom. I didn't even know the P38 sat nav system had such a box but hey, what's there to loose so I started ripping apart the boot until I found one on mine. It's bolted to the back of the trim in which the sat nave is housed but tucked tightly down the back so you wouldn't see it if you weren't looking for it.
Apparently, according to the one fitted to mine, it's something to do with traffic master... again, never knew that was even a feature.
So pulled it out, swapped in the new one and hey presto. Powered up, two white flickers and then a fresh, bright green home page with all the options. Picked up satellites, quickly gave my position and that, as they say was that. I even have a 2015 road map from http://satnavdisc.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=311 so pretty pleased all round.
Just thought I'd share that as the dreaded white screen affects a lot of us and common theory is just change the boot disc drive. However, if this hasn't worked for you, there is a second computer interface that sits between the cd rom and the front screen through which the output is fed. It could well be this that's failed as it was on mine.
I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does but I do know I changed it and now the system works. I don't even know where you'd find one. In all the searches I've ever made for p38 Sat Nav I've never once seen this before.
I expect nobody does this any more but also, if you wanted to retro fit a factory sat nav, you might need this interface? But again, I've never seen it included in any of the kits.
If anyone could tell me what its and what it does, I'd be fascinated to know! It has a sim card too, apparently...
I recently purchased a 2002 Westminster. The SatNav computer was missing from the boot and the PO informed me his garage had blown it by disconnecting the battery before it had powered down so all he had was a blank white screen. He'd just not bothered replacing it, apparently, but a new computer and I'd be away.
I order a second hand replacement and fitted it but was gutted to still have the blank 'White Sreen of Death'. That said, it is and always had been my luck that i'd get a replacement part that turned out to be faulty and it's happened before so off it went for a re-fund.
I ordered another one which was apparently in good working order. I even rang the guy to check he'd physically had eyes on it functioning and it had been disconnected correctly. He assured me that it had.
He also said he'd found some other black box thing in the boot and had no idea what it was or did but since I was having the computer, I may as well have the black box too.
Second replacement arrived, connected and powered up. The usual two white flickers and then instead of going to the home screen... white screen of death again. Although this time it did at least periodically flicker some black lines horizontally.
At this point it occurred the issue couldn't be another duff computer. Even I'm not that unlucky! This was reinforced by the fact that out of sheer frustration I discovered I could power down and power up the monitor by blindly selecting 'monitor off'. So it must have been working.
I had no idea what this other item was that was shipped but it turned out to be a small black box much like an amp and was clearly integrated into the sat nav loom. I didn't even know the P38 sat nav system had such a box but hey, what's there to loose so I started ripping apart the boot until I found one on mine. It's bolted to the back of the trim in which the sat nave is housed but tucked tightly down the back so you wouldn't see it if you weren't looking for it.
Apparently, according to the one fitted to mine, it's something to do with traffic master... again, never knew that was even a feature.
So pulled it out, swapped in the new one and hey presto. Powered up, two white flickers and then a fresh, bright green home page with all the options. Picked up satellites, quickly gave my position and that, as they say was that. I even have a 2015 road map from http://satnavdisc.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=311 so pretty pleased all round.
Just thought I'd share that as the dreaded white screen affects a lot of us and common theory is just change the boot disc drive. However, if this hasn't worked for you, there is a second computer interface that sits between the cd rom and the front screen through which the output is fed. It could well be this that's failed as it was on mine.
I don't know what it is, I don't know what it does but I do know I changed it and now the system works. I don't even know where you'd find one. In all the searches I've ever made for p38 Sat Nav I've never once seen this before.
I expect nobody does this any more but also, if you wanted to retro fit a factory sat nav, you might need this interface? But again, I've never seen it included in any of the kits.
If anyone could tell me what its and what it does, I'd be fascinated to know! It has a sim card too, apparently...
