It starts, stays on for a few seconds — sometimes a few minutes — and reboots. And then it does it all again. Everyone describes it their own way: «it keeps turning itself off and on», «it restarts all by itself», «it starts and then freezes». This page explains where the fault really comes from, why a reset does not fix it and how you get out of it without replacing the unit.
Inside the unit there is a memory — it is called eMMC — where the operating system, the maps and the databases live. That memory works non-stop: every journey writes logs, positions, stations, phone books. After years of writing, the sectors wear out, and at some point the system reads corrupted data on start-up, locks and starts again from the beginning. It is what the trade calls a boot loop: the radio switching off and back on without end.
On the MIB2 units — Discover Media, Discover Pro, Composition Media and their Škoda, SEAT and Audi twins — it is by far the most frequent cause we see on the bench. The second is corrupted software, for instance after an interrupted update: it can be told from the first only by testing the unit on the bench, not by eye.
One point matters above all: this is not a whim that passes. It is wear, and like all wear it gets worse — the reboots come closer and closer together, until one day the unit no longer completes a single start.
Many write to us about a detail that surprises them: the screen is black, or the unit is busy rebooting, but with reverse engaged the reversing-camera image appears, perfect. It looks like a contradiction. It is a signature.
The camera feed does not wait for the system to finish starting: for safety reasons it travels down a priority channel, which comes up first. If the reversing image shows, it means the display, the panel and the video chain are working: the blockage sits further upstream, in the system's start-up — which is to say, back in the memory.
For us it is a good sign: the unit is alive and the repair starts a step ahead. If not even the reversing image appears, it does not mean the opposite — it only means the bench diagnosis is needed to see where it stops.
The procedure everyone searches for is this: hold the unit's power button down for ten seconds or so, until the screen goes off and comes back on. If the problem was a one-off software lock-up, it ends there and never returns.
If instead it comes back — after an hour or after a week — the cause is physical, and every start-up passes through the same worn sectors: the forced restart silences the symptom for a moment, it does not repair the memory.
One precaution worth more than any other: when the rebooting keeps coming back, loading a firmware update is not the remedy. An update writes a great deal, precisely to the component that is giving way: it can turn a unit that reboots into a unit that no longer switches on at all.
At the main dealer the answer is replacement: a new unit plus coding, and depending on the model you can be looking at quotes above €2,000. The second-hand unit found online looks like the shortcut, but it has two problems: it has to be coded to the car, and above all it carries a memory the same age as yours — often you are buying the same fault, just a little further down the road.
The third route is repairing your own unit: the memory is replaced with one of a higher grade and the firmware is rebuilt. The coding stays with the unit, which comes back with its own VIN: refit it and it works, with no trip to a workshop.
In practice: you send us the model and the symptom, and we tell you straight away what to expect. The diagnosis is free, the quote comes before any work — for your brand and your model, not a flat one-size-fits-all rate — and the repair is covered for 12 months.
You can keep driving: engine, brakes and driver assistance have nothing to do with the radio unit. But along with the infotainment go the sat nav, the hands-free, the voice controls and often the parking-sensor tones — and the fault, as we said, does not get better on its own.
Warranty: if the car is under two years old, or has an active extended warranty, the first stop is the main dealer — at no cost. Most of the enquiries we receive, though, come from 2015–2020 cars, long out of cover: that is where the gap between replacing and repairing is felt in full.
The unit underneath is the same family: what changes is the name on the fascia.
The most frequent case on our bench: reboots every few minutes, worse in the heat. Almost always it is the memory.
The message that stays frozen on screen while the unit tries again: it is the same fault, seen from a different screen.
Same platform, same story: black screens, reboots in quick succession, sometimes just the logo coming and going.
Columbus and Amundsen are the same units under another name: the symptom even turns up in consumer associations' complaints.
The system switches off and restarts on its own, on the move or at start-up: here too the diagnostic route is the same.
Reboots and black screens on the same platforms: repaired the same way, keeping the coding.
If the cause is the worn memory, no — and it can end worse: an update writes a great deal, precisely to the component that is giving way. When the rebooting keeps coming back, first the memory is checked on the bench, then we talk about firmware.
It has to be coded to the car, and above all it carries a memory the same age as yours: often you are buying the same fault, just a little further down the road. The repair replaces the memory with one of a higher grade instead.
The diagnosis is free and in most cases the unit is on its way back within 24-48 working hours of the quote being accepted, bench-tested before it leaves.
No: the unit stays yours, with its own VIN and its own coding. You refit it and it works, with no trip to a workshop.
Describe the symptom and the model: we reply with the preliminary diagnosis and the shipping instructions. Free and with no obligation.
