2023 Equinox Infotainment Center Rebooting Problems

[RadioHead]

My wife bought a brand new 2023 Equinox LT (May 2023) with 8 inch display, no Bose or Navigation system and almost immediately the first day the radio stopped and the system rebooted. We thought it as a quirk until it started happening far more frequently. Most times it would have a loud buzzing sound while frozen then screen would go blank and reboot. My wife kept a lengthy log of the occurrences, hundreds of times.

We took it to our local GM dealer twice. They claim an after market Karr Alarm/recovery system installed by the dealer (We had no say, all their cars on the lot got this) needs to be removed. It was probably interfering with the infotainment system. I did some research and most people complained about this system. We went back to our Chevy dealer of purchase and made them remove it and refund the cost of the original system install from the sticker price. Note each time we took the car in, the system was cleared and S/W reinstalled with the latest version.

It still cut out and rebooted. Now it would do this sometimes four times in a couple miles. We took it in again to our local GM dealer and they said it's a known issue with no current fix. So they turned us away. Then I joined this forum for answers.

My wife opened a case with GM and they looked into it and refused us a replacement car. They were very nice and helpful and always easy to reach out to and get a quick response from our agent. They also followed up well. We decided to start the Lemon Law process and then the our local GM dealer suggested to bring it back in when his Expert Electrical technician was in. We did.

They tech had the car a couple days and said he's ordering us a new radio. I read online most times that did nothing. However, after the install of a "refurbished" radio we got the car back and noticed a difference in appearance of the GUI and other things, and the graphics are different when it boots when we first turn on the car. So far it's been a few weeks and no problems at all. All is working well.

The dealer never said what the issue was. I imagine it's due to some sort of compatibility of firmware and software issue of some sort. All I know is it's now working.

I will say again the GM case worker was excellent. She didn't blow us off and just gave us what GM would or would not do and other options to pursue. She would frequently call or E-mail my wife to see how things were going. Very pleased with that.

 

[ricklack]

Nice that you got it resolved, it shouldn't have been this hard though.

 

[RadioHead]

I agree.

 

[RedEq]

I hope you don't mind me reviving an old thread. Do you know where in the Equinox the Karr device was located, and where they tapped the wires? I think my Equinox has excessive current draw overnight, and I know there is a (disabled) Karr device in there somewhere, but I can't find it. I'd like to remove the device.

 

[RadioHead]

I hope you don't mind me reviving an old thread. Do you know where in the Equinox the Karr device was located, and where they tapped the wires? I think my Equinox has excessive current draw overnight, and I know there is a (disabled) Karr device in there somewhere, but I can't find it. I'd like to remove the device.

Red - A couple things. One I'm not sure what's an acceptable current draw on these very modern vehicles. Maybe yours is okay unless your battery is dying.

Two, I'm not sure what year Equinox you have, ours is a 2023.

I believe ours was located near the blower motor area on the center counsel under the dash area. I'd assume the places that install these do it differently on each car, maybe at the discretion of the installer? If you look online they seem to place these in an area they can secure them. If I remember correctly there are about 8 wires that are tapped into other wiring. The worst part is the main ignition power wire is tapped into with a sort of "T" tap and that is what disconnects the power when the signal is received. I was not happy to learn that the dealer allows this and technically that could void a warranty. I'd fight that saying that the authorized dealer did it, not me. I pray I never have a problem with this area coming loose. Sometimes they leave the taps and just cut the wires going to the unit. I didn't want that either. I'm not sure they removed all that well as the wires went all over the place, I only found a couple of them. They should be easier to spot as they won't be in a wire loom with the nice plastic around it or grouped together with other secure wiring, they'll be on the outside of that. You would have to trace every wire back to the KARR device to make sure you have the correct wires. I was ready to do that but I'd rather the dealer removed it as they would be responsible for any problems. I believe the dealer called the installation company to remove it. The installation company would have done it at our house but I wanted this all done under the Chevrolet umbrella so they couldn't put the blame anywhere else.

I hope this helped you. Good luck on your removal.

 

[RadioHead]

And a quick follow up to my original post...

The refurbished radio we received was from a Chevrolet Colorado. It's been working as it should, no issues at all. When we had to restore the SiriusXM connection due to the different radio identifiers the XM rep told us what the radio was. The only down side is the touch screen is far less sensitive than our old one, but I'd rather deal with that then the reboot issue.

 

[RedEq]

RadioHead,

Thanks for your input. Mine turned out to be in the same area. I had it removed at the dealer because I thought it was draining my battery.

My battery is still draining faster than I think it should, so I guess I was wrong to blame the Karr system.

 

[DJEK]

My wife bought a brand new 2023 Equinox LT (May 2023) with 8 inch display, no Bose or Navigation system and almost immediately the first day the radio stopped and the system rebooted. We thought it as a quirk until it started happening far more frequently. Most times it would have a loud buzzing sound while frozen then screen would go blank and reboot. My wife kept a lengthy log of the occurrences, hundreds of times.

We took it to our local GM dealer twice. They claim an after market Karr Alarm/recovery system installed by the dealer (We had no say, all their cars on the lot got this) needs to be removed. It was probably interfering with the infotainment system. I did some research and most people complained about this system. We went back to our Chevy dealer of purchase and made them remove it and refund the cost of the original system install from the sticker price. Note each time we took the car in, the system was cleared and S/W reinstalled with the latest version.

It still cut out and rebooted. Now it would do this sometimes four times in a couple miles. We took it in again to our local GM dealer and they said it's a known issue with no current fix. So they turned us away. Then I joined this forum for answers.

My wife opened a case with GM and they looked into it and refused us a replacement car. They were very nice and helpful and always easy to reach out to and get a quick response from our agent. They also followed up well. We decided to start the Lemon Law process and then the our local GM dealer suggested to bring it back in when his Expert Electrical technician was in. We did.

They tech had the car a couple days and said he's ordering us a new radio. I read online most times that did nothing. However, after the install of a "refurbished" radio we got the car back and noticed a difference in appearance of the GUI and other things, and the graphics are different when it boots when we first turn on the car. So far it's been a few weeks and no problems at all. All is working well.

The dealer never said what the issue was. I imagine it's due to some sort of compatibility of firmware and software issue of some sort. All I know is it's now working.

I will say again the GM case worker was excellent. She didn't blow us off and just gave us what GM would or would not do and other options to pursue. She would frequently call or E-mail my wife to see how things were going. Very pleased with that.

How did your wife open a case with gm?

 

[RadioHead]

How did your wife open a case with gm?

I asked my wife and she doesn't exactly recall. After going through numerous old E-mails she found the following below.

After filing, she was contacted from: GM Customer Care, and given a case number; GM Business Resource Center also contacted her; And her case Agent was from, California Customer Engagement Center. She did a great job.

Mind you, this did not resolve it, our local dealer (not the dealer we bought the car from) did.

Good luck.

 

[DJEK]

I asked my wife and she doesn't exactly recall. After going through numerous old E-mails she found the following below.

After filing, she was contacted from: GM Customer Care, and given a case number; GM Business Resource Center also contacted her; And her case Agent was from, California Customer Engagement Center. She did a great job.

Mind you, this did not resolve it, our local dealer (not the dealer we bought the car from) did.

Good luck.

Thank You for the reply. Sorry that this is late but I was in the hospital right after I posted the question.

 

[RadioHead]

Sorry to hear that, I pray all is going well with you. Taking care of yourself is priority.

Keep us posted on how this goes.