MFT Software update - you sure it isn't a hardware issue?

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I'm a little skeptical that software will fix the freezes and black screen issues. This really does sound like hardware related issue - think about your computer at home, how many times has software caused a black screen? When your PC freezes it usually because of memory, power supply or other 'hardware issues'.

I really believe Ford is fixing the problem for new MY Explorers and they're going to send better software for the older models to make things better but I have doubts that every issue will be addresses. Just saying.

 

[w1kedz]

I'm a little skeptical that software will fix the freezes and black screen issues. This really does sound like hardware related issue - think about your computer at home, how many times has software caused a black screen? When your PC freezes it usually because of memory, power supply or other 'hardware issues'.

I really believe Ford is fixing the problem for new MY Explorers and they're going to send better software for the older models to make things better but I have doubts that every issue will be addresses. Just saying.

This is definitely not a hardware issue. The hardware in our cars is more than sufficient to run MSAuto .. it's the interface Ford wrote(had written) in Flash Lite that kills the hardware. It's too processor intensive, and isn't efficient enough for what they tried to achieve. In the explanation of the new software they moved a load of the processing over to the graphics chip, which would significantly increase the overall speed of the system. I personally feel that they rewrote the whole thing using a different technology (Silverlight, rather than Flash Lite) which would also help in all areas.

Embedded systems aren't like a home computer. There aren't many different manufacturers supplying different portions of the system. All of the drivers are written specifically for the hardware they are running on, there are no hard drives, etc... There is more than enough memory in the MFT hardware to drive the functions they are driving. This was just bad initial design of the software.

Will "EVERY" issue be addressed? I have my doubts there as well. But the majority of issues relate to speed and crashing, and I do believe for the most part those should go away. The release should be like day and night for most people.

I don't think Ford has any reason to change the hardware of MFT, the original specs are pretty beefy for an in-car entertainment system.

 

[strike]

This is definitely not a hardware issue. The hardware in our cars is more than sufficient to run MSAuto .. it's the interface Ford wrote(had written) in Flash Lite that kills the hardware. It's too processor intensive, and isn't efficient enough for what they tried to achieve. In the explanation of the new software they moved a load of the processing over to the graphics chip, which would significantly increase the overall speed of the system. I personally feel that they rewrote the whole thing using a different technology (Silverlight, rather than Flash Lite) which would also help in all areas.

Embedded systems aren't like a home computer. There aren't many different manufacturers supplying different portions of the system. All of the drivers are written specifically for the hardware they are running on, there are no hard drives, etc... There is more than enough memory in the MFT hardware to drive the functions they are driving. This was just bad initial design of the software.

Will "EVERY" issue be addressed? I have my doubts there as well. But the majority of issues relate to speed and crashing, and I do believe for the most part those should go away. The release should be like day and night for most people.

I don't think Ford has any reason to change the hardware of MFT, the original specs are pretty beefy for an in-car entertainment system.

Thanks for input and I really do hope that you are right. I have my fingers crossed that Ford fixes at least the major issues with MFT with the software updates.

I'm just curious as to what kind of code in the software could possible cause a black screen that remains in that state for days on end even when you restart the engine?

I was thinking of installing a momentary reset switch between fuse 29 and ground for those moments were MFT dies. Pulling fuses every other day is getting old.

 

[w1kedz]

Thanks for input and I really do hope that you are right. I have my fingers crossed that Ford fixes at least the major issues with MFT with the software updates.

I'm just curious as to what kind of code in the software could possible cause a black screen that remains in that state for days on end even when you restart the engine?

I was thinking of installing a momentary reset switch between fuse 29 and ground for those moments were MFT dies. Pulling fuses every other day is getting old.

It's for all intensive purposes "Frozen" ... I personally have never had it stay at the black screen, what version are you on? Supposedly in 2.11 they fixed it so that if it detected this black screen state it would reboot automatically after 5 or 10 minutes.

Many others here talked about putting a switch on fuse 29, I never saw any pictures or discussion of if anybody actually did it though. I think the new release will be here in weeks, so I don't know if it's worth the time for such a short wait

 

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It's for all intensive purposes "Frozen" ... I personally have never had it stay at the black screen, what version are you on? Supposedly in 2.11 they fixed it so that if it detected this black screen state it would reboot automatically after 5 or 10 minutes.

Many others here talked about putting a switch on fuse 29, I never saw any pictures or discussion of if anybody actually did it though. I think the new release will be here in weeks, so I don't know if it's worth the time for such a short wait

I'm on the 2.11 version too, its an 2012 MY and came this way. I've left it black screened 4 times in the last few months just to see if and when it would recover and it does reboot automatically alright but usually only after 3 to 4 days.