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Sync 3 screen goes blank

NCcarguy

Active Member
Joined
August 31, 2010
Messages
92
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City, State
Raleigh, NC
Year, Model & Trim Level
2020 Explorer ST
Yesterday was a bad day for the new ST. On my way to work all of a sudden the entire 10" screen blinked and went blank. I stopped at a stoplight 10 minutes later and I shut the vehicle off then started it back and the screen seemed to re-boot and open as normal. just prior to this happening it appears that my turbos **** the bed....so I'm not totally sure these two issues aren't related. I am not totally sure how that's possible, but with todays' electronics, I'm not ruling it out.
 



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Which software are you on? Have the Diagnostics option enabled on SYNC?
 






I took in to Crossroads Ford in Cary this morning....Should I have them set that option? I doubt they will be able to make it do that again while they have it.....although they're going to have several things to deal with, so it's possible.
 






I took in to Crossroads Ford in Cary this morning....Should I have them set that option? I doubt they will be able to make it do that again while they have it.....although they're going to have several things to deal with, so it's possible.
4

You can DIY easily. You'd need a WiFi network to connect to as well. Main reason I ask is if the black screen was due to some SYNC problem, it's exceedingly likely it'd generate an event and phone home. At least then you'd know it's making Ford aware of the issue if it was a SYNC side thing.
 






Yesterday was a bad day for the new ST. On my way to work all of a sudden the entire 10" screen blinked and went blank. I stopped at a stoplight 10 minutes later and I shut the vehicle off then started it back and the screen seemed to re-boot and open as normal. just prior to this happening it appears that my turbos **** the bed....so I'm not totally sure these two issues aren't related. I am not totally sure how that's possible, but with todays' electronics, I'm not ruling it out.

Had the same issue with my screen, went black. Nothing regarding the display would respond and at the time I was using Apple CarPlay. The audio turned off and pressing the power button did nothing. I eventually pulled over, turn the explorer off, opened the drivers door, closed the door and turned the explorer on again. Everything worked fine after that. Mine is going in next week to see if there is an update that will resolve that issue.

The other issue I can usually replicate every time is... Put the vehicle in drive and press the camera button. Once the camera is showing slowing start to move forward and stop before the camera usually switches off. Then start moving again. The entire top half of the screen turns white and the bottom half goes gray. You can tap on the screen where you know the controls are at the bottom and hear the system respond but the screen stays like that until you stop and put it in reverse. The cameras then show up properly again and the system behaves as it should once you start driving again.
 






When I get the vehicle back, I'll set that up. It's really had several quirky things happen, and I'm sure some of them are software related, and fixable, so I'd like to help out if possible.
 






It's easy. It's a bit buried in the Settings -> General menu. You'll see the option for SYNC Analytics & Diagnostics. If something crashes, etc. then it'll send the info in. You can turn on the options independently, so no need to enabled Analytics or sending failed voice commands if you don't want those on.
 






Does that have something to do with "Compiliging diagnostics information"? I saw something similar to the phrase on my Sync 3 screen a few minutes after starting up myAviator. I just caught that a second before the screen message disappeared. I have had no failures or issues. Is that something that happens routinely?

Peter
 






Does that have something to do with "Compiliging diagnostics information"? I saw something similar to the phrase on my Sync 3 screen a few minutes after starting up myAviator. I just caught that a second before the screen message disappeared. I have had no failures or issues. Is that something that happens routinely?

Peter

Doesn't sound familiar. What you should see at initial (after a Master Reset) boot is a pop-up to enable collecting analytics and diagnostics. Annoyingly (for me) the option to send failed (I didn't get that...) commands isn't on there, but is buried in the Setting screen. If the dealer accepted / turned them off then you wouldn't get prompted again, unless you ran an MR.

Diag has a wealth of potential triggers to send in data, crashes being the most obvious. Think errors like GPS, phone disconnects, no GPS signal, etc.
 






I'm having the same problem with my 2020 ST with the small screen. Screen will randomly go blank/black but is still powered. None of the cameras or sensing system works. It has been to the dealer 3 times now and they say there are no codes stored. They've removed the screen and checked all the connections as well as issued some software update. We are currently at 3.4.

Prior to the update, when the screen went blank the bluetooth wouldn't work, the radio would die, and pressing the heat button would not bring up any options on the screen. After the update the bluetooth sometimes works and the heat button sometimes brings up the menu on the screen. Typically we have to let the car sit off for greater than 5 minutes for it to reset. It's completely random but seems to be triggered by playing a podcast via the cable and CarPlay. I've attempted to force the error by repeatedly plugging/unplugging the phone or swapping phones repeatedly but have had no luck. Its happened most often when the phone has been plugged in and we've been driving.

Any help would be appreciated. It did just find the option to submit diagnostics so I've enabled that. I will also manually submit digs via General > Sync analytics & digs > submit feedback > the next time it crashes. Hopefully that has some data that isn't wiped out due to the need to reboot.
 






^^Welcome to the Forum.:wave:

Peter
 






Same thing happened to me recently. Using carplay, then screen went blank. I was listening to the radio and it kept going. The screen was black but you could tell the backlight was on. I disconnected my iphone and rebooted Sync while I continued to drive and the screen resumed.
 






CarPlay is a red herring. While it may make the problem happen more frequently, the screen will crash without CarPlay. I was on my way to the dealer for our sunroof issues Thursday and the screen crashed without my phone plugged in. I could turn the volume up and down, but no other radio buttons worked, the menu button didn't work for the heat, and the sync button would not work on the steering wheel. The mechanic plugged it in at the dealer and scanned while the screen was blank. Tons of codes came back because the sync module failed diagnostics. He was emailing the faults to Ford. Will post more when I learn more.
 






i have a feeling it's carplay. Tons of problems reported with Carplay and iOS 13.3. I never had the black screen until the past several weeks when Ive had this happen 5 times. Did a soft reboot of the sync (hold down power and forward) each time and all was fine.

supposedly a new iOS 13.3.1 out. hopefully fixes things

not sure about people with issues when not using carplay. could be multiple issues here

Edit: still get blank screen with iOS 13.3.1
 






Ours does it too...Took our Limited in for several bugs and the dealer said everything was normal.....what ever.
if you hold the power and next arrow down long enough sync will reboot....i try to do this once a week and it seems to help.
 






On Ford's recommendation, the dealer has ordered and will replace the 'APIM' module in the car. They seem to think this will correct the issue. Will post more at the end of next week after the update is complete.
 






Ours does it too...Took our Limited in for several bugs and the dealer said everything was normal.....what ever.
if you hold the power and next arrow down long enough sync will reboot....i try to do this once a week and it seems to help.
Did you take it in when the screen was blank or working? With an intermittent issue it is always best if you can take it to the dealer when it isn't working.

Peter
 






Did you take it in when the screen was blank or working? With an intermittent issue it is always best if you can take it to the dealer when it isn't working.

For most of us, this won't work. The next time we start the car up the screen is fine or if we reboot SYNC3, the display is fine.

Ji79scoutii had some error codes and also blanks out when not using carplay so may have a different situation.
 






Did you take it in when the screen was blank or working? With an intermittent issue it is always best if you can take it to the dealer when it isn't working.

Peter
The Screen was blank when I took it in because it crashed on the way there and I didn't power cycle the car; made the tech come out with his computer. There were a host of error codes because sync wouldn't complete diagnostics. The one the tech was most interested in was something about the speaker circuit.
 



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Well that's an interesting connection to the problem.
 






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