First of all yes I know to search the forums and Ive done exactly that for many hours. Generally consensus is to just send it to alpine if the cleaning the optical lens doesn't work.

Now I have taken apart the whole thing it is some complicated circuitry. In a lot of the post the two main things that are generally replaced are either the power supply board on the motherboard. Through my experience with my dysfunctional navi I have a thoughts on whats wrong and some questions that will help me further diagnose the problems.

Problem Description:
Cold morning starts the navi will just first say download from disc, then it will stay as a black screen. No picture distortion or red lines running through it, radio/xm and stuff still work. I do know that it will acquire some sort of signal sometimes because my clock was messed up but sorted it self out without ever seeing even seeing the Acura splash screen.

After driving the car for 30+ minutes the splash screen will appear and continuously reboot every 65 seconds give or take 2 seconds. Once I park after the 30 minutes and turn the ignition off the navi will sometimes go to the ok screen and work as normal but only when the key is in position I. If I take the key out and putt it in position II it will reboot constantly, but back in I it will go to the ok screen.

Questions:
Lets start with the 30 minutes needed for the above to be able to happen. It this happening because the navi unit itself located in the trunk needs to warm up? Could this be bad solder contacts that when headed start to expand for better contacts?

Now for the reboot loop, is it possible that the programming allows for 60 seconds to read either the navi disc or from the memory or rom on the board, followed by a 5 second time out to restart? If it is from the disc, then could the possible problem be the ribbon that connects the dvd reader to the main board? Or is it the problem with the rom not loading?

The final and most confusing part is that when it does work it will only work in position I but not in position II. The leads me to believe a possible problem with the power board.

Exactly what is being powered in these two different key settings? Could there possibly be not enough power being supplied to the navi in position II?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I will probable end up sending it to alpine in two weeks anyway but maybe there's a small chance I can end up fixing it and help others out.

If anyone knows where I can obtain any schedmatics for the navigation, pin connections for the cables in the back, and finally where I could buy a PSU board replacement for it. Seems alpine has this stuff on lock down because I couldnt find anything.

 

So I have managed to verify that yes when the key is in the first position the navi will boot and work properly. I will post a video over the weekend showing exactly what is happening.

I believe I remember seeing a pin mapping of the plug that goes into the the navi somewhere on this site. When I have the time next week ill try and find it. Ill also be taking voltage readings on different pins for this cable when the key is in both positions and will report the results back here.

 

*Edit* Mods, I didn't realize where my original post was from so if this would be more suitable in Problems and Fixes please move accordingly *Edit*

History:
Its been two and a half years since I created this topic and I am happy to say that not only have I been living my dream of being an Engineer for over 6+ months now but I have also found a solution to my dead navigation unit.


Problem:
The power issue was dead on, but there is no separate power board on these things. I went through the service manual to see if I could find any mention of separate power connections for when the car was running and when only the accessories were being powered. I was correct in finding that the black 8-pin connector C has two separate voltages on pin-1 and pin-2 for when the key is in the On position and the Acc position.

Since my original post my unit had reached the point where it would no longer boot at all regardless of key position. The pictures below are from a secondary unit that I had, while the current working one is in my car but the previously mentioned pins had no solder around them any longer.

The scans of other connectors were included in order to diagnose any other possible issues someone may be experience not related to my power issue. If anyone has any problems thats correspond to a pin from the green connectors F and B let me know and I will experiment with removing the shield covering those pins and a guide to fixing them.


Repair:
My first attempt at repairing the unit was with a quality soldering station using a tip for surface mount components with a microscope and a flux pen, however as seen in the 2nd to last picture the solder would not adhere to the PCB.

The much easier and simpler working solution was to use a syringe full of solder paste to apply just a drop on each pin where the solder had deteriorated and use a hot air gun to melt it.


Final Thoughts:
Its been over 3 weeks since I have done this on any pins where the solder started to fade and my navi has been working almost flawlessly. Every now and then it would reboot once or twice but no big deal for the time being. It was a rushed job the first run through just to see if it would work, so I will have to go back in and double check everything.

Later in the week I will take more picture how I actually applied the solder paste and any other relevant ones I can think of.







Black 8-pin Power Connector C





Black 20-pin Connector A<br/>Pg. 1<br/>





Black 20-pin Connector A<br/>Pg. 2





Green 14-pin Connector B





Black 22-pin Connector E<br/>Pg. 1





Black 22-pin Connector E<br/>Pg. 2<br/>





DVD unit without mounting bracket<br/>





Removed DVD faceplate<br/>





Removed top plate<br/>





Removed DVD drive<br/>





Removed DVD drive bracket<br/>





Internal pins from connectors A and C<br/>





Notice the lack of solder on pins 23, 28, and 36<br/>





Close up of power connector C Note how the blob of traditional solder would not adhere<br/>





Hot Air Gun with a fine tip and Solder Paste in a syringe

 

Im currently soldering my board at the moment ! lets see if it works!!!!

 

Good luck. In 12 years, my Nav Unit has gotten sent away to Alpine twice. One they replaced the power supply board, the 2nd time the optical drive mechanism. That 1st time, I was told they were swapping all the power supply boards even if it was OK.
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sub'd for results

 

Didn't work for me guys! But when taking apart the unit I did see that there were pins that were not soldered completely/correctly. But i'm sure my unit needs to be replaced because the disk is not spinning but other than that I'm sure my unit would work if it wasn't for that. It's worth a try and better than spending $300+ on sending it to alpine, Unfortunately I have to send it