My old one never had the hard disk and It worked fine and still works. Just clock issue after rain. That hard disk is needed only for GPS Purpose.

Product was $60 only, But non of sellers ship to my country in Middle East. I had to use forwarding service and ship to USA then to me. Overall cost me $200+. I cannot return to seller. It cost $276 to ship this from my country to usa. So can’t return product! I checked all couriers locally. I dont know what to do anymore!

 

All I can tell you is that I get a black screen with the hard drive removed in my car. Maybe Yamae can clarify, but I really think that hard drive is mandatory.
And now that I've reread part of this thread, Yamae was talking about checking the hard disk. I'm only aware of one hdd in this unit, and yours is missing.

 

No, There are two hard drives inside the computer drive, one is for Map which you put in the slot or remove if you don't want map. and other comes originally Fujitsu branded inside the box which has climate control, menu and all those data and as you can see in image below. It has the hard disk which carries the functions such as climate control, menu, trip info.etc. and I don't get black screen. I am getting a white screen. I hope Yamae can bring some light into this issue. I even tried removing battery terminal and so on. But still same issue. White screen! Nothing else.

Even my old one on above pictures don't have map drive. Only this Fujitsu drive and It works perfectly fine. Let's me do use all functions and radio everything works yet It has slow boot time and clock issue.

And it's almost brand new. Not even a single piece of dust and probably never removed because screws carried the lock click which only comes from when its never opened. Yet i wonder why it wouldn't boot or even show Lexus Logo.

 

My bad. Memory. It's been a while since I swapped out my unit. I thought the hard drive was in that small slot but it isn't. It is the Fujitsu drive that I swapped out of my car. If yours boots up with your old drive but you get nothing with the new drive, there must be a problem with the new drive. Did you try reinstalling that drive?
Thinking back on what I did back then, I think I installed the whole unit I bought off Ebay and got a dark screen like you did. Then I took out the drive from the Ebay unit and installed it in my old case. Then it worked. You might try installing the new drive into your old case (as ugly as it looks) and see if that might make a difference.

 

Okay good idea. I might be able to do it, Maybe I can try plugging my old drive into this one and see how it goes or vice versa? but how do I reinstall the drive? I don't know how to remove this drive or where to start with. I removed all top case cover and everything as per the picture earlier. But I pulled the drive and It won't come out. How can I reinstall drive? any video or tutorial which screws to remove? because drive won't come out no idea what to remove.

 

Yeah, I edited my post to say I took out the new drive from an ebay unit and installed it in my old case. Solved my problem. Anyway, you slide that little door open and there's two small phillips screws that you can take out. Then the whole drive slides out.

 

Sorry I am not able to figure out the screws. Here pictures. Can you mark? I tried pulling with the tab. It won't come out!

 

Drive should slide right out after removing these two screws.

 

Unfortunately, It wouldn't slide for me as you can see I removed the cover and tried to pull the Fujitsu drive. It won't come out. I am afraid I might break the pull steel tab.

 

You have to pull that little bar up toward the top of the case which should release the drive than pull back toward you to remove it.

 

 

Thank you sooo much, You helped me out solve the slow bootup! Okay I did swap the hard disks. I put mine into the eBay computer and tried. It doesn't work. Same white screen. So this concludes that there is something issue with the circuit of the eBay one? Even though everything looks brand new and mint. It's almost like you brought from dealership. Parts are also brand new.

Moving on I put eBay one's clean hard disk to mine (dirty computer, I kinda felt bad you know) and guess what? OMG mine boots fast now. Like I don't have to wait more than 3 seconds compared to 13 seconds with old hard disk. Super fast that the clock issue is no longer after boot process but later on... still exist as you can see in video it automatically deducted 1 minute. So clock issue still exist. I tried turning on after 10 mins and it reset to 4 AM. So this clock issue is not related to computer drive maybe? So 1/2 issues resolved. Still gotta solve this clock issue. Any idea?

Maybe in future, I will remove the circuit from my one and replace it with the eBay ones shell. So everything will look clean because my computer shell is fully rusted and dirty. I don't want this new disk to go bad or slow as well due to dirt inside my one.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't give up on that Ebay board. I suspect there's a way to get your car to recognize it. Might be as simple as taking off your negative battery cable for a half hour. The fact that I had the same issue on a very clean unit probably means we're missing something.

 

I read your reply earlier and realized something, So apparently after the rain this clock issue didn't come but I had coil zapping issue so I removed battery terminal to avoid shortage, 1-2 days later rain stopped and I plugged battery neg terminal and since then only the clock lost itself and doesn't function properly. This tells me something reset or hard booted and stopped working.

I found a very similar issue online Here and It seems he also had same issue after his Navsat took a damp boot. So apparently tells me that never remove neg terminal during moisture period on these Lexus electronic vehicles because anything could go wrong. Now mine is also similar clock issue because It took damp boot due to moisture.

Anyhow, I decided to follow what you said. I removed the neg terminal and left the car to sit for 2 and half hours, Went and opened trunk via key and plugged in the eBay unit and went and plugged the neg terminal back in and Switch ON the car and It was configuring (Front Defroster Orange light blinking) and this entire process the screen was blank/white and even after this process same. It doesn't seem to fix. I tried to go to Secret Diag Menu (Climate + Audio Key along with headlight x 2 times) and that doesn't work either. It's like entire screen and buttons are frozen with the eBay unit. It's a dead end honestly, I really wish It worked but It doesn't and I don't know why.

Moving on, I plugged mine back in and did a Diag Menu run and here are results, I checked GPS and I think It works? Or maybe It doesn't? I am not sure (Do note I am in Middle East so is the info matching? I am suspecting the GPS itself is giving false info or something because It keep changing to 3 different numbers. Also System Check shows OK! Please check, What you think?

 

I found an online post on resetting the navigation ecu on Lexus: https://itstillruns.com/reset-lexus-...m-7588719.html

"Step 5 Disconnect the left electronics board and flip it over so you can see where the two ribbon cables connect.

Step 6 Disengage the two brown colored clamps that hold the ribbon wire in place on either side of the electronics board using your fingers. Disconnect the ribbon wires. Let the apparatus sit disconnected for one minute while the the computer resets."

These directions are not LS400 specific, but it looks from your pictures like there's a couple of cables you could unplug on your Ebay board that might reset something. Worth a try anyway. I've had motherboards that froze up until I unplugged the power cable and plugged it back in.