Hey Guys!

Got a 2008 LS600H with 56k miles. I got the dreaded "A Program Cannot be read, please consult dealer!"

Took it to local Lexus dealership. They spend 1 hour @ $140/hr to tell me that it doesn't work and now they want me to approve 2 more hours for them to take the radio apart to check the wiring...and if the unit is getting power. The gentlemen feels bad as the tech has no idea on what to do except to just keep taking things apart.

I believe that I have read every post on CL and have not found a solution for an LS.

1. disconnecting the battery
2. swiping up and down on the corners etc.
3. pray.............

Any suggestions is greatly appreciated! This happened a few years ago and it kinda just started working again after a week of driving. It was working fine until I had to take it in to get some work done on the air suspension.


Thanks in advance!


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I had that on my previous LS 460, it was the whole navigation unit that I had to sent to repair ( I guess the hard drive was defective )

 

Your hard drive is probably on it's way out, dealer will ask over 5 grand to replace your radio but he know you will decline so he will try to get some diag money before sending you on your way. You can take a look at this thread containing some useful information: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...acement-3.html

What I would personally do is first remove the hard drive and try to clone it on an SSD but there may already be too much dead sectors. You would also need to get the unlock key and copy it to the new hard drive for the radio to accept the new one as the factory HD seems to use an ATA Lock password. I have seen a few tutorial for the 3rd gen prius that should also work for the ls. If this fail you can also get a used radio for a few hundred buck on ebay and clone the hard drive (and copy the ATA Lock password) to make sure you have a way to recover from this without having to get a whole radio unit if it ever happen again.

 

The hard drive is in the navigation unit, the radio is a different part.

 

There is a place in California who did repair mine, they did a great job but it is not cheap.

 

There you go
https://hitechserv.com/electronics-r...ger-repair/78/

 

Sadly if it's HDD - you can't replace it with ssd... And you can't replace it with hdd.. I takes only certain ultra rare type of IDE 2.5 hdd, that support security mode... Spent a lot of time on this. Ended up buying two junked headunits to salvage button leds and precious HDDs...
PS. You don't need to relock the drive after populating/cloning data - HU will lock it itself at first boot. But drive must support security.

 

I'd recommend contacting this company. Explain your symptoms and see what they think. It costs nothing to ask. What you do depends a lot on your skill level. Personally, I could probably manage to remove the unit and ship it off, but none of the other suggestions above. As you discovered, the dealer isn't always the best choice for repairs.

 

They do a nice service, they also have a video on how to remove the unit, very helpful, it is easy, only takes probably 15 minutes....

 

Anybody just buy a salvaged head unit and take the HDD out? or are they password protected for each unique head unit? or even just replacing the whole head unit?

 

Yup, you can just take hdd out and put it into another HU. Just make sure HU's part numbers match. There are several models.

 

In 2018 I had the HDD replaced at the dealer for around $1300. I have a 2007, and the HDD just got old, and they do fail. I would hesitate to replace with a used unit as old is old. Kind of funny, when the dealer replaced in 2018, I still only got the 2007 navigation data loaded on the HDD. They wanted an additional $350 to update. I tried to find a more cost effective solution and could not. Lots of posts on CL suggesting cloning, but no one ever finished a thread with any evidence or suggestion that they accomplished. Apparently the software and OS on the HDD is proprietary, and is not possible to clone.
Good luck.

 

Yup, you'll need to clone fresh navi data (+gracenote db) from recent working hdd, or pay dealer to update after hdd swap.
Imaging/cloning is doable, I for one have my current backed up (2020 nav data+2020 gnote cddb). It involves using miniata-to-sata adapter off aliexpress and proprietary unlock utility (it's in the open), and knowing security hdd password (nothing super obscure), then byte imaging with winhex. Such backup can be restored to similar unlocked hdd (again, unlock is done via proprietary dos utility), then at first boot headunit will relock hdd properly automatically.
Filesystem is nothing super proprietary, unlocked hdd shows in windows as several partitions that mount as drives. Main three partitions are: nav data+software; cddb; hdd music archive. I know of local guys running a racket doing 10+ (hdd hu) nav updates bypassing dealer by removing hu, cloning fresh image, putting it back in, charging client. By some magic (my guess is patched KWI file/software) such units don't care if you're in motion and allow input. I've obtained such dump from them and now also have unblocked nav in motion. Huh!