Recovery of a 3G MMI

3GP and MMI HDD

from a Carson crash
patch by Walawa75
A Big thank you to JOHNNY5377 for the
development of this tutorial .

This Tutorial does not commit

the responsibility of the authors
(by the way your MMI is already
burnt
)
You've recently acquired a beautiful Audi but you
notice something boring. GPS is outdated and you
want to update it without breaking the bank with
Audi and others.
Between the available files on the net and sites
that offer the update for "peanut" you are
getting, and sometimes in a hurry for some.
And there is the drama , after yet simple
activation process using an SD card your MMI will

not boot anymore. The screen remains black

desperately and you already think to make a
3,000 payment to your favorite dealer to change
the hardware.

DONT PANIC YOU

CAN RECOVER !!
The following procedure is made to restore easily
and inexpensively your MMI 3G HDD or 3GP
whose activation patch went wrong. Note that
some mistakenly applied a patch for the MMI 3GP
on a MMI 3G HDD. This is why 3G HDD are also
affected by the recovery.

1) The required equipment

USB extension cable (simple one)
- TTL serial converter USB UART with automatic
function or 3.3V switchable
(MMI works 3.3V)
-

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/400524497015?
ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m
1497.l2649
- A 2x 10-pin connector to the motherboard MMI

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/390991048810?
ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m
1497.l2649
- A small switch as follows

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/131098908902?
ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m
1497.l2649

2) Removing the MMI

Using two hooks made using a simple wire must
get the Air Conditioning unit that should come
easily.
Then you have access to a fair screw above
unscrew it to bring the MMI module. If the
manipulation is not obvious to you, the nice

technician at Audi can at least do that for you !!

After disconnecting the module, you can sit on

your table at home to finish the unmounting. Your
wife will be happy at this moment !!

Opening the MMI:

Unscrew the cover

Then remove the DVD and remove the hard drive

by pressing gently the clip shown with a red
arrow below.

Remove the blue flex cable that comes from the

facade.
Unscrew the 2 screws shown by the arrows.
Then remove the other screws circled in red.

Remove the front panel as described below

At motherboard removal, pay attention to thermal

chewing gum that needs to be repositioned
correctly when reassembling.
Locate the connector and wire the connector as
shown below.

BS mark means the top of the motherboard.

Wiring is carried out as described below and

above the TTL.
RxD Top - Pin 5
TxD Bottom - Pin 5
Ground Bottom Pin 10
Once everything is connected, replace all the
elements and reconnect the MMI.

3) Sending commands to restore

Once connected to your PC MMI you may have to
install the TTL driver by doing a little search on
Google.
Once the driver is installed you will have a COM
port that will be created and visible in the
Windows Device Manager.
You must set the COM port as follows
Port : We dont care !! (1 to 1000000)
Speed : 115200
for MMI 9303 variants, 9304 and others. (57600
for 9302 version)
bits: 8

Bit stop: 1
Parity : none
Flow control : XON / XOFF or none (It works well
too)

4) PUTTY
Then you download the software Putty is a
powerful and free terminal software.
At the opening, you select the right serial tick and
click on the bottom left serial to fill all the
features mentioned above.
Then click on the top left session
Save your connection settings to not having to
retype everything by entering a login name in
"Saved Sessions" and "save".
When you want to later connect to the MMI to
launch your orders you will go to your saved
session and "load" and "connect" before you
proceed.

5) Engage the connection with

the MMI
OK? Everything is ready for connection ? Car

ignition "on"?
Here we go !!
Put your "switch" in IPL mode (see diagram
above).
Then reboot 3 buttons.
Then you turn your switch to Normal mode
(Review diagram above)
Start Putty and run your connection (load and
open)
At this point you'll be seeing anything, this is
normal !!

So you press "enter" and a sign like

=> will

appear as if by magic (that's a good thing for

you) !!
At this time you type
boot 1c0000
A lot of of lines will appear and there miracle !!
The MMI screen will light up !!! Red with black
writing like this !!

Now is not the moment to rave about because

once a hashtag will appear. FYI a hashtag that's it
!!

(If the hashtag slow in coming, you can do a ctrl-c

but only if it never comes)
You will have 60 seconds to type these
commands (or else reboot):
echo dummy >
/HBpersistence/DeveloperMode
mount -uw /mnt/efs-persist/
rm /mnt/efs-persist/MMI3GApplication
This is where the copy- paste command will be
your best friend !!
Then you only have to do a reboot 3 buttons. Well
OK, the screen will remain black a few
seconds .................. ..but suddenly youll see the
Audi logo appear and MMI going back to life !!
Replace all of your MMI items following the
reverse procedure.

And finally enjoy a GPS that works !!

IMPORTANT (the motherboard and the rest must

be properly reassembled in the metal casing for
protection grounded before sending the Linux
commands.
Otherwise MMI heater and it can burn. (Too bad
though)

Great thanks to Johnny5377 again for photo

hosting !!