Seat Ateca SUV Forum banner

Infotainment system keeps rebooting

1 reading
116K views 308 replies 81 participants last post by  CosmicBlue  
#1 ·
So my month old Ateca on two spectate occasions has decided it wants to reboot the system over and over.

I may be guessing here but when it does stay on for longer than ten seconds as soon as it shows the world symbol top right as if connected to Seat it will instantly go off.
Other times you’ll get the seat logo with the radio and then it will reboot.

I’ve driven 3 hours and had no issue before now. Tonight done an 8 mile journey and had it all the way home rebooting.

I know this isn’t a new thing for seat/VAG but is there a fix?
 
#2 ·
Hey Garry, no answer here sorry, but I found yours to be the most recent thread about this issue so thought I'd jump on..

We have the same thing on a '22 Ateca, with the added bonus of a Road Sign Camera driver display error warning! Got it booked in - September 13th is the earliest they can see us. A number of posts I've read have recommended a reboot holding the power button down but the power button isn't physical on this display, so not sure how that would work!
 
#7 ·
Hey Garry, no answer here sorry, but I found yours to be the most recent thread about this issue so thought I'd jump on..

We have the same thing on a '22 Ateca, with the added bonus of a Road Sign Camera driver display error warning! Got it booked in - September 13th is the earliest they can see us. A number of posts I've read have recommended a reboot holding the power button down but the power button isn't physical on this display, so not sure how that would work!
How did you get on?

We took delivery of the XPERIENCE Lux around 3 weeks ago. About a week or so in, we received the same issue: the media centre and dashboard (aside for speed and rev counters) are effectively disabled; the system continually reboots; "Error: Dynamic Road Sign Display" flashes on the virtual dashboard and makes an incredibly annoying and loud ping noise every few seconds. It happened again on Saturday; we managed to get it into the dealer today. The dealer say they found no faults. We're told they updated the software, but they didn't clarify what exactly. In all honesty, it's totally put us off the car. If it's not fixed, then we'll look to hand it back. I see talk of an SOS issue on other threads/forums, but the light remains green/OK on our car, so that must be another issue. A total shambles.
 
#3 ·
My six week old Ateca has also experienced continuous reboots on two occasions. Both times when l restarted the engine, the the infotainment system resumed whatever it was doing before the system crashed. The second time it happened, l was simply listening to the radio with my phone/media not present. The reboots combined with the underwhelming sound quality is disappointing and is barely fit for purpose imo. Shame really as other than the flaky, unintuitive infotainment system, everything else about the Ateca is good to excellent.
 
#4 ·
Well I thought I’d got lucky as it had stopped however it happened again this morning

It first went into standby showing the clock and no buttons would respond and shortly after went through the usual reboot cycle. Sometimes not even passed the Seat logo before restarting.
Did this about 10-15 times before it came back on and stayed on.

Not great to be honest. How have they not released a proper update for this yet
 
#119 ·
Well I thought I’d got lucky as it had stopped however it happened again this morning It first went into standby showing the clock and no buttons would respond and shortly after went through the usual reboot cycle. Sometimes not even passed the Seat logo before restarting. Did this about 10-15 times before it came back on and stayed on. Not great to be honest. How have they not released a proper update for this yet
Hi. After 2 attempts to fix the reboot issues with my Ateca (delivered in September) the dealer said I needed a new control unit for it. The car has now been in the dealership for 3 months awaiting the part and still no delivery date. I have been essentially paying monthly for a car I don’t have! Dealer has kindly lent me a smaller car but Seat themselves are happy to sell cars with this well known fault without the ability to provide a fix or replacement
 
#5 ·
As it happens, my Ateca did this today for the first time (although I did only get the car on Saturday :) )

I popped into the supplying dealer and the service manager showed me how to do a "4F reset":

1. Press and keep pressing the touch power button until you have seen the date and time appear TWICE
2. Keep pressing until you see the SEAT logo
3. Release the power button

The system was then stable for the remainder of my journey home. Apparently "4F" refers to the type of infotainment system fitted.

I hope this helps.
 
#9 ·
@SK_Nerd keep us updated on your trip into the workshops. Hopefully they’ll release an update soon to stop this.
So it went in on Tuesday and I was told on pick up they'd done a 4F reset and "everything worked perfectly"

It has done the stupid reboot thing twice since. Once on Wednesday while connected via Android Auto, and just this morning connected presumably by 'standard'. Thursday, when the car was used for two 30-odd minute journeys, it was fine. It's going back in as soon as I can get an appointment.

This is our third brand new Seat and this is the only issue we have ever had. It's so frustrating.

Interesting to see that it may right itself after a few reboots, but again this seems to be random as it happened to my wife the other week on her 20-odd minute commute to drop the kids off and it was beeping every 15 seconds. Try telling two 2 year olds they can't listen their songs in the morning!

Good to see the 4F reset process. I'll jot that down and keep it in the glove box.

I think I might even email the SEAT top bod (I saw his email on this forum the other week) and send him a link to this thread.

Have a great long weekend, my fellow frustrated Ateca owners!
 
#8 ·
My car did this 4 times over the weekend, each time requiring a 4F reset. It's now booked into the dealer early next month for them to look at. In the meantime, they have asked for a video of the behaviour which I'll do when a) it next happens and b) I have a co-pilot.

TBH this hasn't put me off the car at all. I did over a year of research before making a decision to purchase and am a regular visitor on briskoda.net, so was aware of VAG group wide issues with their latest infotainment system. With the exception of a 2004 BMW 3 series, I've never purchased a new car that hasn't required a few trips back to the dealer for warranty work in the first few months of ownership.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Spoke to the Master Tech at my dealership.

In short, there are various updates being rolled out but there’s nothing specific for this issue. It is Widley known, but from SEAT/VAG side of things the problem is apps that do not work well with their OS. Spotify is a key offender, but they don’t have a list off apps as, of course, every user has a completely different collection on their devices!

I was recommended to change my privacy settings from maximum to Show My Location which connects the car to the ‘net so you can get the updates OTA which is what happened while we were on the call!

Power button resets and the 4F (actually 5F for these but whatever) reset are back ups they also recommend.

So yeah, not likely to be an overall fix any time soon, as it could well be some background app interfering with the car’s computer.

EDIT

I remember he also said that using the SEAT provided connector cable may have an effect, as it may transfer data at slower speeds than your official phone connector.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for sharing your experiences of this issue. The first time it happened to me my phone was attached via Android Auto but on all subsequent occasions my phone was purposely not connected. Annoyingly it has behaved perfectly recently so I have been unable to video the misbehaviour to send to the dealer.
 
#12 ·
Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences with this issue. We’ve had our new Ateca for 6 weeks and this problem has been occurring on and off. It’s very frustrating and the continual beeping during the resets is infuriating. We have our car going into the dealership next week, but it doesn’t sound like there is a fix yet. I have a video of the system rebooting if anyone needs it for the dealer.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for sharing this! Thought I was alone, been having a mare with our Ateca Experience Lux ordered it last Nov and got delivered mid august - firstly we had an ECP issue so the car kept going into limp mode max speed 10mph (which was just dangerous when was doing 70 on M25) … and at the same time I experienced this infotainment resetting issue but thought it might be all linked . Long story short the car had to go back for over a week whilst they fixed the engine issue which was due to a faulty sensor - had the car back now 2 weeks and had the infotainment issue occur again . I should have had my wife video it as I know if I took it back they would properly struggle to identify the issue … I guess I will try the F4 reset thing and keep an eye on it , but honestly I’m just so put off the car it just seems so glitchy shouldn’t be happening to a brand new car
 
#14 ·
Morning folks. So we've had about a week since my chat with the master tech, and have had a couple of longer journeys (well, Manchester to Anglesey and back, ha ha)

Not one problem with the car at all. I switch to Show My Location on Privacy settings for every trip, and I uninstalled Spotify. I didn't connect to the car at all. My wife kept spotify on and connected via the SEAT cable. She connected her phone on both legs of the journey just using the generic connection, NOT via Android Auto.

Could be one of the things above that worked, or all, or none - who knows?!

Best of luck!
 
#15 ·
Not one problem with the car at all. I switch to Show My Location on Privacy settings for every trip, and I uninstalled Spotify. I didn't connect to the car at all. My wife kept spotify on and connected via the SEAT cable. She connected her phone on both legs of the journey just using the generic connection, NOT via Android Auto.
Could be one of the things above that worked, or all, or none - who knows?!
Snap! Since my initial series of reboot crashes, my Ateca's infotainment system has also decided to be on its best behaviour and run wireless android auto without a hitch. A couple of weeks ago I swapped my phone from a chinese Xiaomi to a Samsung S21, perhaps that had something to do with it but as you say SK_Nerd - who knows? I can understand why SEAT/VAG say the problem is certain apps that do not work well with their OS. Must be a nightmare trying to accommodate the huge range of android hardware, tweaked versions of android OS and apps written with code that does not always conform to android specs. This is one of the few occasions l can think of where the tightly controlled apple iphone universe may have an advantage over android.
 
#17 ·
Reading through this set of posts I have been having identical issues with my Infotainment system on my new 22 plate Ateca Experience Lux delivered in July 22. I have done 1,500 miles and would day it has happened at least a dozen times with the constant rebooting and beeping because of the error with the road sign detection. I have found the only way to correct it is to stop, switch the car off completely and then start it again which I guess causes a complete restart of the system.

I really Seat and they seemed to know all about the issue and told me it was a conflict with the roll out of the EE 5G network. Apparently there is a fix but they need the car for a whole day to reload all of the software. It's booked in on 18th October ( the first date they could do) so we will see if it fixes the issue.

This does make sense as it works fine most of the time but then send on occasion to fail, I am trying to work out if there is a geographical link i.e. am I driving near to an EE mast? Not sure it will be though as interferers and conflicts in relation to software or frequencies are in my experience often far more random.

I'll keep you posted but hope this is the fix needed.

I have to say this is my second Ateca I had a 2018 Excellence model before this age I think in the main they have improved the car, only frustration I have is that it won't pick up the radio station logos, minor irritation but the lack of an SD card slot means to can't manually update them as far as I can see, just means the radio presets are not as clear as they could be. Otherwise very nice car, I am really pleased with.
 
#18 ·
Hi all, interesting to read the problems you're having as I to have the same problems but with my Ibiza FR Sport 2022. Took delivery in July and had problems from the get-go with reboots etc. The dealership said they had heard of some problems and Seat will release a new update March/April 2023! Not very good tbh but will see what happens. I'll see if the 4F restart helps
 
#19 ·
I'm having the same problem with my Ibiza Xcellence Lux, bought new in June. It was in the dealer on Monday this week where they apparently did a full reboot and various software updates. You've guessed it! Driving along listening to the radio this afternoon, (iPhone connected via BT but nothing more). I indicated left and immediately the system did it's usual 'crash' - the clock screen, with nothing working, then the 'ping' about the dynamic road sign camera etc.followed by off/on off/on etc. This really isn't acceptable from SEAT/VW etc and it's high time they sorted a fix. An update in 6 months?! You've got to be joking, SEAT! Our other car's a Skoda Octavia - our 4th in 14 years. The current one's on 30,000 miles and not a hiccup, just like the previous 50,000 miler. Wishing I'd bought one of the new Fabias now!
 
#20 ·
So my month old Ateca on two spectate occasions has decided it wants to reboot the system over and over. I may be guessing here but when it does stay on for longer than ten seconds as soon as it shows the world symbol top right as if connected to Seat it will instantly go off. Other times you’ll get the seat logo with the radio and then it will reboot. I’ve driven 3 hours and had no issue before now. Tonight done an 8 mile journey and had it all the way home rebooting. I know this isn’t a new thing for seat/VAG but is there a fix?
I’ve got 20 reg ateca 1.5 DSG and have also experienced numerous times when the screen has frozen or just gin black. Sometimes rebooting but not always. Sometimes after reboot the analogue click appears though with second hand frozen too. Lots of others with similar problems. Will be taking it in in next couple jf weeks.
 
#23 ·
Update on my Ibiza FR Sport - took to the dealership this morning and left with them now for 3 days as they are going to diagnose and hopefully fix the fault (well let's hope so). On the way to them this morning the infotainment system was constantly rebooting the whole journey! I'll post an update next week on how it goes.
 
#25 ·
Update - garage called me this afternoon to say they had fixed my problem (thought they were having it until tomorrow), I'm picking it up tomorrow anyway as couldn't get there today. As above, I'll see how it goes but mine had got progressively worse so will be interesting to see what happens and what they did. Will report back next week after I've given it a few days to settle
 
#28 ·
Just to jump on to this, my Ateca Infotainment system seems to suffer these random reboots as well. Some observations:

Has now done it four times, about a mile into a journey (or about 2-3 minutes driving time) from cold, ie first trip out of the day.

When mine does it I also get a message saying "Dynamic Road Sign Display - Error" in the Speedo display, plus an annoying 'Ding', the same as the speed warning.

I've found that when the clock displays, holding the power button for about 10 seconds seems to force it to restart, and then it seems to sort itself out.

This is an annoyance, which I'm sure could be fixed by an OTA update, but I really don't want to have to take it back into the dealer for 3 days, given I've only had the vehicle for just over a month.

It would be good to know if anyone has found an absolute fix for this. I had problems with the Ford Sync 3 in my previous Ford Galaxy, which forgot all the settings and Bluetooth devices whenever the engine was switched off, so I really didn't want to have to go through more problems with these damned systems.
 
#29 ·
I'll be popping into the dealer tomorrow to hand them a video of my system rebooting itself and to get the car booked in for any updates that are available. Having not used the Ateca all last week, I drove it Saturday and heading home from a lunch appointment, the system rebooted and started with the "Dynamic Road Sign Display" error. Luckily my passenger was able to reboot the system so as not to distract me. Then on Sunday, within 10 minutes of starting a journey the system just turned itself off, with a completely blank display. My passenger rebooted it twice but it again went blank. I ignored it for the rest of the journey. On the return journey the system behaved perfectly. Go figure!
 
#30 ·
Well here's my update. The forced purge and update at the garage a few weeks ago appeared to resolve the problem, well so i thought! After a week of trouble free infotainment the dreaded sudden rebooting started again, albeit just for 1 journey. Since then it's behaved itself. I emailed the dealership but as yet I haven't had a response, which isnt good, but I will follow up as this needs to be recorded for warranty purposes. Mine's an Ibiza but still has the same.probs apart from I don't have the sign detection, however has anyone noticed the radio station randomly changing to the last stored station in the memory? Mine does this randomly since day 1 but can never say for certain if I just catch the preset buttons on the steering wheel when turning
 
#41 ·
I think this is this is the issue that the fault is so intermittent that it is hard to tie down the cause. I am seeing the same faults on wifes Ibiza.
I read on another forum that a fix was coming from the VW group but not till March 2023.

I have a Cupra Ateca 2021 so do not have the Infotainment fault but have the SOS error. Not going to waste time taking car in till sure that they know they have a fix. Just hit the SOS button to wake up the CPU. From reading threads the thought is that mobile 5G might be confusing the telematic unit and stopping onboard sim card..

Suggestion is that it is apps on system causing infotainment crash. Had wondered if the mobile signal issue was an issue as a few folks on here mention fault happening at same part of journey. Hard to prove with the fault being intermittent.

Be good to hear any updates
 
#34 ·
Mine had been fine for several days then it did it again this morning, but this time, no matter how many soft reboots I did (holding 'power' button for 10 seconds), it wouldn't sort itself out until I stopped, locked and unlocked the car. Luckily I'd only nipped down to the shops on this occasion, so the constantly pinging 'Dynamic Road Signs' error message was only present for a short while.