Project 981 - Upgrading the PCM 3.1 hard drive
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- čas přidán 22. 02. 2024
- I like things to be up to date - and I hate unexpected failures. Which means it was an easy decision to upgrade the hard drive in my 2015 Boxster's 'Porsche Communication Management' - or PCM 3.1, as it's better known.
In this video I remove the PCM unit from the dashboard, remove the original factory-fit hard drive from the PCM, clone (or copy) that drive onto a new solid-state hard drive, and recommission the PCM with the new drive installed.
Bonus! I also take the opportunity to update the PCM's firmware AND update the navigation database (the maps) while I'm at it. Though I won't bore you with the details of those two exercises since they took forever and were very dull to watch. 😀
If you want to upgrade your hard drive, firmware and/or maps yourself, make sure you know what you're doing before you start. Search the forums and internet for how-to guides and aftermarket options before you start removing trim.
Don't forget that the PCM is an expensive, delicate and sensitive piece of electronics. Opening it up and modifying it is done entirely at your own risk.
*If your car is still covered by an extended or third-party warranty, I recommend letting the professionals do this work for you instead.*
* Supplies & Links *
● Replacement drive: I used a Crucial BX500 internal drive; 240gb SSD and 2.5” form factor (guide price £30). Samsung, among others, make a range of suitable SSDs, albeit they're a touch more expensive.
● Disk cloner: I bought an SSK copy/clone unit (DK103 - approximately £25) from Amazon. There are plenty more brands to choose from. Look for one that permits stand-alone cloning (i.e. doesn't need to be connected to a computer).
● The PCM system version firmware, and navigational (mapping) database update, were bought from/supplied by satnavishop. All entirely straightforward and helpful. www.satnavishop.co.uk/porsche... - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Thanks Christian, Richard
Nice work, I have a 981 coming and so the videos will be super useful. Thank you.
My pleasure - thanks Justin. Enjoy the 981!
Brilliant! Thank you.
My pleasure!
I did this too (the easy method). Next step is to crack that bad boy open and put a CarPlay board in it. I went with Isudar as it didn’t have an external box and could use the OEM mic for the cleanest install. Hardest bit is taking the antenna etc out the back of the PCM. Modernises the cabin quite a bit.
The easy method is much easier! I really don’t know why it didn’t occur to me, even while I was doing it. (The ribbon is fiddly.)
I’m tempted by CarPlay, but need to sort out a sticky PSE valve and some worn disks and pads first! (I gather the various plugs on the rear of the PCM are quite hard to remove intact!)
Looking forward to the video in stuck valves as I also suffer from this.
@@polymonk Aah! Well, spoiler alert: I’m putting a whole new OEM PSE exhaust on the car (cat-back only; headers are staying for now). I love the sound (who doesn’t?) of the factory set-up and the sticky valve has resisted all attempts to correct it. I have a warranty on the oily parts, so the financial pain will be diminished. It’s annoying, but after doing my research it seems to be the best option if I want the same volume and tone.
I was doing this for folks 3-4 years ago for folks, but lost all my equipment in a freak flooding incident. Great to see someone picked this back up and is showing others how it's done.
Thanks Jason.
Yup, it’s hardly a new thing, but no less worthwhile. (Arguably more so as these cars age.) It’s certainly given me peace of mind.
If I may suggest, do the test of the cloned drive before doing any of the reinstallation of the PCM. Lots of things can go wrong cloning a disk and all that reinstall work would be nice to do once.
A very good point. 🙏
In fact, not shown in the video is my own testing of the clone, plus the software upgrades. As you rightly suggest, I didn’t want to have to bolt it all back together only to discover it didn’t work.
Thankfully it did. But it’s an excellent piece of advice - thank you.
@@christianpratt I realize you did all that. I just thought a few words about it were a good idea. Great video.
@@artysanmobile 👍
Great video and thanks for going into the detail. Can you provide details/link to the ss hard drive you replaced the original with and the dock you used to clone it. Thanks 👍
Glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully there’s enough detail in there for you.
The SSD is available direct from Crucial - though check Amazon resellers too for lower prices. It’s their BX500 model - 240gb. You need the 2.5” form factor.
SATA drive/clone was one of many on Amazon - the make is SSK. You’re looking for the stand alone (i.e. doesn’t require a PC) clone feature, specifically.
I get the hardware update but have I missed how to update the software - how to do it? Pretty detailed video how to get the PCM out and swap the hard drive though and very helpful, Thank You.
Glad you found the video helpful. 👍
The software is updated using a series of USB sticks (with validation ‘keys’ on them) and CD (the mapping) - there is a link to the company I used in the description. You basically follow the prompts in sequence; it took well over an hour but was easy enough to do.
A Porsche dealer could also do these updates for you though they’ll charge a fair bit more!
Please provide details and price of the cloning unit and the replacement hard drive? Does the cloning unit need to be connected to a pc to work? Thanks
(My 981 PCM 3.1 has failed once already despite very low mileage/use)
Hi Richard. Thanks for your comment. The details you need are in the video's description (expand it and scroll down a bit). The prices shouldn't have varied too much.
The beauty of the clone approach (and any cloner will do this) is that it's entirely stand alone - you don't need a computer, and you don't need to format the new drive. It wil literally copy the old drive byte for byte, including all formatting, partioning and the like.
Sorry to hear about your own PCM - what a nuisance.
Useful vid, thanks. Can you provide an idea of costs for the equipment? Thanks
Glad you like it.
Around £25 for the cloner, and from £30 for the SSD. You can pay more for the drives though I think that generally gets you faster Write speeds, which isn’t so much of an issue for the PCM.
Nice detailed video, very informative! Would you mind sharing how you got the v4.76 PCM firmware and updated navigation database for you region/car? Was it through the dealer or directly online in forums or such? Thank you!
Thank you Bruno. Pleased you found it useful.
It was a third-party/after-market supplier; let me check if they’re happy to have their details shared. I’ll come back to you…
Hi again Bruno.
The supplier I used is satnavishop - www.satnavishop.co.uk/porsche-32-c.asp
Plenty of options for various cars. As I understand it, you need to upgrade the PCM firmware to 4.76 for the PCM to then accept the navigation database update thereafter.
@@christianpratt Where did you get the PCM firmware upgrade from? And did you install it via the PCM or via a PC connected to your SSD? Finally, do you happen to know if the earlier 2012/2013 model years that did not offer the Jukebox feature as an option could be made to "offer it"?
@@Mike981SHi Mike. Thanks for the questions.
If you scroll to the bottom of the video description you'll find the link to the third-party supplier I used for the firmware (and mapping). It's installed directly into the PCM, using a combination of DVD and USB memory sticks. A slightly Heath Robinson approach, it seems, yet it works.
I can't offer an answer on Jukebox, I'm afraid, since I don't know. My impression (just that) is that it is a feature of PCM 3.1, irrespective of system version. But I don't know, I'm afraid.
Knowing you, the SSD was simply installed as a weight saving measure. 😁
It’s amazing how much lighter the newer drive is. It’s true. 😃
Hi sir, I’m not much of a tech person. Which 25 fuse is it on the passenger side? There seems to be quite a few
There are!
Double check your manual to be sure. But…
Left hand footwell.
Second row from the top (the first row comprising larger fuses oriented horizontally).
It’s the 10th fuse from the left - the last one! It’s 25 amps; in my car it’s yellow.
Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!
Hi how did you fit the ssd connector the the pcm board?
(Just checking this is an IDE-based query, given your separate comment?)
Very informative thanks! Has the SSD resulted in PCM responding any quicker ? Does the jukebox function work more quickly?
Good question Simon. TBH, I haven’t used the car enough (barely at all) to know, since I swapped the drives. That should change next week, and I’ll be in a position to judge whether the maps render any faster. I tend to use an iPod for playing media, but I’ll check the Jukebox too - I’ve a hundred tracks or so loaded up for emergencies!
Hi again Simon. FYI, having now driven the car a few miles, the PCM doesn't really seem to be any quicker with the SSD, which make me think it's RAM and/or processor-limited. It does all work as advertised though, which is encouraging!
Makes sense, I suppose the one thing that might be quicker is the jukebox function@@christianpratt
@@simonkenyon3695 I don't have a that many tunes loaded onto it, and they seemed to play perfectly normally. If one have several thousand or more, then perhaps there would be an improvement, it's true.
@@christianpratt Did you use a "Crucial BX500 240GB 2.5 inch SSD" as the replacement disk? Mine has just started mysteriously rebooting ....so time to clone and replace I think
Thank you for this video, this is preventative maintenance I had not thought of and it looks easy enough for a not too tech person like myself to do. Do you have the links for the hard drive and copying unit?
Thanks - glad it was helpful.
The SSD is from Crucial - the BX500 (2.5”, 240gb). The SATA unit is one of many options on Amazon! I chose a model from SSK, which was easy enough to use.
(If you want to spend a bit more on an SSD, Samsung do them too - albeit I think you’re paying for faster Write speeds, which isn’t really an issue with the PCM.)
Fantastic! I really appreciate your help. I have a 2013 Boxster S and I’ve just added this to my to do list for this springtime. Next stop Amazon 😁. Thanks again. Barrie
@@len333p Final thought - there is a thread on the PCGB forums about this same process. The guy has an ‘early’ 981 (as he initially described it) and it turned out the hard drive was an IDE type rather than SATA, which added some cost since he had to buy some additional bits and pieces to clone it. From the thread:
“Mine is a 2012, the other post I found with the IDE issues was a 2013. The SATA drive posts I found were 2014 onwards. Therefore as a ball park the cross over period is probably somewhere between 2013 and 2014.
Unfortunately without pulling the hard drive out I’m not sure if there is a definitive way to know for sure. This process is about 20 minutes to half an hours effort.”
Hard to know in advance it seems. But if you’re keen to proceed, consider an exploratory trim/PCM removal first to establish your particular set up.
Thank you.
How did you get the original hard drive unscrewed from the metal tray? The 4 screws holding it in place seem way too strongly torqued.
I thought that too. In fact, once the screws were out (I persevered!) I realised they had some thread lock on them from the factory.
When I mounted the new drive I avoided over-torquing the screws (to prevent damage to the drive body) but did put another small drop of thread lock on each.
@@christianpratt i noticed the thread lock. I wonder how to get this off. my torx8 screwdriver is not able to loosen it (it just will destroy it).
@@Mike981S Oh - that's frustrating. I can't immediately think of any other way of safely undoing them.
The alternative would be to source a second hand metal chassis (possibly from a breaker) and screw the new SDD into that. You can easily transfer the connector/ribbon by sliding the assembly off the end of the old drive and simply pushing it onto the new drive.
Seems odd that the screws are that tight on yours. Not sure what to make of that.
@@christianpratt I got a stronger screwdriver and got it open. They used Locktite blue. But I ran into another problem. I have a fairly early 2013 Boxster S. The HD in the car is a Toshiba MK4050GAC 40GB, 4200RPM, ATA/100 automative drive. So it is not a SATA drive :(. So I now have to figure out how to clone it and how to install my SATA drive (the ATA SSDs have a faily bad reputation). I assume the reason for you having a larger drive with SATA is that Porsche upgraded the drive when they added the Jukebox feature.
@@Mike981S Oh - that's frustrating. It also vaguely rings a bell from my own research, and I also vaguely recall that it's do'able, albeit with various adapters and the like.
As to the reason why they changed to SATA, I can't say. That shall remain a mystery!
SSD drives are supposed to be a lot faster,right?
That’s the theory. In practice, at least in this setup, there’s little obvious difference. I suspect the rest of the PCM’s hardware - the chipset and whatever RAM it uses - isn’t able to take advantage of the faster read speeds of the SSD (and there’s very little data writing going on, so far as I can tell).
It’s more about avoiding an HDD failure than boosting the PCM’s performance.
Personally I wouldn't replace the hard drive with an SSD. SSD's have known limited life spans as they have a fixed amount of writes. Plus when they fail, they fail catastrophically, as in they just become unuseable from one moment to the next with zero warning. HDD's tend to slow first, though in the PCM system that may be irrelevant as the end result is likely to be a PCM error anyway. So unless the SSD is significantly faster than repalacing with an HDD I really wouldn't change to one.
NB: It's a given in a PC that an SSD will out perform an SSD, I strongly suspect the PCM system isn't quick enough in terms of CPU power etc to show a night and day difference between an HDD and SSD. I have a very high bar when it comes to performance improvements, so unless the SSD is literally twice as quick as an HDD in in the specific use case of being in a PCM system I really wouldn't consider performance to be a justifiable reason to spend the extra money that an SSD costs.
Thanks for your comments and thoughts James - appreciated.
You won't be surprised to hear that the PCM can't really use the read/write speed of the SSD to its advantange; it's not in anyway 'faster', in the same way a PC would otherwise be.
My thinking with the SSD's write-limited lifespan is - possibly naively - that it's not really being written to. It merely sits there, between very occassional software updates, and is only read. If I change a setting or two, that will be saved, I guess. But it's not reguarly having large sets of data added or moved around. Hopefully that is to its advantage in this setting.
I've kept the original drive, needless to say. That's my de facto backup - until Porsche Classic introduce an updated PCM for the 981/991 generation in the future! Now >that< would be an expensive upgrade!