Thursday 22 November 2018

Optimising 1 of 68 Apps


I recently bought a 2nd hand 2008 VW Passat Estate. This car has a head unit, or an Android-powered display, for the uninitiated.


Several days following the purchase the head unit went into a spin and began to go into a cycle of optimising the Apps. It would start at optimising 1 of 63 Apps and then go through exactly the same cycle, perhaps with occasionally fewer Apps. Nothing I did would bring the display back to normal.

Even an automotive electrician who specialised in these things said it was knackered and I'd have to order a new one for £150, but it would have the latest version of Android. I duly ordered one from him and simultaneously booked him to install it and a reversing camera I'd bought on eBay.

When we went to The Gower on Saturday I left the head unit to keep going through its cycle to see if a long period would have any positive effect. Lo and behold, once we go to Swansea the head unit booted itself into normality.

On inspecting the System function, I discovered that the head unit had upgraded itself from Android 4.0 to Android 6.1. What had happened was that the unit, for once, had sufficient time to download every version of Android between 4 and 6.1, optimising the Apps at each stage, which obviously required a couple of hours. It's now apparent that the previous owner had never connected the head unit to the Internet for several years.

As it transpired, the automotive electrician had managed to cancel the new head unit order. He did, however, fit the reversing camera I'd bought from eBay, although the camera (which doubles as a reversing light) was a smidgin too large for the aperture, requiring me to shave a tiny sliver of metal from it before seating it properly. This is despite the eBay advert clearly saying it is for a B6 VW Passat, which mine is. Bloody eBay...


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