Yeah, the boot sequence does seem to depend on sufficient battery power. If a module or sensor is not getting enough power, it may not start up correctly - and that can affect the booting of other modules which are waiting for a response for the one that isn't coming up.

And the reason you sometimes need to lock the car & unlock it is because most modules stay powered up for a while after you stop the engine, just in case you are going to restart. They only power down quickly when you lock the car, because that implies you're not planning to move off for a little while.

 

had the same issue with 2008 xkr; battery replaced with Interstate; within 1 day issue recurred; mechanic used pdi to recalibrate battery and worked for 1 week; only correction that immediately corrects issue is to remove negative terminal battery cable, but can't do that all the time. Any other workarounds?

 

Change the car

Sorry, that's not very helpful, but may be the only solution as Jaguar aren't interested in this type of issue.

This started happening on my Jaguar XKR 2007 in its second year, while still under warranty and I was consistently fobbed off by the dealers. The solution was to wait for a software upgrade, which never came! It's a bit like Jaguars support for blutooth on mobile phones - none existant.

I still have the Jag, it's now 10 years old and at 120K miles, and every now and again I still get the frozen screen issue. It tends to happen more in the Winter, I assume because there's more of a drain on the battery at startup, but there's no pattern as to when it happens.

I've learnt to live with it and curse Jaguar when it does happen

 

Yes, Jaguar has failed in this, you would wonder what they know, probably more than we think. I have had issue since purchase six years ago, XKR Coupe 2008. I am careful to start car, keep in park until screen boots up, sometimes that is instant, and others couple of seconds, up to maybe 5 seconds, problem can be littlr worse cold. Issue of locking going away and returning is a help. I don't think there is fix unless software code was fixed and maybe some hardware too,
Other than this, car has been a real joy and vary easy on the eyes, always get looks and comments, "What A beautiful machaine". Mine is Azure Blue

 

I don't use a battery maintainer, but I do use my XKR every day. During the week it does a 50 mile round trip to work each day on fast, back roads. At weekends it is used for shorter runs.

I still get the touchscreen not working issue every now and again, there's nothing I can do to prevent it. The battery was replaced a couple of years ago.

As others have said it appears this is just a design issue on these cars, it certainly is NOT a battery maintenance issue on mine!

 

Please try what I suggested in my previous post! - It works for me!

It is NOT the battery; the problem will appear with a full battery and even when connected to a CTEK. Most times when the battery is dead the screen still boots up fine.

I am convinced that it is something to do with the boot sequence of the various modules and their respective states.

I quite simply always leave the radio on when I shut the car off. When I start it up the radio comes on and the screen does not jam. In about 6 months now I have only had the screen stick on the logo ONE time!!

Cheap to try - please let me know!!

Phil

 

Just wanted to add that after 10 years of XK (2007) ownership I, too, have had the blank-touchscreen experience two or three times. No conclusion on what the cause is. Following Philbone's consideration that it is NOT the battery, however, many others have also reported a new/freshly charged battery as not having fixed this problem. Over the years, I've left the radio on, turned off, in the CD source, all with little effect on the issue. Something my wife did today was to press and hold the "Source" button for a few seconds and, voila, she says all came back to life. (Going to have to put this to the test, however, before any conclusions can be drawn.)

That said, I'd just like to add to the mix that battery drainage is indeed a problem with this vehicle and something that I've learned from my dealer is to keep the car locked when not in use. Locking the car will fully shut down the electronics; leaving it unlocked keeps some of the system in stand-by, which is a battery drain. While I can't tell you what's left in stand-by, I can say that this tip has been beneficial. Being a retired systems test engineer, I can tell you that low voltage in systems WILL keep electronics from working correctly. My inclination is to suspect borderline design tolerances for module boot up as discussed above. If this is the case, it's a good idea, methinks, to keep the battery at the top of its game. Cheers!

 

Coordpoint - the way to keep your battery in tip top shape is to use a battery maintainer The preferred maintainer on this forum is CTeck. The newest one can be found on Amazon or Ebay. If you decide to go ahead and buy one you should also acquire the extension cord for ease of use. The whole rig can be bought for less than $90. If you want to check further on the forum there are several threads that discuss the Cteck and the installation which is quite easy and takes less than 15 minutes. Daily usage involves less than 30 seconds to hook up or unhook.

 

Ive replaced the battery just 2 months ago screen still does its occasional lock up I also use a CTEK when not in use

 

Th car does completely shut down if you don't lock it, but it takes about 30 minutes. This is known as "convenience mode", and is intended to speed startup when you just stop the engine for a short time. The car draws about 10A when powered up without the engine running, and over the 30 minutes it progressively turns off different modules until it reaches full shutdown. When you lock it, that process happens in a few minutes.

 

Interesting conversation thread. This is something that I have experienced on-and-off on my 2007 XK convertible.

One thing that definitely helps is double locking to car once I park up. I have a feeling that it totally powers the car down and forces a full reboot of the system at start-up. This has greatly helped to reduce the instances of the head unit not turning on.

I'm a bit hesitant to say that it has cured the problem, but it certainly has helped reduce it happening.

In relation to battery issues - the battery was brand new some 9 months ago, and is maintained via a CTEK if the car doesn't move for more than 3 weeks.

 

Yep, I ALWAYS have double-locked mine. I don't know if it's helped or not, but I've never had a battery problem.

 

I have the same problem occurring after 3 years of ownership. I have discovered that when I start the car and just leave it idling in the garage the display stays on. As soon as I drive the car, the display will go off after 5 mins, or as long as 15 mins. I really think that when you are driving the car the battery is using all it's power and messes with the display. I will try and get a volt meter on the battery and measure the voltage when the screen is on versus when it is off. There are a number of threads on this subject and the consistent suspect is the battery and that an AGM battery will be much better for these kind of cars. My current battery, although the test says it's OK, is 5 years old and I will replace with and AGM battery. I don't think it's a lose connection because it would go on and off with each bounce of the car on NJ roads. If anyone has an idea of cause that would be awesome.

gdollar

 

I was told about the double locking by a service adviser at the Tampa Jaguar dealership. He said the double locking powers everything down. As for the screen not powering up, I had the problem a few weeks ago. I had Sears drop in a new battery and the problem went away.

 

The main value in locking the car, rather than leaving it unlocked if you have a garage, is that it causes a rapid power-down over about 5 minutes (most stuff stops immediately), rather than the 30+ minutes it takes if you leave it unlocked. In the unlocked state, it is in 'convenience mode', ready & waiting for you to jump back in and drive off, and it carries on drawing the full 10 Amps or so that it needs to run everything.

It does eventually shut things down one by one, but in the meantime, it puts a big dent in your battery charge. It is the low battery at startup that causes most of the electronic issues with our cars.

If you do have trouble with any of the modules when you start up, then run it for a minute, turn it off & lock it (you can do that using the keyfob without leaving the car). That forces the quick shutdown, then you can unlock, re-start, and the problem usually goes away. I have to do this occasionally when the touchscreen locks up - I've even done it at traffic lights.

 

Thanks for the reply. Did you get AGM battery or a regular one? It seems that the regular one just starts to give trouble again after a few months even with a trickle charger.

 

I tried that a few times on my '07 when I had the frozen logo issue. The touch screen would only power off once all the modules had shut down properly which was minutes rather than seconds.

My '10 seems to be a lot less sensitive to voltage as I haven't had any glitches so far but the battery was changed in November as part of the purchase agreement so they may rear their ugly heads at some point.

For now, my CTEK remains in the cupboard and I hope that locking the car when I am not using it will be enough to keep it that way!

 

Interesting - as I've only owned a MY11 car, I wasn't aware of the difference. It works on the 5.0 models. I used to stop, get out, lock it, unlock it and get back in, but I decided to try just locking it while still inside - no problem.

My battery is now 5 years old at least (I haven't changed it since buying the car), and it still seems fine despite only driving it once or twice a week. But I know it will start causing problems at some point.

 

Nope. Have to disagree on this. My last battery was the OEM installed in 07. Standard lead acid battery and lasts 9 years without incident.

AGM batteries are not a panacea for anything in an 07, 08, 09 and are supplied in some later models only.

 

My 2008 Jag XKR.
I had intermittent on and off with digital display. Mine was mostly battery related. It happened one time when I was at the Jag dealer to buy a part. I spoke to one of the techs and he quickly took the car to the repair bay and came back with the problem solved. He said it's an electrical issue and did a hard reset, by disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes and reconnecting. I recently got a new battery and always connect to my CTEK daily when car is in garage. The problem never repeated and a full battery seems to solve the problem.