Quattroporte/QP 2009 Bose NIT Silverbox: Suspected HDD Failure

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
Car
4.2L Quattroporte 2009. Unmodified. Original Bose NIT installed.

The Bose NIT
Bose was a European installation option for the infotainment system 2009-2010 for Quattroportes and mandatory on North American Quattroportes. After February 2010 this changed to the [] and Bose was discontinued.
The Ferrari 612 was installed with the a similar/same Bose NIT system from 2007; I suspect they may be interoperable.

My Story
I was driving my QP on a motorway a couple of weeks ago using the GPS navigation and music stored on the Bose NIT library (hard drive/HDD) was playing. The NIT graphics froze and the music ceased. No buttons or on/off would change this.

On finishing my drive I was able to get the radio to play fine, iPod music, CDs and a DVD. The GPS also worked. I got to these out of the froze screen by quickly pressing the radio button on start-up of the car (and then navigating to everything but Library on the HDD).

To determine the problem I tried music from the HDD again and the NIT froze again. I recovered the system as previously via the radio and then in the menu deleted all stored music from the HDD.
I then put in a CD and loaded it (‘stored’) to the HDD and the system froze again. This time I have been unable to recover the system. On the car startup the Maserati logo with grey background startup screen shows. There seems no way out of this.

Diagnoses
As the car materials talk of a 30GB HDD installed in the NIT and the problems related only to HDD there is a HDD failure (hopefully just bad sectors) and it may be recoverable.

Benchmark Fix Cost
New/Used Bose NITs cost GBP 7,500 + labour costs.

Research
Reading up on the normal home Bose offerings at the time Bose offered uMusic ‘DJ’ and a 30GB HDD system as standard HiFi offering.
I think read this https://forum.eserviceinfo.com/viewtopic.php?p=250207 about the details of these home systems. Putting 2+2 I suspected the same HDD may be used on the NIT as in the home system.
The NIT must use a FAT32 filesystem. While the physical HDD is 40GB the NIT (due to FAT32 file formatting) can only use 32GB and I assume GB is used by the OS/system.
Plan
  • I have ordered a refurbished and fully tested TOSHIBA MK4032GAX HDD 2010; this is a 40GB HDD that is no longer manufactured and is intended for laptops. This cost GBP 35.
  • I have also ordered a new solid state drive (SSD) to the same physical dimensions and interface specific (2.5” form factor, IDE). If I can get this to physically fit it will be a better long-term solution to a replica HDD.
  • I have also contacted Bose Automotive about support a couple of days ago but suspect this may not be forthcoming (although they seem to have been great and helped others in the past). Given it’s Christmas/NY I will give it to the second week of January for a follow-up
  • I plan to remove the fascia of the NIT (HELP NEEDED – HOW)? And to take out the HDD and copy the image to the ordered Toshiba HDD (and if this works when re-installed) to try the SSD. My absolute priority is to recover the HDD image else I am screwed unless I can find another image.
  • As a bonus I will update the HDD with the latest GPS maps (the OEM CD can be brought for about GBP 30 and updates the NIT from maps installed in 2008 to 2013).
Reference Material
2009 Maserati Academy ‘2009-quattroporte-granturismo-introdustion-technical-manual’
2010 Maserati Academy ‘2010-quattroporte-granturismo-advanced-electronics-3-manual’

Other Forum Posts
https://forum.eserviceinfo.com/viewtopic.php?p=250207
https://www.sportsmaserati.com/index.php?threads/qp-2009-bose-problem.17338/
https://www.maseratilife.com/threads/factory-infotainment-replacement-not-old.119381/
https://www.maseratilife.com/threads/bose-nit-repair-or-replacement.56458/
http://www.casatridente.com/t1051-nit-bose-systeme-multimedia-bose-maserati-quattroporte-v-m139
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,700
Car
4.2L Quattroporte 2009. Unmodified. Original Bose NIT installed.

The Bose NIT
Bose was a European installation option for the infotainment system 2009-2010 for Quattroportes and mandatory on North American Quattroportes. After February 2010 this changed to the [] and Bose was discontinued.
The Ferrari 612 was installed with the a similar/same Bose NIT system from 2007; I suspect they may be interoperable.

My Story
I was driving my QP on a motorway a couple of weeks ago using the GPS navigation and music stored on the Bose NIT library (hard drive/HDD) was playing. The NIT graphics froze and the music ceased. No buttons or on/off would change this.

On finishing my drive I was able to get the radio to play fine, iPod music, CDs and a DVD. The GPS also worked. I got to these out of the froze screen by quickly pressing the radio button on start-up of the car (and then navigating to everything but Library on the HDD).

To determine the problem I tried music from the HDD again and the NIT froze again. I recovered the system as previously via the radio and then in the menu deleted all stored music from the HDD.
I then put in a CD and loaded it (‘stored’) to the HDD and the system froze again. This time I have been unable to recover the system. On the car startup the Maserati logo with grey background startup screen shows. There seems no way out of this.

Diagnoses
As the car materials talk of a 30GB HDD installed in the NIT and the problems related only to HDD there is a HDD failure (hopefully just bad sectors) and it may be recoverable.

Benchmark Fix Cost
New/Used Bose NITs cost GBP 7,500 + labour costs.

Research
Reading up on the normal home Bose offerings at the time Bose offered uMusic ‘DJ’ and a 30GB HDD system as standard HiFi offering.
I think read this https://forum.eserviceinfo.com/viewtopic.php?p=250207 about the details of these home systems. Putting 2+2 I suspected the same HDD may be used on the NIT as in the home system.
The NIT must use a FAT32 filesystem. While the physical HDD is 40GB the NIT (due to FAT32 file formatting) can only use 32GB and I assume GB is used by the OS/system.
Plan
  • I have ordered a refurbished and fully tested TOSHIBA MK4032GAX HDD 2010; this is a 40GB HDD that is no longer manufactured and is intended for laptops. This cost GBP 35.
  • I have also ordered a new solid state drive (SSD) to the same physical dimensions and interface specific (2.5” form factor, IDE). If I can get this to physically fit it will be a better long-term solution to a replica HDD.
  • I have also contacted Bose Automotive about support a couple of days ago but suspect this may not be forthcoming (although they seem to have been great and helped others in the past). Given it’s Christmas/NY I will give it to the second week of January for a follow-up
  • I plan to remove the fascia of the NIT (HELP NEEDED – HOW)? And to take out the HDD and copy the image to the ordered Toshiba HDD (and if this works when re-installed) to try the SSD. My absolute priority is to recover the HDD image else I am screwed unless I can find another image.
  • As a bonus I will update the HDD with the latest GPS maps (the OEM CD can be brought for about GBP 30 and updates the NIT from maps installed in 2008 to 2013).
Reference Material
2009 Maserati Academy ‘2009-quattroporte-granturismo-introdustion-technical-manual’
2010 Maserati Academy ‘2010-quattroporte-granturismo-advanced-electronics-3-manual’

Other Forum Posts
https://forum.eserviceinfo.com/viewtopic.php?p=250207
https://www.sportsmaserati.com/index.php?threads/qp-2009-bose-problem.17338/
https://www.maseratilife.com/threads/factory-infotainment-replacement-not-old.119381/
https://www.maseratilife.com/threads/bose-nit-repair-or-replacement.56458/
http://www.casatridente.com/t1051-nit-bose-systeme-multimedia-bose-maserati-quattroporte-v-m139
I have the same install but have a corrupt satnav database and it needs a full reinstall apparently. Everything else still works fine. I have not found a dealer who has a disc as yet, they have tried Maserati uk but no help and I have contacted Bose but they will not talk to me due to Mas contract agreements. So my last port of call is getting Mas uk to contact Bose before I try and swap out head units somehow! Good luck!!
 

montravia

Member
Messages
1,619
It can still be solved by image copy to a fresh compatible disc and swapping over. Or image copy to your original disc.
My troublesome NIT after many disc swaps was eventually diagnosed as a corrupted sector of the nav database. A clean copy solved it.
Contact Phil or happy to chat you through
Robin
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,557
Is this not how I have worked my plan? If not please do explain. I am keen to nail this and all help much appreciated.


I did yesterday.

I think your plan is fair but there are a few gotchas

From memory: It's not FAT32 so making the image is not quite as simple as it might be.
The master / slave settings are 'odd'
SSD should be fine.

Phil is the acknowledged expert. The rest of us that can do this **** don't want to re-invent the wheel. He did all the work and research (with a very little input from me. Tiny. I mean really small. Others might have contributed more) If I needed do, I'd just buy an image and save a load of time and potential grief. Which is not to say you're not one of those people that get a kick out of solving issues....

C
 

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
I have extracted the HDD from the car. I can confirm that the HDD fitted to Bose NITs is (I write this as I've never seen it stated in any documentation or on any forum):
Toshiba Disk Drive MK4036GAC
HDD2G01 A ZK01 T
DC+5V 1.3A
40GB (LBA 78,140, 160 Sectors)

EDIT: I add that the drive removed from the car had no jumpers set on the hard drive, i.e. no connectors set into the four pins of the IDE pin row.

I have analyzed the drive and it's quite bizarre: no bad sectors but no volumes/partitions found (nor recoverable).
 
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MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
If I needed do, I'd just buy an image and save a load of time and potential grief.

I would love to. However, this is the Bose NIT. It was installed for just over a year on some European cars. Everything from 2010 onward was Magneti NIT, which Phil can certainly help with.

If anyone has a Bose NIT image that would be amazing...!
 

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
I have made further progress on three fronts:
  1. I have recovered files from the car hard drive. These are .MP3, .WAV., and one .SWF file. It seems the .WAVs are arabic music from the previous owner and the .MP3 are my own saved from CDs I loaded when the system worked (although some files are mixed up - as often happens with file recovery). The .SWF does not play. It may be corrupted or not actually a Shockwave file. I still cannot find a lost partition on the drives (with any software in Windows or Linux Debian).
  2. Gracenote is the CD identification software installed on Bose systems (including the QP5 Bose NIT). I see no reference to this on the files recovered. However, I do have ISOs of Gracenote (which were hard to find) so if ever I get the system working again I have June 2018 Gracenote database for the system.
  3. I have manged to find two different Bose images for the HiFi uMusic Bose Toshiba HDDs (required some serious ninja Google skills here). I will test these locally on my new Toshiba HDD - I expect it to create two FAT32 partitions: a 30GB and a 10GB partition. I DO NOT believe this is all that is required because there is an automotive OS and the navigation software required.
I have ordered the Navigation update CDs from Ferrari/Maserati. I am hoping so far in the absence of a recovered partition I may be able to get to: uMusic system, Navigation (if very lucky) software as opposed just an update, leaving the automotive OS missing. It's not all that would be required but inches us closer in understanding...
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
Good work mate that sounds promising, as I said to you on email happy to help if you need cloning etc.... please keep us posted on your findings as I am seeking a solution for this too.
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
I have made further progress on three fronts:
  1. I have recovered files from the car hard drive. These are .MP3, .WAV., and one .SWF file. It seems the .WAVs are arabic music from the previous owner and the .MP3 are my own saved from CDs I loaded when the system worked (although some files are mixed up - as often happens with file recovery). The .SWF does not play. It may be corrupted or not actually a Shockwave file. I still cannot find a lost partition on the drives (with any software in Windows or Linux Debian).
  2. Gracenote is the CD identification software installed on Bose systems (including the QP5 Bose NIT). I see no reference to this on the files recovered. However, I do have ISOs of Gracenote (which were hard to find) so if ever I get the system working again I have June 2018 Gracenote database for the system.
  3. I have manged to find two different Bose images for the HiFi uMusic Bose Toshiba HDDs (required some serious ninja Google skills here). I will test these locally on my new Toshiba HDD - I expect it to create two FAT32 partitions: a 30GB and a 10GB partition. I DO NOT believe this is all that is required because there is an automotive OS and the navigation software required.
I have ordered the Navigation update CDs from Ferrari/Maserati. I am hoping so far in the absence of a recovered partition I may be able to get to: uMusic system, Navigation (if very lucky) software as opposed just an update, leaving the automotive OS missing. It's not all that would be required but inches us closer in understanding...

As I mentioned to you on mail a lot of these OS's are a proprietary system and cannot always be detected in Window or Linux. I've seen some older Sat Nav Systems that can only be cloned in Clonezilla. The BOSE system found in the 2009 QP's (GT etc) is completely different to the MM NIT found in the GT/S cars but I still get lots of enquiries for the QP Bose NIT with similar symptoms ie black screen, frozen logo etc.... Some of the later QPV's for a certain year had the same MM system.
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
BTW when the other guy had the same issue as you a couple of years back I contacted him for more info and this is what he sent me.

Hi Phil,

I had problems with the NIT Bose on my 2009 Quattroporte Sport GTS.
I spent a lot of time looking for a solution, Maserati did not help me, they only wanted to replace the NIT (7000 € !!!) but anyway the NIT was not in stock.

I found a person you need to contact, you have to send an email to Mr Frank Müller (support@bose.com) (Bose Automotive GmbH - Customer Support Team Europe)

First you must explain your problem precisely.

They will offer you a solution. For me, a software update with 4 CDs but it did not work. Bose Automotive then offered to test the NIT for free and see if they could find another solution.

After asking the dealership to dismantle the NIT, I sent it to Bose Automotive in Germany.
They found the default, it was a hard drive problem. I just paid his replacement (300€, better than Maserati !).

With this contact at Bose Automotive you have a real chance to solve your problem I think it will be very useful for you.
Keep me informed on my personal email :

Regards,

Nicolas
ALFIERI69
Administrator casatridente.com
 

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
Hi Phil thank you very much for the above information and e-mail address/contact. I have sent two requests in recent weeks to Bose Automotive via the form without success (hoping to get a HDD image).

I have come across this (the same HDD) and manufacturer (Bose) in a later car, a Nissan (obviously a different/later system but the need to unlock was interesting). This is very fortunate the car owner is an automotive software engineer!
I am going to see if I can 'unlock' the HDD. That would explain my issues when trying to, but being unable to, view the partitions/lost partitions. My final thought is that I am using a USB to IDE connection and I may dig out an old machine with native IDE to try and connect to the drive.

The image install on my new Toshiba HDD of the uMusic partitions worked this evening but this is a minor issue.
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
Great info and makes perfect sense to me regarding the unlock. The hard part is finding a computer with IDE on the motherboard!!
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,700
BTW when the other guy had the same issue as you a couple of years back I contacted him for more info and this is what he sent me.

Hi Phil,

I had problems with the NIT Bose on my 2009 Quattroporte Sport GTS.
I spent a lot of time looking for a solution, Maserati did not help me, they only wanted to replace the NIT (7000 € !!!) but anyway the NIT was not in stock.

I found a person you need to contact, you have to send an email to Mr Frank Müller (support@bose.com) (Bose Automotive GmbH - Customer Support Team Europe)

First you must explain your problem precisely.

They will offer you a solution. For me, a software update with 4 CDs but it did not work. Bose Automotive then offered to test the NIT for free and see if they could find another solution.

After asking the dealership to dismantle the NIT, I sent it to Bose Automotive in Germany.
They found the default, it was a hard drive problem. I just paid his replacement (300€, better than Maserati !).

With this contact at Bose Automotive you have a real chance to solve your problem I think it will be very useful for you.
Keep me informed on my personal email :

Regards,

Nicolas
ALFIERI69
Administrator casatridente.com
When I contacted Bose with my sat Nav database issue, I just got told they had a contractual agreement with Maserati and would not deal with me!
 

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
When I contacted Bose with my sat Nav database issue, I just got told they had a contractual agreement with Maserati and would not deal with me!

I'll try and have a word with them. If I can solve the image issue, it will solve the navigation issue.
 

MaseratiGent

Member
Messages
162
Update: I am buying an old 2003 desktop PC with native PATA (as opposed post circa 2003 SATA) IDE HDD connections. A USB to IDE connecter does not work to unlock drives. I hope to have all I need by Friday 17th Jan to try and unlock and made an image of my own HDD.

So far I believe I know now how to (but need to test this):
  1. update the internal music DB (Gracenote) from 2008 (which never updates beyond 2008, even with the 2 minor official updates) to June 2018 (and potentially 2019).
  2. access the navigation maps and software. The software I can update to September 2009 from 2008.
I believe I may be able to (I need more information):
  1. create an image from a HDD (although I know my image will be corrupted as this is why I started the whole exercise)
  2. update the navigation maps to 2013 or even 2019
  3. replace the Toshiba HDD with a SSD so a replacement lasts much longer.
  4. avoid the need for a 'proxi alignment' at the dealer - if I can copy my own settings if this part of my HDD is not corrupted.
I am stymied by lack of an original HDD image but hopefully this is addressed on Friday if I unlock mine. My learning has come from reverse engineering the official minor update CDs. Having an original image will let me know if 1-4 above are correct, which I strongly think they are.

Irrespective to solve this for myself and others I will need other Bose NIT HDDs as I know my HDD is corrupted. If you want to help/have issues as we do and are not already messaging me please PM me. I am working to a solution for broken Bose NIT HDDs and inadvertently upgrades.

For Magnetti Marelli NIT (2010 onward) please contact Contigo. The Bose NIT is a totally different system from 2009-2010.
 
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rockits

Member
Messages
9,167
Great info and makes perfect sense to me regarding the unlock. The hard part is finding a computer with IDE on the motherboard!!
You can get IDE to convertors as we have them on some Startech docks/duplicators we have here. Also we have IDE to USB and loads of other old IDE cables connectors and all sorts

We have done tons of block or OS level duplication, copies, restores and the like over the years of varying OS's, drives, interfaces. Different sized disks and loads of different software tools.

It is part of my day job so we do a fair bit of it also imaging.

Not sure if that helps but happy to chat with anyone if I can offer any input, help or advise.
 
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