Screen Failure?

[wrb1961]

When I got in my car this afternoon in EXTREME heat, 104 degrees, this is what my screen looked like....any suggestions? It did reset after sitting for a while.

[Henry_FL]

LCD's don't do well in extreme heat. While I have no doubts you could have the panel replaced, its really a technology issue. If your not using a windshield sun screen, I would recommend you do as it could easily get into the 160+ range with mid-day sun beating on the dash. LCD's are spec'ed to 60C for most LCD's 70C maximum for the rugged ones for operating temperature

[VoltageDrop]

"Kinda looks neat....after baking in the heat"..........okay all cheesy rhymes aside....I agree with Henry.....might be good to get a windshield screen...especially if sitting out in the hot summer days will be a recurrent theme........

[Just Joe]

It happened to me 2/8/12, 9 days after getting my Volt. It was probably about 40 degrees, went away after a while and never occurred again.

[Slapshot28]

Interesting. Almost identical screen shots.

It sounds like an extremely rare race condition (a devilish software demon) during boot-up. It's probably impossible to reproduce intentionally, and therefore essentially impossible to debug/fix.

If GM software engineers are reading this thread, the screenshots may help; however, I doubt that the probelm is in their code. More likely it's buried deep in the LCD firmware.

[jbfalaska]

Choose the nano-ceramic or nano-carbon window tint. New, very modern window tinting. Cuts heat way down, now including the IR cut back with these amazing applications. The other is the roof. The other memberes recommended painting the roof white to go with my white car. The black is intense at pumping heat into the cabin. Note, nowadays, you can also tint the windshield with clear. Basically, cut out all the IR, UVA, and other heat conentrating rays down to a very decent level. Still, there's no guarantee that was heat. These screens can be sensitive for other reasons too. That could've been a bump during prep work. No way to know, but definitely get it replaced as soon as possible. I've gone through so many LCD screens it isn't funny. Only TVs seem to hold up because they never get moved about in my house. All my laptops, phones, gear, that's my weak link.

[jbfalaska]

Another change for me, I picked up an extended warranty. New technology piece of mind is all. Hope I never need it frankly.

[BAZINGA]

Something similar happened to my daughters Cruze LTZ last month while she was visiting Texas in temps over 108 degrees after the car had been sitting in the sun for hours. Dealer couldn't find any faults and it hasn't happened since. I've had no issues with my 2012 Volt even in triple digit temp's here in St Louis but I did tint my windows with ceramic tint, so I wonder if that has any impact?

So I wonder if this is heat related?

[Slapshot28]

So I wonder if this is heat related?

Maybe, but we do have at least one exception: Just Joe reported above that his event occurred on a mild February day in Colorado, when it was 40 degrees outside. No doubt, this seems like the kind of rare firmware defect that excessive heat could promote.

[Krellion]

It definitely looks like a software issue, not an issue with the screen itself. My guess is that there was a glitch as the system was loading and displaying the background image, hence why the foreground display elements (battery gauge, green ball, etc.) look fine.