Radio cuts out

[Calmansfield]

2020 Ram 1500 Big Horn.
Radio just randomly shuts off and then restarts a few minutes later. Sometimes just freezes on and none of the controls work, then just shuts off and restarts. Had the complete radio replaces by the dealer but still same issues...

 

[bluebeast1562]

I too have the 2020 Ram Bighorn, does it to me as well at times. I turn the radio off then on, seems to correct itself. Electrical gremlins I guess.

 

[GTyankee]

Does it happen with AM or FM or Sirius or all three ?

 

[Calmansfield]

Everything, radio either shuts off and then nothing works, including air conditioning, and anything that uses the screen, Or the radio freezes which also causes everything to not work

 

[brian42]

Mine used to just freeze up and it wouldn't fix itself until I restarted the truck a couple of times (or 10).

Since I've gotten a couple of OTA updates this year (first ones in over 2 years of ownership) the radio will reboot itself occasionally, sometimes even if everything seems to be running okay.

It's pure speculation on my part but it seems that my updates have added an if/then action to the software. I'm sure there's plenty of self-check subroutines running while I drive but now if it detects an abnormality in the center stack (non-critical function) it initiates a reboot. Sometimes it does it once and sometimes it does it several times but the issue seems to fix itself now without waiting for a restart of the truck (which forces a reboots the center stack).

I've read of people that had OTA issues (bad downloads) that caused a continuous boot loop and some that had the boot loop continue when the truck was shut down causing a dead battery.

If the dealership cannot find an issue (or can't reproduce it) tell them you want the software re-flashed to make sure it is installed correctly. The dealerships are usually a revision or two behind in software so maybe a fresh install of a previous version will solve your issue.

 

[GTyankee]

It used to be that the computer under the hood did everything
Now the Radio is mostly computer
It reads what all the micro processors are doing & if something is wrong, the information is sent onto the main computer, where hopefully a correction is made.

That is why the engineers call it an infotainment system instead of a radio