[Waynesev]

First let me say that I love this Group! You folks are the greatest resource for Volt information.

I had a unique experience today with my 2012 Volt. I started my Volt today to do some errands and immediately noticed that the drivers display was completely dark, I adjusted the display brightness control up and down, there was no change to the drivers display, although the center stack display did change with the brightness control.

I did a restart, no change to the drivers display.
I called On-Star and the Volt Adviser had me do both a Soft (Shut off and open drivers door for 30 seconds) and Hard Reboot (Shut off and Lock the car with the remote and get the remote 250 feet away for 30 minutes).
Sad to say that upon restarting the Volt there was no change to the dark drivers display.
My Volt Adviser (Samantha) recommended that I contact my Chevy dealership for further diagnosis and repair.
I called the local Chevy Volt dealer for an appointment, the earliest that it could be looked at was over 2 days out!
After getting off the phone I decided to do a little investigation for myself.
I located the Fuse Panel at the left end of the dash, removed the fuse cover.
Looking at the fuse diagram on the back fuse door, I located fuse "F4" "10A DISPLY"
I pulled out the 10A fuse, waited a few seconds and then replaced it.
I then got in the drivers seat and started the car.......... YES! the display came back on!
I hope by posting this it will help someone else who has this same dark / black drivers screen condition.

I called my OnStar Volt adviser with the good news and described to her what I did to get the display working.
She said, she was not aware of this remedy to reset the display.
I just had to share this with the group.
Have a Great Day,
Wayne

 

[Loboc]

Their idea of a hard reboot is pretty lame. A hard reboot to IS guys is to power the thing off.

This would probably also be fixed by removing 12v power (disconnect the battery) and reconnect after 10 mins.

Your solution is a little more elegant, but, might leave the original problem in memory somewhere else.

We have also seen weird happenings if the 12v is low or going bad. 2012 to 2015 would be end-of-life for a normal car battery in Texas.

 

[Waynesev]

I will just have to see if it repeats or anything else shows up. This may be like you say the first indication of a 12v battery problem.

 

[flmark]

I have a 2012 Volt and just had main display screen replaced. The winter chill made it completely dead until it was warmed up. That warm up could either be remote start or running for awhile. Very disconcerting when you have no idea what speed you are doing. My bi-latitude lifestyle meant that my normal dealer in FL would probably not be able to reproduce the problem, but I wrote the service manager ahead of time before my return. It was also important to deal with, as my 3 year warranty was up.

Your fuse reinstall might ultimately not solve your cold weather problem (I note your location in ID). Be prepared to get a new screen if the problem recurs- and watch that your 3 year calendar does not run out.

 

[Electric Bowtie]

My 2012 has been doing this for the past month. I've had into the dealer for step 1 in the troubleshooting process: disconnect the battery. It didn't fix the problem, so they're planning on having me leave the car for a few days to resolve the issue.

 

[Scupper]

You might want to search a few more posts, I had a somewhat similar event..."instrument panel blank except PRNDL"

 

[Jasontamu]

hello,

everyone who has had the blank screen display issue please file a complaint at NHTSA. call 1-888-327-4236.

Go to the website and enter NHTSA ID Number: 10872363

I urge everyone who has had this problem to please file the complaint so that chevy can take action and acknowledge this safety issue.

the vehicle is unsafe to drive. One can run out of electrical power and or gas and not know, stop on the highway and be in harms way.

no turn signals, no speed indication at all, nothing.

this is recall worthy! and needs to be addressed by chevy.

for those of you that had it repaired under warranty that's great, but that does not alleviate the safety problem. others will have this issue like my situation that is out of warranty. warranty or not this is a manufacture's safety issue.

Once I discussed manu safety concerns on the phone the volt adviser said they are going to call the dealership they scheduled the repair for and they "MAY" cover expenses. all after discussing the legal ramifications of something harmful happening, they then quickly gave an address to mail any legal writing concerns once we started speaking "legally". the thread of lawyer quickly changed their tone on the phone, it was crazy.

I feel this is a safety issue that needs addressing before someone gets hurt. repaired by chevy doesn't make a safety issue go away. The NHTSA has the authority to turn a "complaint" into an investigation with number of cases filed. So please go to the NHTSA website and file a complaint so tehy can have more data to see this is a true safety issue by others not just this car.

this is class action suit worthy - lets wait and see how gets hurt first driving a volt with a blank screen.

Can anyone say Toyota gas pedal situation chevy style???........

 

[BeachVolt]

First let me say that I love this Group! You folks are the greatest resource for Volt information.

I had a unique experience today with my 2012 Volt. I started my Volt today to do some errands and immediately noticed that the drivers display was completely dark, I adjusted the display brightness control up and down, there was no change to the drivers display, although the center stack display did change with the brightness control.

I did a restart, no change to the drivers display.
I called On-Star and the Volt Adviser had me do both a Soft (Shut off and open drivers door for 30 seconds) and Hard Reboot (Shut off and Lock the car with the remote and get the remote 250 feet away for 30 minutes).
Sad to say that upon restarting the Volt there was no change to the dark drivers display.
My Volt Adviser (Samantha) recommended that I contact my Chevy dealership for further diagnosis and repair.
I called the local Chevy Volt dealer for an appointment, the earliest that it could be looked at was over 2 days out!
After getting off the phone I decided to do a little investigation for myself.
I located the Fuse Panel at the left end of the dash, removed the fuse cover.
Looking at the fuse diagram on the back fuse door, I located fuse "F4" "10A DISPLY"
I pulled out the 10A fuse, waited a few seconds and then replaced it.
I then got in the drivers seat and started the car.......... YES! the display came back on!
I hope by posting this it will help someone else who has this same dark / black drivers screen condition.

I called my OnStar Volt adviser with the good news and described to her what I did to get the display working.
She said, she was not aware of this remedy to reset the display.
I just had to share this with the group.
Have a Great Day,
Wayne

Thanks! I walked away for 5 min. Then came back and pulled that fuse, F4. The contacts looked pretty dirty, so I cleaned them and replaced. Between the walk-away and pulling the fuse, the screen is now working.

 

[Jasontamu]

Update to my post 7 - to clarify this was me helping my friend with his car......I should have updated this sooner but two days later checy advisors called my friend and scheduled replacement for free !!!

This is a manufactures defect and its recall worthy but it needs more visibility- more reports on the nhtsb site is a start.....at min it should be a TSB.

J