Deke40

I know this is an old subject but was wondering if anybody has come up with an answer.

My 09 has had problems with the USB off and on for the 35000 miles I have had it.

About the time I get fed up and decide to take it in it starts working again.It will plays for days on end then drop out and switch over to the radio.

I have tried various usb drives and it doesn't make any difference. Sometimes I can turn it off and pull the thumb drive and put it back in then turn it on and it starts working again.

I only have a 1000 miles left then I guess I am out of luck.

Just wondering if anybody came up with a cure or found a dealer that has some info on this as most of them say they have heard nothing about it, which seems unlikely to me.

Going to make a 3000 mile trip the 1st of May and might just have to use my P2 player through the RCA jack. The when I get back I might just go ahead and get either the Forrester or Outback I have been looking at.

gmdealerguy

Ive started a few threads regarding this as my USB port has been an absolute nightmare from day one. Had 4 radios replaced ( 2 because of the USB). There is no "fix". For me and others, its trial and error. The one flashdrive that always works for me is a Centon DataPro. I use 8GB and a 16GB. I've spent a bunch of money trying out different ones.....ones that even worked for others on here and not for mine. I work for a GM Dealer(Chevy) and a service tech called techline and their answer was that these USB's just installed with no testing ever done on any drives to see which would work or not. There was a bulletin on the issue (more for IPOD compatibility) but it mention the flashdrive briefly. No fix though.
I listen to music alot so for me it was a big issue. It should work if you spend money on a new car. Its a crappy design that was never tested properly.
For the record, I have tried flashdrives that would not work in my HHR in other cars with USB's and it worked fine in those cars. Hope this helps.
Ive been interested in the Outback and Forrester as well as soon as thing is paid off........

Deke40

Are you saying the Centon DataPro always works with no drop outs even if you take it out and put it back?

If so I will spend some more bucks and try one. I sure have a good collection of usbs already.

If you don't mind give me the exact name and model number.

Thanks

Deke40

Mine has been paid for since day one but when I tried to trade it in I found out the trade in for HHRs sucks. Although the value in all the books has come up about 1500 dollars in the last month.

gmdealerguy

Mine does not drop out. If I take it out and put it back in, it works . Been using it for over a year now. This is the one I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Centon-DataSti.../dp/B000N8F01I
Also use a 16GB one too by the way. I bought them on Ebay though a little cheaper.
As far as trade in value......it sucks. Tried trading mine in at my dealer and got offered $12,500. I still owe more than that so I cant get out of it just yet. Unfortunatley Chevys just dont hold any value and resale just sucks on them....especially HHR/SS. GM did a poor job of promoting the car. Hardly anyone even knows about it.

Deke40

One more question.

About how many individual files do you have on the 8GB stick.

I have 1100 on each one of mine.

I spent about a year and a half figuring out how to put them on there where it would play each song without repeating itself as I don't care to listen to one cd at a time of the same artist.

The shuffle didn't work very good as it would play around on about 5 or 6 cds then start repeating.

I had to go into each cd and grab the 10 or 12 songs and copy them to a folder. I ended up with 1100 songs with about a bunch of #1s, #2s and on down the line. Then I set the HHR radio to play straight through. Works great when the stupid USB decides to work.

Thanks for the tip, I ordered me one 8GB tonight. Should be here before my trip east.

gmdealerguy

The shuffle feature SUCKS,SUCKS,SUCKS on this radio. I would shuffle and it would always play the same songs. What I do is just throw them all on the flashdrive on my PC and arrange them so they are not in order by the artist(This way it wont play all the artists song in a row) or the song titles(alphabetical). I do that on the PC. You have to edit the song titles by right clicking on them and renaming them(Tedious but works). If you download tunes and they have #'s in front of them or if it has the artist name in the title too,, just right click and rename and get rid of the #'s. I never use the shuffle anymore and this way I have my own "random" playlist. You can use folders but I dont use them. Is that how you figured it out or is there a better way that I dont know about?
I am using the 16GB stick right now and I have about 3500-4000 songs on it.
Hope this helps some.

pappa_smurf

I just stick to the 2gb sticks as they hold 36 hours of music on them. I've tried just putting random songs on and that doesn't work very good. This set-up plays everything in alphabetical order which really sucks. Plus, if you don't edit the tracks to remove the track number, you will get all the track #1's in alphabetical order than the #2's and so on. Most times it won't even do that right. Next, I just put whole albums on the flash drive in folders. This works best. But you still get the albums in alphabetical order. Then, at about 20-25 minute intervals, the songs would skip a bit and then recover. If I leave the flash drive in the USB port, sometimes, when I start the car it won't even recognize the USB port. To fix that I have had to turn off the radio, pull the flash drive and turn the radio back on, then when I install the drive again it gets recognized, of course sometimes it takes more than one try. As stated before, I can stick the flash drive in my other car, a Kia Soul, and have no problems whatsoever. I don't ever listen to the radio. I do use the CD/MP3 player. I like it that a standard CD will hold 12 hours of music in MP3 format. I use that more often now than the USB port.

Deke40

Thanks guys.

Lets hope my Centon stick works or it is the old P2 Player for me.

I was wonderign if either one of you has seen a USB cable with female/male usb connections on it? I now use the real little
PNY swivel USB and they are out of the way. My wife has a tendency to bump into them and bent one pretty bad a couple of times.

Mr. Ship

I think what you are looking for is a USB extension cable. I've never purchased one, but i have snagged a couple via USB drive purchases. I'd try Cyberguys (www.cyberguys.com) and their ZIO brand is very nice. I wish they made a short black USB-iPod cable (I only need one about 18" long or shorter, not 3 feet!)

the biggest problem that I have had with the USB port so far is that occasionally my iPod will freeze up and the radio reports 'no USB device'. I have to remove the iPod and reset it for it to work. it seems to happen most often when i get in and out of the car a couple of times w/o starting up (i see the iPod screen light up when this happens). Anyone else have that happen to them? Know if there is a fix? Thanks!



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