Boat/car radio lost pin number

[castaway]

Any one know how to get around a 'lost' PIN number on a Kenwood car sterio?

The one on my boat is hopeless, however I have an old spare in the garage that I would like to replace it with, but with a long forgotten number.


Thanks and happy Christmas to all..


Nick

 

[Bunny]

Would this be of any use to you?

 

[FullCircle]

Good site and not expensive. I paid 15 quid for a local villain to do my Jag. He did offer to 'correct' my mileage at the same time....

 

[castaway]

Many thanks for that...trouble is that every damn radio but mine is 5 quid or thereabouts... but the Kenwood is £20 !!

Such is life !

Thanks Nick.

 

[alan_d]

I have a dim recollection that putting the radio in the freezer is supposed to reset the number, but that may be an urban myth.

Alan

 

[Appleyard]

I seem to recall that if you put the radio in the deep freeze for a couple of hours,it will lose its memory and you can use it without knowing the pin. This used to be the perferred method of the tealeafs in our part of the world. I wonder if this would work in your case? Might be worth a try.

 

[Appleyard]

Sorry Alan.... you beat me to it !!! Could it be an old Scots custom perhaps???

 

[BrendanS]

From another forum

http://www.mx-5.com/Community/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=34363

"In short - chilling a modern stereo shouldn't work, but for anyone curious I've given a simplified explanation of why it might on older/cheaper head units and possibly why the rumour exists.

The trick of freezing (rather than putting it in the fridge) works provided the memory that is used to store the code is susceptible to temperature, essentially with certain EPROM's (erasable programmable read-only memory - where the code lives) the gates programmed in the silicon break down and the chip reverts to a default state when it's outside it's operating temperature. In theory you could do exactly the same trick at a high temperature, but the unit would probably melt first.

There are many variations in manufacture and quality of EPROMs and I wouldn't think a security code would be stored on hardware that couldn't operate at colder than a freezer - at least nowadays. Perhaps 20+ years ago when the 1st coded radio's were introduced to the mass market they did use chips due to availability of more flexible one, or as a cost-cutting measure, that couldn't retain data.
It was typical, even less than a decade ago, that some devices (flash cards for example) would lose storage at sub zero temperatures but these were intended not to be exposed to such extremes as you would expect from something outside in all kinds of weather. Someone from the northern extremes, Scandinavia, Alaska would be able to confirm if they still get head units losing codes - probably noticeable by a loss of their stations and presets."

 

[Appleyard]

Hi Brendan It worked with my mother in law.... Stuck her in the freezer and she completely lost her memory.

 

[Ruffles]

[ QUOTE ]
I seem to recall that if you put the radio in the deep freeze for a couple of hours,it will lose its memory and you can use it without knowing the pin.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not just in the freezer. I fitted mine in the depths of winter and found it was sufficiently cold to disable the lock. Though as soon as it had warmed up it disabled itself again. Though I seem to remember that the pin number hadn't changed.

 

[BrendanS]

Presumably an old or cheap one?, if the explanation is correct

 

[Appleyard]

Are you referring to my Mother in law? if so the answer is most definitely "yes" to the old but "no" to the cheap.

 

[Searush]

I had a problem with a codeless radio on an old Mondeo I bought. I don't remember the site, but I trawled for help & was able to download software that identified the code from the radio serial no.

 

[MikeCC]

Have you tried contacting Kenwood?

We hada Volvo radio and just had to take it in to the dealership to get a new code. It was a replacement radio bought from eBay but they were happy to divulge the code.

 

[BrendanS]

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