Warning this is going to be long, as I am hoping that all the details I include allows someone to help me out! And for the record, I did a search for my issues (on the bike) on the world wide web and this forum and did not find anything remotely close or helpful to my situation.

I have a 2015 Ultra Classic with the stock 4.3 Boom radio. I finally got my ride out from the long winter and fired it up, took for a short ride around and all seemed good. The radio came on after I pushed the power button, and then I switched to the thumb drive and all was good. My normal shut down procedure with the Boom system is to power the radio down, then shut down the bike. I found that if I left the radio on it took forever for the system to find the thumb drive, and sometimes hang at the end of a song for a long time. It seemed to help and have done that for the last few years. A couple days later I took the bike to work and the radio did not come on. It had a black background with the time on it. The interesting part of this is the time never changed, it stayed the same time as when the bike was started. On the ride I pushed the power button, held it in for minutes, nothing. After work I started the bike drove off and hit the power button and it seemed to function, but was slow. It did start with the radio and then switched (it does it automatically not sure if it is supposed to but mine does if I want it to or not) to the thumb drive music. It found it and had no issues for the ride home. I got home and did my normal procedure, shut the radio off and then the bike. I had some errands to run and the radio was stuck in the same situation as the morning black screen with the time on it and never changed. After running my errands it still did not function. All my other items work, speedo, tach, lights, turn signals, Dyno Jet monitor, extra running lights, battery is less than a year old, on a trickle charger all winter. Dyno Jet screen shows the battery is 13.8-14 while riding so I assume all is good there. The next day I took it to work again, same situation, black screen time never changed. After work I was unable to get it to come on, but about 10 minutes down the the safety screen came on that you can select accept on. I tried to select it on the radio and the joystick on the handlebars.. nothing. It finally started to play the radio but it was in slow motion. Finally the screen went to the normal playing screen for the radio, and eventually went to my thumb drive to play that music, It took a while searching (forget what it states it is doing at the top of the screen) but finally started acting normal. When I got home this time I left the radio on and shut down the bike. (If it matters I hit the kill switch first, then the ignition switch). The next day going to work the radio started shortly after the bike started, went automatically to my thumb drive and all was good. When I got to work I left it on and shut the bike down. After work, I got only a black screen and the HD bar and shield. Could not get the radio to come on. Get home same thing shut it down. This morning, started bike it went to the bar and shield screen, and about 5 miles down the road the unit comes on playing my thumb drive music. Stayed on the bar and shield screen but was playing music. I could not change anything with the screen and I was not able to advance the song. I was able to change the volume. Left it alone and shut the bike down. After work it did the same thing again, after I got home shut the bike off with the kill switch, put the ignition switch to accessory and tried to make something happen with the screen. I got nothing so I just turned the ignition off. So... what is happening? I am not sure what version I am on for the radio, but pretty sure the latest one that was pushed several years ago. I am unable to check because of the screen issue. I am pretty sure I am not able to dumb down the version I have because I do not have a screen to do so.

Is the radio starting to act up as if it is dyeing? I was thinking of upgrading but not for the kind of money they are getting for new ones. I did like the thought of gps on it, but not paying $750 for that. Plus if I understand correctly, if I do swamp to a newer radio possibly with gps, I will have to have it flashed to work? Or is that just with the HD versions? I am not opposed to changing the radio out, just not for a ton of money.

Any thoughts on what I can attempt to do, anyone have similar issues. Just want this to work as intended without wasting a ton of time, effort, and money. If I left anything out or you need more information please ask. Hopefully with the aid of this great forum we can get this figured out.

 

I would start by removing the thumb drive and see if the unit exhibits the same issues.

 

Hey - just recently, I read something here that was just like that.

The guy found the issue and resolved it. I will try to find it.

 

I gave that a try last night, put switch to accessory and the radio did not come up. I then shut it down, removed the thumb drive and back to accessory. The radio did eventually come on, very slow. The "accept" button was on for a very long time and me pushing anything to acknowledge it did not do anything to speed it along. I shut it off again and back to accessory mode and the radio came up a bit quicker... I plugged in the thumb drive and it read it after a few moments. I shut it down and left it. Weather did not allow me to ride today, but i just did the same thing ignition to accessory and it came up with the radio fairly quick and quicker response with the "accept" button. I did have the thumb drive plugged in. I will see if I get the same results when i get a change to actually start the bike and run a few miles. By chance by removing the thumb drive clear out the issue?

Thanks for the tip and will report back after I get a chance to ride. I am sure starting and actually running may be a different scenario, there may be different electrical gremlins while actually running?

 

I would be interested to see what was done, if you can find it I am willing to try it. As mentioned above, I tried GalvTexGuy's suggestion and that works so far in the "accessory" mode. May be different in actual run and starting the motor up mode!??

 

Still looking for it.

Have you tried to reload the latest firmware - that helped me sometime agon

 

You can find the 6.5 GT head units pretty reasonable , Ebay has a few for under $200, and several under $300 , you would likely need it flashed but many aftermarket Audio shops can do that. I ran my stock 4.3 for years , then found a GTS used for my 14 ,it was when they were on back order for months from Harley and right before the Soundstreams came out , $1400 I gave , bad timing , I see them as cheap as $650 now. I had my audio shop flash it I'd never go back to a 4.3. Their practically giving 4.3's away , bunch of them for $60 - $70 if you just need to replace it .