“The external system is not connectedâ€

Sounds like an MFD failure; interesting that this happened on both of your vehicles at the same time. The fix is to have the MFD replaced, however if your 3 year/36K mile warranty has passed then you might want to ask for a remanufactured unit to be installed (as a new unit will cost well into 4 digits.) Or, contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center to see whether they can offer financial assistance on the repair.

 

I had this exact problem on my '05. The culprit was the "dice" unit Ipod/HD radio add-on. If you have one of these I believe all I did to fix it was unplug the dice unit and then plug it back in. If you do have the dice, you may want to search the forum and see if there is a more exact procedure for the fix. Oddly the problem appeared after a visit to the dealer to get the coolant pump replaced.

Good luck.