Hey, my stereo stopped working

At 5:00pm this evening, I left work headed for Libertyville Toyota to get my NAV DVD upgrade.
At 5:11pm, while listening to a book on tape, the stereo popped and all was silent. All the lights on the stereo went out. Since I was crawling through traffic, I had time to whip out my little note pad and take notes. Here's what I got:

There's a tape in the slot
There are not lights
All these items are non-funtional:
* CD Load button
* CD Eject button
* Stereo Power button
* Tape Eject button
* The line of radio buttons (Scan/Seek, CD1 .. CD6, etc)
* Steering wheel Mode button
* Steering wheel volume buttons
* Steering wheel voice button

I can bring the Audio screen on the MFD. At first, it kept the tape screen. I could push buttons and the screen would beep, but nothing would happen. I went back to it later and this time it said "Audio Off".

Knowing that Lib. Toyota is a stored destination, I switched over to map, selected the stored point, and set it as destination. The nav functioned as expected and the sweet voice guided me in.

That's all I got. I'm using the computer at the dealership now. Priapus is in the back in the shop. I intentionally did not shut down before showing a guy here the things that were not funtioning. It's possible that restarting a few times would automatically fix it, but I wanted them to see it.

Has anything like this happened to anyone?
Any thoughts or ideas?

 

If I didn't have a scheduled appointment at the dealer, I would have just driven home in silence and waited until tomorrow to see if it works itself out. I also thought of pulling over and rebooting a few times.

Following the advice of many on this board, I intentionally DID NOT ask that they look for error codes. I have heard that if you specifically ask them to pull codes but they do not find any, they will charge you for the labor. Only if they find something will you not be charged.

I'm still here at the dealer. The floorplan here does not allow for easy viewing of the car while it's in the back. I did see someone poking around, but I don't know if he's doing the NAV or troubleshooting the stereo.

 

UPDATE:
The guy came out and got me. Just in time too; the Simpsons had just ended.

He said that they couldn't do the NAV upgrade because of the stereo. Honestly, I don't know how they are related, but that's fine. I don't really feel that I need the upgrade anyway. He went on to say that he ordered a new stereo for no charge and it should be in next week.

I asked what the problem might have been and he looked at what the Tech had written on the service paper. "Tape stuck in deck causing stereo to not function." Whoa, there fella. I was listening to the tape when the stereo stopped working. The tape is in there because the busted stereo won't let me eject it, it's not the other way around. He listened to me and basically told me to stop talking because he's going to take care of it and no one's blaming me. He was more polite about it, but that was the gist.

But there's more: He said that there is a chance, and I should go ahead and grasp the idea, that I might never see the tape again. This doesn't sound like any great loss, but the tape belongs to the local library. As do the two CDs in the changer. Hey, I like to listen to books on tape when I'm driving. So what?

So when I got home I called the Experience Line and was forwarded to Headquarters, who heard me out and gave me a case number of 200412151251 and then forwarded me to the "Green Team". Apparently, the Green Team deals exclusively with Prius-related issues. Pretty cool.

I explained the situation and left contact information. If all they can do is give me the busted stereo so I can take it apart and get the library's stuff, I'm fine with that.

That's rather windy, but does anyone have any thoughts now?

 

I called my local library and asked about the Class A misdemeanor. She said that if they caught someone intentionally destroying things, they could press charges and make them pay for repair/replacement.

In this case, she agrees that someone other than me should be reponsible for retrieving or replacing the materials. Just for the immediate future she extended my due date to buy me more time.

Of all the system resets, engine stalls, and other technical issues, I'm thinking that this is the strangest turn of events I've ever read. Even though I'm reading about myself!

But I still want to know what they do with the "broken" items they replace. If they're going to throw it away anyway, let me have it.

 

I keep thinking about Apple computers and CD drives. Such a good idea that it became standard on all CD drives as far as I know.

That is, even with the computer's power turned off, you can shove a straightened paper clip into a little hole and push a mechanism which will eject the disk. Greatest idea ever!

Now if only Prii had such an option.

 

Leave it to Evan: Now that I think about it, his antanea has been stiff for more than four hours. Should I be concerned?

I was telling a friend my story and when I told him that the steroe stopped working while I was listening to a book on tape, he said, "sounds like you managed to bore your stereo to death."

I'm updating this thread as I learn more in the hopes that if someone else ever has a stereo that fails with a CD or tape inside they will be able to use this thread.

I received a call from a representative of the Green Team. She says that the standard operating procedure is something like this: