Malibu Touch Comand Screen partially working

[wazzajohno]

I wonder if my wedge problems are due to the touch screen. The following all happened during a hot week at Lake Powell.  I am having a few weird electrical problems and I wonder if they all center around the MTC.  

Screen:  A very small line along the right side looks wet. This doesn't extent into the start button or the wedge buttons. 

Wedge: When controlling the wedge with the MTC it works intermittently. Sometimes the deploy button will send down the wedge and sometimes the down arrow will work.  It got stuck 1/2 half down while there and after several restarts and restes I got it back up.  Now I am testing in the garage.  I have found that the wedge works perfectly if I use the bypass fuse under the dash for up and down.  

Bilge and Blower: MTC button changes color when switching bilge and Blower but they don't come on.  

Lights: Swim lights work from the MTC switch, Navigation and tower do not.  Tested bulbs and they are good. When i switch the lights on with the MTC the button lights up for a few minutes and then switches itself off. 

Fuses:  one odd thing, the fuse bypass under the dash for wedge up is not in the same location as marked on the cover.  Could I be wired incorrectly.  Most of the posts in this thread are about start button issues.  Has anyone see anything like I am experiencing?

 

 

[jgates237]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 9:09 AM, wazzajohno said:

Screen:  A very small line along the right side looks wet. 

 

 

 

That small line that looks "wet" is actually air bubbles as the touch screen is more than likely delaminating at the edge. If you look through this thread you'll see some photos of other screens that have that same look. Some screens seem to be extremely sensitive right from the onset of the delamination whereas others last quite a bit longer before failing. 

[wazzajohno]

On 8/24/2017 at 9:11 AM, jgates237 said:

That small line that looks "wet" is actually air bubbles as the touch screen is more than likely delaminating at the edge. If you look through this thread you'll see some photos of other screens that have that same look. Some screens seem to be extremely sensitive right from the onset of the delamination whereas others last quite a bit longer before failing. 

I may need a touch screen in the future.. for now, I changed out the power mod (primary) and everything works again. I will probably be buying wedge actuators and a touchscreen as the boat gets used more. Somehow the power module shorted out and It was causing all kinds of weird stuff.  

 

[Sporte77]

Just shy of 5 years on my 2012 VLX & I noticed a little bit of the screen delamination.  (Despite always Garaged, always covered, no water on the dash, not hot around here, boat looks like new.). Although everything was working fine despite the delam.  Over the past couple months - it's grown.  This weekend, the "switch" button on the screen stopped responding- so no more control over my blower, heater or bilge pump.  Sucks.  If only I'd said something as soon as I saw the bubbles/delamination. I don't expect Malibu to help, nor Medallion.  The least they could do is give us a deal on the replacement screens.  This is kind of my last straw with Malibu.  The support & QC just isn't there for my liking.  I know some will say the same about other brands.... But I also think the other brands are catching or have caught Bu in the tech and design area for the price they are all asking on a new boat. 

[saxton15]

I find it interesting that the delamination is happening in many different situations. Wether you leave your boat in year round, cover it, garage it, etc, this will happen to all the screens.  I used to think it was solely due to the elements, but clearly they are just outright defective.   

[dalt1]

On 9/4/2017 at 8:45 PM, Sporte77 said:

Just shy of 5 years on my 2012 VLX & I noticed a little bit of the screen delamination.  (Despite always Garaged, always covered, no water on the dash, not hot around here, boat looks like new.). Although everything was working fine despite the delam.  Over the past couple months - it's grown.  This weekend, the "switch" button on the screen stopped responding- so no more control over my blower, heater or bilge pump.  Sucks.  If only I'd said something as soon as I saw the bubbles/delamination. I don't expect Malibu to help, nor Medallion.  The least they could do is give us a deal on the replacement screens.  This is kind of my last straw with Malibu.  The support & QC just isn't there for my liking.  I know some will say the same about other brands.... But I also think the other brands are catching or have caught Bu in the tech and design area for the price they are all asking on a new boat. 

Mine has been delaminating for the last 2 years but all functions still work. That said, I bought a new screen this summer for $1600 because as you guessed, Malibu nor Medallion will cut us a deal. I tried! I will run my original till it pukes, then put the new one in.

[Sporte77]

I'd recommend, if you are just out of warranty, to contact Malibu's tech support & then mention the issue to your closest dealer.  They will be more likely to help if you are at the 5-6 year mark vs. having an 8-10 year old boat.  Tell the dealer you have spoken to the tech at Malibu and have them work together.  I called Medallion directly and they basically just said "sorry".  Their website says, "Safety and Durability are our top priorities".  LOL.  If you don't want to mess with your dealer, just call Sunny Marine.  But I think if you are cordial with Malibu tech & your local dealer; and just ask for some help (depending on your dealer) - you just may get some luck & they will cut you a break.  Again, depends on how friendly your service dept is and how you come across to them.  But Medallion wouldn't even honor their old part number and gave it a new "Malibu" part number - forcing you to go through Malibu. Plus, the new screen only has a one year warranty if you were able to get one from Medallion (durability? apparently they aren't so confident).  However, I will say that after speaking with Malibu tech and my dealer, that the overall fail rate in 5-6 years is low.  I guess you are only  going to hear about the failures on the forum - not everyone is going to report the non-failures.

[dalt1]

20 hours ago, Sporte77 said:

I'd recommend, if you are just out of warranty, to contact Malibu's tech support & then mention the issue to your closest dealer.  They will be more likely to help if you are at the 5-6 year mark vs. having an 8-10 year old boat.  Tell the dealer you have spoken to the tech at Malibu and have them work together.  I called Medallion directly and they basically just said "sorry".  Their website says, "Safety and Durability are our top priorities".  LOL.  If you don't want to mess with your dealer, just call Sunny Marine.  But I think if you are cordial with Malibu tech & your local dealer; and just ask for some help (depending on your dealer) - you just may get some luck & they will cut you a break.  Again, depends on how friendly your service dept is and how you come across to them.  But Medallion wouldn't even honor their old part number and gave it a new "Malibu" part number - forcing you to go through Malibu. Plus, the new screen only has a one year warranty if you were able to get one from Medallion (durability? apparently they aren't so confident).  However, I will say that after speaking with Malibu tech and my dealer, that the overall fail rate in 5-6 years is low.  I guess you are only  going to hear about the failures on the forum - not everyone is going to report the non-failures.

So, were you able to get out of warranty help? I could not. Didn't matter what approach was taken.

I also think the failure rate is higher than you think.

 

Edited September 9, 2017 by dalt1

[Dare2goBare]

46 minutes ago, dalt1 said:

So, were you able to get out of warranty help? I could not. Didn't matter what approach was taken.

I also think the failure rate is higher than you think.

 

Man.... sorry to hear, your boats a year older, I manged to get a litte bit of a break $$$ with  the help from my dealer, who was presitant with Malibu,

I was just out of warrenty with 160 hrs on the BU.

 

Like I said before...Hope this isn't going to be a few year turnaround on theses new screens.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Dare2goBare

[jgates237]

If anyone takes a close look for threads that address this issue there are quite a few of them that primarily span boats built from 2011 to new. That said, it's somewhat comical that Malibu and/or Medallion refuse to agree that there's a re-occurring issue with these screen failures. That's a risky business approach if you ask me but then again I'm not a business man, just a lowly consumer. 

Several of you may recognize that I've weighed in on this subject for several years now and have unsuccessfully tried to make some things happen whether it be thru Malibu, Medallion or even the touch screen repair route. Well now that the season is just about over and my bubble-fest of a screen may limp across the 2017 season finish line I think I'm going to ship it off in hopes that some miracle worker touch screen repair place can resurrect my infected screen. I'll keep everyone posted on how this works out. I would love to see us come up with a workable and cost effective solution to this mess as I'm quite sure there are many more of us out there who would probably rather spend their hard earned money on something other than the $1800 replace option. 

 

[D_Turner]

On 9/12/2017 at 6:57 AM, jgates237 said:

I would love to see us come up with a workable and cost effective solution to this mess as I'm quite sure there are many more of us out there who would probably rather spend their hard earned money on something other than the $1800 replace option. 

 

Owner of a 2017 Malibu.  No problems with touchscreen(yet?).  However I have seen the posts about these things over the years and it crossed my mind when making the purchase this summer.  It wasn't enough to steer me away.  I love technology and usually am an early adopter of all things tech.  I love the MTC setup as long as it works. 

With that said, has anybody attempted to take one of these apart yet?  I quickly looked through the thread and didn't see it, but could of missed it.  I have never personally seen one of these failures so I assume all functionality of the computer itself works fine...it is just the touch function of the screen that is lost correct?  I have some experience with interfacing a touchscreen to hardware and as well as repair/replacement on some touch screen enabled machines.  I have never tried repairing a delamination as it is usually easier to just replace the touchscreen if the replacement is available(obviously not the case here).  The touchscreen portion of the assembly is not a very complicated component.  Obviously if the computer is going out at the chip level, it gets more complicated and more proprietary.  At the LCD/touchscreen level though it is not.

Depending on how the screen is attached to the LCD/housing, hopefully it is not fully bonded to the LCD like a lot of cellphones are now days, I would try to go the route of attempting to find a replacement touchscreen source.  They could be bonded though due to the environment these live in.  If the screen is actually bonded to the LCD, life becomes MUCH harder, but can sometimes still be separated with extreme care.  If they are bonded, it most times is easier from a time/cost perspective to just replace the lcd/touchscreen as a unit.  All depends on pricing though.

Anybody have a dead donor unit sitting around they don't mind sacrificing?  I would pay shipping to send it to me to play with.

Anybody actually fully disassembled one of these yet?  I imagine somebody has?  There is probably something preventing an 'easy' fix, but I have only followed the problem in passing as I didn't own a Malibu....a little more invested now. 

[P6Expert]

This past May, I purchased a 2015 22 VLX with 75-hours.  Beautiful boat with many extras (great stereo, G4 tower, plug-n-play sacks, etc.).  On the day my wife and I drove 100-miles to see the boat for the very first time, the Malibu Touch Command (MTC) screen failed.  It was very embarrassing for the owner of the boat and he claimed he had never experienced this type of failure.  We tried many things to get the MTC to work, from disconnecting the connection to the screen, to disconnecting the batteries, and finally, turning battery switch on and off. Nothing worked.  When we would push the main power button, the screens would turn on, and allow the input of the Engine Start Code, but after that, both screens would just flash on and off. We could switch screens for a while (Map, Stereo, & Controls), but ultimately, the MTC would just freeze up and flash.  The previous owner was very apologetic and called the dealer right away about this problem.  He was able to take boat to dealer, and get MTC switched out under warranty.  After the repair, we agreed to meet at my local lake for a water test.  Everything worked, so we bought the boat. 

After buying the boat, I will say the screens have locked up once while boating across my lake.  At our destination, I noticed that both screens were locked up. I tried to turn the engine off by pushing the on/off button.  Engine would not turn off.  I tried switching screens and they wouldn't change.  Note:  The main screen speed odometer was still showing my speed (and depth) at which my screens locked up.  I finally turned the battery switches to the off position and all electrical components went blank.  Waited a few seconds and turned battery switch back on and everything seemed to work.  Since that incident, I have had no electrical issues with my screens.  I would venture to say that the screens of these boat have gremlins in them with some being more of a nuisance and other really bad.   Hopefully, I will have no more electrical problems, but I doubt it.

 

[jgates237]

7 hours ago, D_Turner said:

With that said, has anybody attempted to take one of these apart yet? 

Several of us have worked together and have had a few sent off to an electrical repair shop that specializes in these sorts of repairs however I haven't heard anything back yet as far as results. I personally plan on seeking out a similar solution once the season is over. My screen is still fully functional however the delamination is significant and I fully expect it to eventually fail. I'm actually surprised it hasn't already done so.

[dinovtx]

On 9/15/2017 at 8:34 PM, jgates237 said:

Several of us have worked together and have had a few sent off to an electrical repair shop that specializes in these sorts of repairs however I haven't heard anything back yet as far as results. I personally plan on seeking out a similar solution once the season is over. My screen is still fully functional however the delamination is significant and I fully expect it to eventually fail. I'm actually surprised it hasn't already done so.

I know this is an older thread but wanted to see if anyone had gotten one of the screens successfully repaired an sent back?

[jgates237]

On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 10:23 AM, dinovtx said:

I know this is an older thread but wanted to see if anyone had gotten one of the screens successfully repaired an sent back?

I reached out to a couple of site members, one who's close friend has an electronic repair shop and said he was interested in giving this a go, but the guy I tried to contact never replied back. This was only a couple of months ago. I'm still interested in sending my touch screen out and now that boating season is a few months out, the time to do it is now. The costly screen replacement route is staring me in the face! I'd love to see if we can come up with a repair solution though as I know it would a good deal of us on this site. 

[Andrew63]

Well crew, I started this Post back in early 2015 after my 2011 RLXI with 320 hours suffered this fate.

Replaced the screen in April 2015.

The boat now has just over 600 hours on it & I am starting to get that familiar bubble feeling, well it is not a feeling, it is bubbeling.

So, the screen is stil working, I have installed the remote start key so when it dies I 'should' be able to still start the boat.

Although it will be with no control over the bilge, blower, lighte etc....

So, what I am trying to say is from 2011 to 2015, the screen have not changed or improved.

Brace yourselves for another round to shell out for a replacement screen, assuming they will still be available in the future.

Seriously looking to sell the boat & look at another brand

[Dare2goBare]

On 1/30/2019 at 2:57 AM, Andrew63 said:

Well crew, I started this Post back in early 2015 after my 2011 RLXI with 320 hours suffered this fate.

Replaced the screen in April 2015.

The boat now has just over 600 hours on it & I am starting to get that familiar bubble feeling, well it is not a feeling, it is bubbeling.

So, the screen is stil working, I have installed the remote start key so when it dies I 'should' be able to still start the boat.

Although it will be with no control over the bilge, blower, lighte etc....

So, what I am trying to say is from 2011 to 2015, the screen have not changed or improved.

Brace yourselves for another round to shell out for a replacement screen, assuming they will still be available in the future.

Seriously looking to sell the boat & look at another brand

Ouch!  Great news Just what I wanted to hear!  Man so sorry... and im coming up to summer number 3 with the replacement screen.

Fingers crossed. .and I'm still suprised Malibu hasn't addressed this issue as a recall through  Medallion !!

Edited February 11, 2019 by Dare2goBare

[rakr]

I got a new screen this summer on my ‘13. The new MTC seemed to have a “cross hatch” pattern on the screen. This was most certainly different from the screen on the MTC that was original to the boat. 

The new MTC seems to require either a longer or firmer press for the screen to respond. 

Im not sure when this was changed, but hopefully these new screens will have a longer lifespan? 

 Not sure anyone out there has concrete information on this change, whether it was intentional, or I received a MTC that randomly had a different screen. 

[Andrew63]

On 2/9/2019 at 9:56 AM, rakr said:

I got a new screen this summer on my ‘13. The new MTC seemed to have a “cross hatch” pattern on the screen. This was most certainly different from the screen on the MTC that was original to the boat. 

The new MTC seems to require either a longer or firmer press for the screen to respond. 

Im not sure when this was changed, but hopefully these new screens will have a longer lifespan? 

 Not sure anyone out there has concrete information on this change, whether it was intentional, or I received a MTC that randomly had a different screen. 

My replacement screen in 2015 has the diamond cross hatch pattern, didn't stop the delamination bubbeling starting aroud the top again.

Real concerned when these replacement screens are no longer available & we have boats with limited functionality.

[Dare2goBare]

22 hours ago, Andrew63 said:

My replacement screen in 2015 has the diamond cross hatch pattern, didn't stop the delamination bubbeling starting aroud the top again.

Real concerned when these replacement screens are no longer available & we have boats with limited functionality.

Yup.... My concern to!

[EdS]

where can I get a replacement for my 2012 Response TXi touch pad Medallion Smart Display Rev A9 6913-00390-01 A9 1230

 

[CElliott00]

2011 23 LSV owner. Second one. I have had issues with my touchscreens for years. I believe that I am on my 3rd one now?? WTF. 1st was warrantied, the rest were thousands out of pocket $$. It works for about 5 minutes then goes unresponsive. I have to power off the boat to get it to work again. Poor design that will ultimately make me move away from Malibu on my next boat. If anyone has had any luck with a fix let me know please. 

[Alexor9]

Sadly joining the club....2012 vtx with 120hrs.  Screen becomingly increasingly unresponsive.  Anyone stumble on a solution?  

[yotaisgame]

Well looks like I’m joining the club. My 2013 lsv came out of storage this year with a bubble which has now grown quite a bit. Still working fine but I’m pretty worried. 

[Adamp2]

I’m joining the group conversation here with my 2013 vtx screen has been delaminating for years now and this season the switch quit working. All other functions work so far and blower at least comes on when main power is first turned on