My Sirius radio, factory installed in a 2008 VW R32, won't activate, even after a "soft boot". Sirius mentioned having the dealer do a "hard boot". What is that?

I hope this post finds everyone well who is having difficulties with Sirius Radio's trouble shooting advice to reactivate service. I tried to reactivated my service and had experienced all the problems that everyone has had on these forums. This is what works. It took me a lot of phone calls and I want to get the word out to everyone (regardless of Make, Model or Year of Vehicle)

First, a soft reboot does nothing and there is no such things as 'reseting' the electric system in your car. Second, there is no such thing as a 'hard' reboot to your sirius radio. All a soft reboot will get you is cold legs when you have to hold your car door open for 30 seconds in the middle of winter. All a hard reboot will do is cost you a lot of hard earned money at the dealership. Best case scenario is that your dealer replaces your entire radio and charges you $500+.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Call Sirius Customer Service and ask for Technical Support. Explain to them you are having difficulty obtaining an activation signal. The technical support technician did the following (and it was the most intelligent thing I heard from Sirius)

1. Go turn on your Sirius Radio and tune to Channel 184.

2. The technician put a "dummy" ESN in on my account, refreshed and then re-entered my original ESN back into my account and then re-sent the activation signal. **NOTE** Make sure you write down your original ESN number before you ask to have them do step #2....there is no way for them to recover your original ESN if they put in the 'dummy' ESN and refresh.

3. Within 10 seconds of putting doing step #2, my Sirius Radio said, "Updating Channels" and worked great.

Takeaway from My Experience: I believe that once you let your Sirius Radio Service relapse and/or do not renew your subscription, a signal/frequency is sent to your radio to block service or reactivate your service. The problem must be an internal issue on Sirius where the only fix to stop this signal is to completely clear (or zero) out your original ESN, enter a dummy ESN, refresh and then re-enter your original ESN and then send the activation signal.

I hope this helps everyone.