These instructions apply to the Peugeot 208 Mk1 (A9, A91) 2012-2019.
For other models, please choose your vehicle here.
If the centre touchscreen in your Peugeot 208 (Mk1/A9, 2012–2019) has frozen, gone black, or stopped responding to taps, you can force the head unit to reboot yourself in under a minute — no garage, no tools, and without losing your radio presets or paired phones.
Before you start
- Mid- and higher-trim Mk1 cars carry a SMEG or SMEG+ 7-inch touchscreen; late facelift cars (from roughly 2016) use the updated MRN / SMEG+ iV2 unit; base cars have a radio with no central screen.
- Use the row of physical hard keys below the screen (SRC, RADIO, MEDIA, NAV, SETUP) — not the glass — to force a reboot when the touch layer locks up.
Soft reset (reboot) the touchscreen
Do this parked, with the ignition on so the unit keeps its power.
- Press and hold the SRC button (top-left of the button cluster, beside the screen).
- Keep it held for about 10 seconds — hold straight through the point where the audio cuts out.
- When the screen goes black, release the button.
- The Peugeot lion logo appears as the system restarts; let it boot.
- Wait up to a minute for the home screen to reload — radio, Bluetooth and media return on their own.
If your trim has no SRC key, the same reboot is triggered by pressing and holding the two lower-left buttons together until the display switches off and the lion logo appears. The reboot is safe: it does not wipe presets, navigation favourites or paired phones — it just restarts the head unit’s software.
If the screen stays frozen
- Hold longer. If 10 seconds did nothing, repeat and keep the SRC key held for a full 15–20 seconds before the display blanks.
- Check the software version. Early Mk1 SMEG builds (around the 2015–2016 facelift) had a notorious bug that rebooted the screen every few minutes. Hold SETUP for about five seconds to read the version; anything dated before late 2015 should be flashed to current by a Peugeot dealer.
- Let the car sleep. Switch off, lock the car and walk away for five minutes so the electronics fully power down, then unlock and restart.
- Pull the fuse (last resort). With the car off, remove the head-unit fuse for about a minute and refit it to force a cold restart. Check the fuse chart in the owner’s manual for the infotainment position (often a 10A fuse in the dashboard end-panel box).
Factory reset (erases data — rarely needed)
Separate from the reboot, and only worth doing if you are selling the car or chasing a deep, persistent glitch. From the home screen tap the settings icon, then System, and look for Reset / Factory settings. It erases presets, paired phones and navigation history, so only do it deliberately.
Frequently Asked Questions
My 208’s screen reboots itself every few minutes — is that the same fault?
No, that is a known early-SMEG software bug, not a freeze you triggered. Have the dealer flash the latest firmware; the late-2015 build cured the repeated self-resets.
Will the reboot lose my radio code or presets?
No. The Mk1’s head unit is not code-locked the way old cassette radios were, and the SRC reboot keeps every preset, favourite and paired phone. Only the menu-driven factory reset clears them.
My 208 has buttons and no central screen — how do I reset it?
Base-radio cars without a touchscreen rarely lock up, but if the audio sticks, turn the ignition fully off, lock the car for a few minutes, then restart; or briefly pull the radio fuse to force a cold boot.
The screen is stuck on the Peugeot logo — what now?
A unit looping on the lion usually needs a full power-down. Repeat the SRC hold for 15–20 seconds; if it still loops, lock the car and leave it five minutes. Persistent boot-loops point to a firmware update being due.
If a warning light or fault message stays on the dash after the reboot, it may have stored a diagnostic trouble code — you can look it up on autodtcs.com.
Independent guide — not affiliated with Peugeot. Always follow your official service manual and safety precautions. Read our full disclaimer.