I tried to respond to this thread on bimmerfest:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63508

I am not a member of bimmerfest so I could not follow up their postings.I had experienced quite similarly to "dlan". I went back to my delaer to send in my march-2004-delivered 530i for service for the first time just for fixing my SOS/BMW-Assist (SOS always directed to 911). After a TWO-DAY software update (downloads failed twice!), both my BMW ASSIST and PHONE menus disappeared and showed only

"For Further Information Please Contact Your BMW Center"

Guess what? I decided not to send it back to the dealer since I don't have the phone option anyway (although I had the menu and was able to dial out before the "UPDATE"; BTW, I was always considering putting CPT9000 before this "UPDATE"). Fortunately my NAV and voice controls still work. I lost all my addresses in my NAV, and I had to drive a Hyundai Sonata for a day (my dealer loaned me a 325 after I complained). Also I found out that iDrive menu may go fullscreen but mine couldn 't go back to full screen anymore (It always split even I disabled the auxilliary window). The primary reason for me not to send the car back is that I don't feel they (service agents/mechanics) understand the issues at all. The dealers (especially BMW dealers) may need to hire software application engineers to handle sophisticated and advanced cars like E60. Sometimes I even wonder if any BMW engineers could participate this forum and give us more information (under the condition they're not leaking company secrets, .. etc. )

After weeks of reading/learning from the E60/5-series forums, I can feel the time to get a real "stable" E60 may still be several months away, if not years. There're different versions of software, different options, differnet TCUs, different countries, ..etc. Even same version of sofware may not work the same if the two just have slightly different options. Honestly, I am not putting big hopes to this magic version 12 to fix all issues. An integrated user interface system like iDrive is really most challenging, but it's definitely the right way to go.

Other than that, I've been enjoyign a lot of fun from this first Bimmer of mine.
My previous car was an ES300, a car with zero bugs, little noise, comfort rides but no much fun to drive. Before having this 530, I've never thought of driving
could be so much fun at 120+ mph. I am glad that I bought this car!

 

hello khl,

I decided to join this forum too after someone directed me to your post.

I really do need to get my phone working or I would just ignore this problem.

Other than the phone my biggest problem is that both dealers did not even understand my problems and the engineers do not understand the first thing about the I-Drive system in these cars. Both engineers I spoke to do not really know what they need to do to get the phone to sync with the car. The second engineer did not even understand how the phone is supposed to integrate with the car and said because the phone was not factory installed the he will have to call BMW for a new software key that include the phone options the next time they upgrade my software.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having with the phone and bmw assist. I have a september build 545/6 without nav and got my phone eject box installed in March. It works fairly well. The phone is a v60 and sometimes I have to take it out and re-insert it to get it to work. I also experienced the bmw assist problem but it now is working after the latest software upgrade to v 11.2 (i think that's the version).

The key is my dealer. They have some pretty good people there who stay on top of the issues. I've also contacted bmwna when I got really frustrated (with a recurring increased emissions warning).

Bottom line is the solutions are out there. If your dealer seems to be clueless, you might want to show them where to find the clues. bmwna might be able to help.

Good luck.

 

dlan,

Welcome to the E60 forums. You might find that since we are exclusive to E60 here, some of your questions may get answered more quickly than from some of the other forums.

I understand your frustrations with your car as I too have issues with software and the BMW phone.

As far as I know, the BMW Assist telephone number needs to be programmed into the car from the dealership. (I think it differs depending on geographic location or something.) If no number is programmed, I think the system defaults to dialing 911. I've heard of many "clueless" dealers who simply don't program things correctly and this problem is a direct result of that.

I realize you're new to BMW. Let me simply say this -- for me, the driving experience of these cars far outweighs the glitches with software, etc. and allows me to be a bit more patient as the bugs are worked out. Having said that, I do sometimes get a little frustrated not being able to use a $600 V60 phone! Trust me when I say that you'll be rewarded with a great overall experience in some time. This phone problem is widespread so I'm sure it'll get fixed ASAP.

My dealer said that the phone problem may be related to both a bad eject box and software. He's using a couple of other customer's cars as guinea pigs for me and he's going to let me know the results before scheduling my car in for a fix.

As far as my phone problem, it syncs up sometimes and when it does, people I call or people that call me can't hear me at all. I pretty much gave up on it and wouldn't you know it, yesterday it decided to tease me and start working! What's even more amazing is that it worked all day today too! I don't dare remove it from the eject box now for fear of breaking it!!

Oh well, good luck, keep us posted and enjoy your new car!

 

Just picked up my car 2 days a go and I still have the split screen and I have only an option to contact BMW as well. I think that is how it comes from the factory now. I shut down the auxillary screen and it will not go full screen at all. Looked at the manual and haven't found anything yet.

 

kigerka - I assume that you have the pro nav option? If so then you get the wider split-screen I-drive, no option to display it something full screen (except for the main menu that is), this is by design.

 

Johan is correct kigerka, the full screen is really only used for the main menu.

Think of pro-nav as a two-thirds/one-third screen. The first two-thirds is really the same screen that you'd have if you didn't have pro-nav. The last one-third is what's added.

There's no way (or reason) to "stretch" the two-thirds screen to full-screen. The benefit to having the extra third is to allow simultaneous displays of two things.

 

Well I just got my car back again after 2 days at the service center... I am happy to report that my phone now works including voice dialing.

My communication menu is also back and it now includes a 3rd item in addition to Phone and BMW Assist for SMS text messaging.

I will try to check my software version and report back.

 

I'm fairly new to this board and this may be a dumb question.

I do not have a phone installed in my 5. Sould I be able to access BMW Assist and/or SOS anyway? BTW, if it matters, I have Nav and don't have sat.

 

BMW Assist is on all the cars, with or without the phone, with or without nav, etc.

There is actually an entirely independent phone installed in the car just for BMW Assist. Even if you don't plan on paying for assist, you get the first year free so you should either already have it or your dealer should be able to activate it.