I've searched the forum and haven't found my particular problem described. While on a trip to Arizona from Seattle, my screen faded to white/gray. After letting the car sit for a half hour and restarting, the screen would appear normal for perhaps an hour, then fade to white/gray again. On my return to Seattle, I drove for 10 hours without the screen, then it suddenly appeared normal. During the last part of the trip the screen would appear normal then slowly fade out and then come back. All the functions continue to work while the screen is blank (e.g. voice commands, radio, etc). Of course, when I left it at the dealer the screen was working. The car has been there for two days so far there is no solution. Any ideas?

 

I don't remember seeing anyone else with this problem -- it sounds to me like the screen is bad...

 

It looks like my dealer hasn't seen anyone with this problem either. I'm getting the car back today without a fix. I guess they will contact BMW next week for advice.

 

sounds like the screen pixels aren't refreshing..................bad screen

 

My dealer had to change my i-drive screen once. The screen came up for 10 seconds each time I started the car then went blank. You seem to have a similar problem and just need to change the display.

 

I once had a similar experience with grey screen due to the DVD drive was unable to read the disc. I heard the disc spinning and spinning. Then I rejected it and it was back to normal.

 

Mine happened yesterday, i ran to the store real quick and when i came out i just had the gray screen, nothing worked, no music and i-drive knob was spinning freely. Sadly, i drove home and let the car sit for a while and started it again and now it works, i am really weary because i am heavily dependent on my navigation and this would be horrible if it happened to me during a long distance trip. FYI: I just had the V25 update and went in again yesterday for the MP3 reprogram, could this be the cause?

 

This happened to me twice recently. The first time was a day after I had been upgraded to V24.x a few weeks ago. The second time was today. The iDrive just goes blank, occasionally flashes and any attempted re-boot or media eject is ignored. It seems to self-correct after the car goes to sleep, about 15-20 minutes after shutdown. I also noticed today that when I first started it, it was on FM, which I have not listened to since before the upgrade to V24. I don't even have any presets in it, yet it was on an empty channel at the bottom of the band. I am quite sure that it was on CD when I shut it down. For some time now, I also occasionally hear some strange chattering sounds in the vicinity of the CD & DVD after it is shut down for a few minutes. Damn car seems haunted.... My big concern is that it isn't just a software problem, but some sort of transient hardware issue that is lurking there waiting for my car to go out of warranty. So I am reporting it to my dealer when I go back for service soon.

 

It did it again today. This time it was on start-up about 45 minutes after shut down. When I restarted the car, it just stuck on the BMW logo. Re-boot did not work, but it eventually rebooted all on its own after some of the lines in the logo went black and it faded away altogether. When it came back, my SAT preferences were all showing Weather 1!!! It rebooted yet again and after a really long time returned to normal. I still can't decide if it is hardware or software. Has anyone else seen this behavior?

 

I spoke with my dealer today and the result of my PUMA case for the I-Drive screen problem is a complete reprograming. I guess the good news is I'll get the upgrade to V25... I hope it solves the problem.