jbradley2093

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the speed of the iDrive boo-up. SOmetimes I start the car and it goes right to "accept" and the radio starts up. Other times it take 45 seconds or so and it just sits on BMW into screen. This makes the visual parking sensors on screen useless becuase they dont appear until you are driving down the street after backing out of the driveway.

BMW says nothing is wrong - Is this true. This is not just the first start up of the day - it could be after 10 start-ups. It is probably this way 50% of the time, and it is annoying.


2006 550i w/ Nav.

sparky12

2007 530i with the same thing. I don't ave any parking sensors but hate waiting for the radio to start. Am I incorrect or did I read Windows CE or something runs this system? If that's the case then that's all I need to know...

Iceman

The idrive computer runs on Windows CE.
As we all know, starting up a Windows PC takes some time, because all the applications need to be started/loaded.

Sometimes during its sleep mode the car wakes up and checks all systems.
When you open your car during such a check period, the computer allready runs, so it's fast.
When you open the car during a sleep phase it takes longer, since the computer starts from zero and needs to load everything.

This can also create problems:

If you open the car during sleep, jump in, insert the key and fire it up, all as fast as you can... the idrive computer gets feedback from components that are not yet loaded, so it goes to error and creates a lot of error messages.

This car is like an aircraft...

Take your time as the computer works through the checklist...

TXPearl

Thanks for the detail, Iceman, but I still think this sucks. Why BMW won't just put a faster processor in the car, I can't figure. Then we wouldn't have to make excuses for the sluggish i-drive. Don't we have enough f-ed up Windows devices in our lives?

In any case, I've found that hitting the unlock button on my key remote as soon as I can when approaching the car seems to speed up the boot-up process. Sounds like this may wake the car from sleep mode - and the sooner the better. I hit the remote unlock even if the car's not locked (like in my garage).

Bluetooth phone connections can also slow up the process.

uglybear

I actually I also thought it was CE. Apparently CE is only in 7 series. VxWorks is in 5 and 3. It beats me why real time OS would be slow, but I suspect CPU speed sucks and application itself is Java which adds insult to injury.

uglybear

Actually, CE startup is very fast. That is why I was surprised that iDrive was slow. My Windows CE PDA wakes up instantly. However, boot of my Windows Smartphone is very slow. I suspect there are two problems. First, CPU is too slow in iDrive. Second, I suspect BMW actually shuts down the computer when you switch off the car instead of putting it to sleep. Or maybe they can't put it to sleep because they forgot to add a Li-Ion backup battery (or maybe BMW saved $30 on it). PDA computer can be on standby hundreds of hours with screen off, there is no need to shut it down and boot again every time. Or maybe VxWorks does not support hibernation/sleep at all?

I really think BMW should have picked one of the companies that make OS for mobile devices like PDA or Smartphones - Palm, Microsoft, Nokia, whatever. Just someone who knows how to make good fast user interface on mobile devices with fast startup time.

JSpira

To clarify further, since this (the misinformation about Windows CE) seems to pop up quite a bit here, Ugly is right - almost.

Windows CE is used in all 7ers and in the 5er without CCC in all markets but North America. Further, all BMWs with a CCC except for the 7er run on VxWorks. This includes the 6er, the X5, and the 1er as well as the 3er and 5er mentioned by ugly.

JSpira

Not a good parallel. These companies don't make the complex systems that exist in a car. The are so many microprocessors and systems that talk to each other it's not funny. Mobile device makers make devices to serve a few purposes (telephony, messaging, PIM). They have it easy.

uglybear

What's CCC?

uglybear

I am not saying use those OSes to run the car. That's different, you do need RTOS to control, say, breaks. However, you need nice UI and fast startup time not real time OS to drive Nav, radio or an address book. Nothing is fancy there. Same as in personal computers: Joe Random User wants cool looking, fast, convenient and reliable user interface. He does not care about character based console interface even when one backed by real time OS on multicore teraflop CPU.

Maybe they should have signed up Apple... I bet Apple would love to design UI for BMW.