I just bought my '04 545i a few weeks ago. A few days ago I started it up and the iDrive menu never came up. It gives me that screen you get right before the "Warning" "Press ACCEPT" screen appears. Is there anything I can do about this other than take it to the dealer? Is this a common issue? Is this the kind of issue for which they might need to update my software?

 

If your car is still warranty under 50k miles or certified pre owned you should definitely take it to the dealer. They would fix that for you with no charge.

 

Try re-booting the idrive. If you have navigation, there is a way to reboot it by pressing a combination of buttons. I don't have navigation, so the three buttons to push has escaped my memory. But, you should b able to do a search on this board, or someone that knows might pop on and tell you how to do it.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replies!!

I went out of town for a few days and came back fully intending to hop in the car and drive right to the dealer. But when I started it up VOILA! the iDrive came back alive. I guess it just needed to rest for a few days while I was gone. Weird.

 

The iDrive is quirky and can play tricks on you. It has happened to me a few times where the iDrive would take some time to start-up or once when the screen went blank. But this happened a long time ago and has never happened since.