Today, I got in the car after it had been sitting for about 2 hours, started it up, and began driving off. There was a non-stop "ding...........ding...........ding" sound coming from the speakers, like the ding you get when it's below 37 degrees out (it was almost 50*). The radio wasn't playing. "odd", I thought, since I had left it on.

Then I look at the iDrive screen, and in the lower left corner it said something like WB CH1 and the time was --:-- and the date was --/--/--. However, the date and time were displaying correctly in the instrument cluster.

Pressing and holding the check button on the turn signal lever said "Check ok".

So I pulled over, ejected the NAV DVD, and did the iDrive reset trick (that I learned from here). When it finally came back up (seemed like FOREVER), everything was just fine.


Should I chalk this up to a fluke, or is this indicative of a larger issue that I could take it to the dealer for?

 

That seems odd, if it keeps on doing it i would take to the dealer for a check up.

 

iDrives are funny things. Software, it seems, is seldom perfect and glitches can happen for no apparent reason. All it takes is a misplaced comma in thousands upon thousands of lines of code. I came out of the airport after dropping someone off one day and neither of the front seats could be adjusted, the steering wheel could not be adjusted remaining in the up most position, and the rear sun screen would not work. I checked all of the fuses when I got home but thought it nigh unlikely that three would go all at the same time. I was planning on taking it to the dealer but the next morning it had "healed itself" and I have had no problems since.

Just turning the car off and back on again sometimes isn't enough to get rid of these glitches. A lot seem to go away only after the car has gone to sleep and the system has had a chance to totally reset.

 

Hey,
I'd let it repeat again. Per the previous post, software = glitches. First step to solve MSFT window's quirks...shut down and reboot. Two days ago all of my phone numbers dissappeared from the communications menue however my redial list was still there. shut off car, got out did what I had to do, got back in and restarted and everything was there again.....unless you have an appt scheduled already, I'd personally let it ride and happen again. else the dealer (or anyone) probably can't do anything about it if it can't be seen/repeated.

 

Yeah, I'm well aware of the M$ issues.. LOL I'm a Network Manager (MCSE) by day, so rebooting iDrive was the first thing I thought of.

The whole display and everything was still there (the iDrive menu), just nothing responded. So my issue was different than others reported here (starting car and getting a blank iDrive screen), hence I'm hoping it was just a software issue.

I guess I'll find out.. Car still needs to be reprogrammed for the iPod module anyway.. :-(

 

Your battery voltage might be low!

Could be a reason for the --/-- clock setting.