yapaul

Here is my situation. In either the phone address book screen or the CD screen while playing a mp3 disk, when I try to rotate the idrive knob down to show the next 4 items or up to show the previous 4 items, the knob does not want to turn. If I forcefully turn the knob, it will rotate wildly by itself and the screen will scroll some random amount. If I use the steering wheel buttons, the items scroll up and down fine.

I took it into the dealer this morning and just got off the phone with service consultant. He claims this is normal. I asked him to find out my CIP version which he will tell me tomorrow (it is near closing time locally).

Has anyone experienced this? Does it happen on your car? My car's built date (if I read the right information sticker on the car) is 11/05. I want to be able to tell him that this cannot be normal.

Thanks in advance!

Rudy

I think it's fairly common on cars with nav. It seems that the processor isn't able to keep up with the data stream so it can't always display things as fast as it should. I seem to remember reading here that someday a CIP update is supposed to help cure this issue by somehow increasing the efficiency of the underlying software code.

RobertB

I have a fairly recent CIP (20.something) and that's how my NAV performs. My take on it is that non-Nav systems have more memory available for caching things like song lists and phone books. The Nav systems don't have it, therefore they have to "pause" and retrive it. Very irritating.

Rudy

Actually, the non-nav cars run on an entirely different computer system (or sub-system) so I don't think it's about memory or caching, I think it's about processor speed and code efficiency.

You are right that it can be a pain -- especially when you're trying to enter a voicemail password in a limited amount of time and the car won't let you spin the number you need in time...

subterFUSE

We live in the 21st century.

We have handheld calculators today with more processing power than the Apollo spacecraft that went to the moon.


Yet BMW can't install a computer fast enough to display some phone numbers on an LCD screen?




Anyone else think this is ridiculous?

evh5150

Yes I think its ridiculous too! My car is here and Im waiting for the blessed thing to be unloaded off the train! Its been here since Monday and I dont have it yet!! Getting stressed!!! I am worried about how the Nav and all this stuff will work?

yapaul

Thanks for the insights!

This got me thinking. If the idrive does not cache more items for the mp3 or phone addressbook then the 4 that are displayed, my rotation of the knob would signal it to grab the next (or previous) 4 items. So if I hold the rotation, it will eventually rotate freely. I will try this when I get back the car.

But if anyone has an mp3 disk, can you see if your knob "sticks" when scrolling?

yapaul

To ease your mind, don't fret too much over the two problems I mentioned. The car is great!

xe460

My guess this is as designed behavior maybe due to small memory cache in the system. I am experiencing the same thing during scrolling long mp3 playing list and it gets really annoying. I totally agree that BMW can do better.

yapaul

I got back my car from service today. Looks like the sticky scrolling is normal. I had the service consultant and the "shop forman" with me. They both tell me this is normal but did admit that this behavior is not good. I asked them if there was some way to request a fix from BMW. They said I could try calling BMW's customer service.

When I got back home, I tried rotating the knob and holding it against the resistance. Sure enough, after a pause, it scrolled. So it looks like the pause is caused by the idrive system trying to retrieve the next item.

Oh well. Hopefully, BMW will have a fix for this in the future.

On a side note, they did not have a BMW loaner available so they shuttled me to an Enterprise car rental place and got me a HUGE Chevy Silverado. It was one of those quad cab model with 4 doors and a bed. I swear, the truck had more rear legroom then my car! You could sit crosslegged back there!

Thanks for all the replies!