For the love of God, someone help !
 

Almost at the end of my rope with the nav system in my X5.

I THINK it's a MkIII system I've got, but how do I tell ?

Anyway, the CD unit in the back has power in it. It will accept a disc, and I can hear it buzzing away as it reads it. But then it just spits it back out after 15 or 20 seconds, and sucks it back in again. This cycle repeats on and on ....

And the nav system isn't appearing at all on the monitor inside the car.

So it seems to have power and I've checked to make sure all the cables are connected up. But what the hell is going on here ?? :dunno:

Borrow another disc and give it a try. Maybe the disc is bad.

Thanks Quicksilver. I've tried 3 different discs all with the same story.

Did you try a CD/DVD disc cleaner?

Mmm ... no ! Now there's an idea ....

After you try that unplug the unit and
let it rest for 30 minutes then reconnect
the power cord. Install disc.

Also additional info on your vehicle would help.
The other thing is, depending on the year
I believe the unit in the back is a DVD not a CD.

If it shows DVD on the front it is a Mk4
Otherwise Mk3

You may have a bad laser, or the nav may have failled (water damage is not uncommon)

If the LHS red LED adjacent to the word "POWER" on the front panel of the GPS is not lighting up then you have a hardware problem inside the unit.

common causes for such behaviour

- water damaged electronics
- corrupted flash memory
- bad CD/DVD drive or laser
- failed electronic component inside navi

ultimate you need to send your unit off to an experienced service centre in your area to get it tested.

Did you have a flat battery or disconnect power leading up to this problem occurring for the first time?

You have 2001 X5. If you have not upgraded your nav unit then its a Mk III and CD based.

If the nav option is not on screen then I'd say your nav computer if duff, replace it.

Well I've done the cleaning thing, and I've done the unplug it for 30 minutes thing, all to no avail. I guess the drive unit must be shot, despite the power light being on and I can hear it reving up. So a replacement it must be it seems.

There are a few floating around eBay. Was thinking I'd upgrade to a Mark-IV unit while I'm at it. Presume it'll work ey ?

I'd like to be reasonably sure that if I buy a replacement unit that it'll actually work because they're not cheap. And the sellers tend to highlight on their ad's that there's no refund available on the items.