CIC constantly rebooting
 

The CIC is constantly rebooting about every minute or so on my dad's 2013 X5 35i (replacement for the '09 I wrecked in the other thread). It was working fine, we flashed the DME with MHD, and it worked fine on the test drive. After that it sat for two days and my dad reported the sunroof & all the windows opened when he unlocked the car (I think), then iDrive was in a constant boot loop. It will show the BMW logo, display the iDrive menu, and even some systems work like the radio and the nav for about 30 seconds until it reboots.


I've done the following to troubleshoot:

1. Tried to reset by holding the volume knob in for 30 seconds. It will reset, but then continues to boot loop.
2. Scanned with ista/d and when I time it right, it will communicate to the CIC & CIC gateway. It shows no codes. When it is rebooting, both the CIC and the gateway are offline.
3. I tried clearing the codes on both the CIC & gateway + the rest of the ECUs in the vehicle. It comes back all green, no codes. I also reset the CIC from ista.
4. I pulled every fuse I could find related to iDrive then put them back in. No change.
5. I pulled the hard drive from the CIC and it continues to exhibit the same behavior.

At this point I'm at a loss - any ideas? Or is it time for a new CIC? How are the android replacements? Do they work with the HUD for nav, show oil level / system faults, and have the EQ for premium sound? Do they work without a functional CIC?

I have an e-mail notification for a reply, but don't see it here.
It could be original for all I know. I meant to check it and forgot. The clock didn't reset and it was strong enough for me to play with the vehicle for quite a while not experience any other issues.

I deleted my post, I'm sure people are tired of me asking... ;)
Low batteries in the E70 platform cause all kinds of weird gremlins, might be worth checking.

I completely agree that bad batteries can cause all sorts of weird issues; I don't *think* that's the case here, but certainly worth checking!

When you can the modules in Rheingold, how is the FRM or JBBF modules? Any errors

Here's what I have:


After MHD, before I cleared the codes (RDC is expected, it had winter tires with no TPMS sensors until Saturday):
https://i.imgur.com/otAu7su.png


No codes after I cleared them
https://i.imgur.com/pxJpgzm.png


Thanks for your help!

Update on this. I cloned the hard drive to an SSD and the reboots persisted. I then replaced the original CIC with a used one from eBay, moved the SSD over to the used unit, coded it, patched it, and generated new FSC codes. Reboots are gone and everything works as it should now.

@Cyrix2k,
I am experiencing exactly the same as your 2013 regarding CiC reboots. Was it only the head unit you replaced (not screen)? What coding needs to be done to make the new unit work? I found a few on eBay. Thanks for any help.

Yes, head unit only. I think technically it should be updated to the same i-level as the rest of the vehicle but I didn't do that, the one I sourced was pretty close and works fine. It's been a while since I did this, but from what i recall the donor CIC will work as soon as you plug it in but the feature set may be different (options like birds eye view parking, heated seat distribution, etc might not be there if the donor vehicle didn't have them). You can pull the VO and then code the CIC from inside of NCSExpert to restore the correct features. At that point, the CIC should be more or less functional but premium functions (nav, apps, etc) won't work. You either need to pull the certs from your old CIC and move them over or overwrite the root cert & generate new FSC codes which is what I did. I also updated the VIN just so it's correct, but if you go down the path of generating new FSC codes, I think it will work with the old VIN too. Getting the certs to work was a bit of a pain.

Thank you for the info and quick reply.
It looks like I have a bit of research to do as I am not familiar with so many things you mentioned (VO, NCSExpert, certs, root cert, FSC codes, etc.). My vehicle has been remarkably trouble free until this issue so I haven't investigated much in the way of coding other than what Carly app can do. I'm glad to know parts cost will be pretty reasonable.
You wouldn't happen to be in DFW, Texas anytime soon would you :-)

If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd probably be in Austin soon :-/


Unfortunately you're going to need a lot more than Carly. NCSExpert is a BMW tool that runs in windows and is used for coding. As the name would suggest, it isn't very friendly but the process you need for this is pretty simple. (Note, you'll also need a K+D CAN cable which costs about $20. It's used with NCSExpert and all the other tools mentioned.) The VO is the vehicle order which is a list of options your vehicle has and it's used to correctly code the electronic functionality for each of the ECUs in the vehicle, like birds eye view parking display, PDC, TPMS, etc. The certs are just like the certs used when you go to a secure website (https), but in this case are used to validate premium options. Don't worry about the technical stuff behind it. Unfortunately the process to update them is quite involved and requires using CIC Patcher and FSTool iirc. The best FSTool writeup I've found is this https://admin.ecommerce.aruba.it/Web..._fsc_Ex_en.pdf which works great if you follow it to the letter. Instead of the certs being included with the tool, you will need to generate them with CIC Patcher (google it, you should find it and a write up. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to link). Another useful tool is CIC Mafia which will show you the status of your certs. If you google "BMW CIC Ultimate Toolkit - E Series - Retrofit" you should find all the tools. If you haven't done this before, it's going to require some reading but is possible if you're technical.