2007 rear entertainment questions
 

Ok, I don't know if its operator error, or my system has a problem, but I can't seem to get my rear DVD to always work. I get it to come on sometimes, and other times it comes on momentarily (literally 1 second), then shuts down dark.. I checked to make sure the rear entertainment is enabled, and I also went to the Aux/Rear and it says .. "External Audio" or something like that..

Anyone else with the same system have any similar experiences? What do you do to get yours working?

I have the RSE too and I have yet to see that issue.

It shouldn't matter what iDrive mode you are in since the RSE can operate independently of iDrive.

After it blanks out, does it automatically reboot itself?

The iDrive has a menu that requires you to "unlock" the rear console.. now I don't know if that's just for the AC for everything, but nevertheless, it's unlocked. As for the unit it's self... no it doesn't reboot. usually, on the first attempt to start it (after the car is powered on), it will come on for about 1 second, then go blank and then non-responsive. On a few occasions, I've gotten it to work flawlessly, but it's not working more often than it is..

I don't know if i'm doing something wrong, or if it needs repair.

Correct. But correct me if I'm wrong, iDrive could be on CD mode and the rear passenger could be using the RSE with wireless headphones. So it doesnt matter that you have aux/rear on to use the RSE.

Sounds like you are doing everything correct. I would bring it in.

I am bringing it in. But just to be clear, you guys get an instant response from the power buttons of the DVD in the rear? There is no delay or boot time? I'm finding that sometimes when it does work, it takes like 1 30 seconds for anything to appear on the screen after the initial boot up where the "CD DVD AUX..:" appears up top.

Although I haven't used mine much, I can't remember the delay being more than 5-10 seconds. Knowing my kids, they'd be rioting if it took any longer. :)

But the part where you talk about coming on for a second and dropping out, that certainly doesn't sound right.

It should not take 30 seconds and thats for sure. Mine takes about 5 seconds. I think you should take it for service.

appointment made for Monday... they're going to replace the drive and see if that cures it. I hope it's not something to do with the way the idrive is connected to it or some kind of difficult to trouble shoot issue.

I'll let you all know.

I'm having the exact same problem and have had my X5 in three times. Most recently, they replaced the DVD module, but my player still crapped out on me. That's not a fun experiene with a two year-old in the back!

This is really inexcusable, and I hope someone discoveres a fix.

try it with a 4 and 6 year old.. I am fit to be tied after a 10 minute drive! I paid $1800 for this feature because I wanted the relative silence provided by two entertained kids in the back so I too will ware my patience thin if I don't get fast and permanent results to my problem. I hope BMW isn't going on the cheap with some of these parts to save a buck.. I went with BMW over MB because I found MB cutting corners...


I'm curious, does your player just simply not work at all, or is it more intermittent?

It does it intermittently. If I have a DVD in the player and then stop the car, when I re-start and press the DVD power button, I get the one-second screen flash and then nothing. I can't even eject the DVD. Usually, after several more stops and starts, the DVD will eject and I can start over.

Also, the DVD will occasionally stop playing in the middle of a movie and the entire system becomes unresponsive.

Of course, BMW Service can never replicate the problem. Bah!

I can't imagine we're the only two owners with this problem. There really should be a known fix. This whole situation has challenged my loyalty to the brand.

Wow dude... that is mine exactly! I tell you what, I got my guys to replicate it the first try at my dealer. Worse case, maybe you can have your SA contact my SA and they can discuss it. I am slated to pick up mine today.. they claim it's fixed.. but based on what you're saying with 3 repairs, maybe it's not so I'll wait first and see.

Keep you posted

Please post an update with the results. If it's fixed, I'll definitely suggest that my SA get in touch with yours.

Fingers crossed for both of us.

Having same problem in my X5, with the unit either freezing (no response, cannot eject DVD) when you first turn it on, or turning off in the middle of a movie. Had the car in for service last week and dealer claims in testing the DVD unit kept resetting itself causing the lockup problem. They have a new unit on order. Now what is interesting is we never had the problem when we first took delivery of the X5 in April 2007. Had the car in for service in June to address a problem with the steering wheel not returning to the previous memory position when you turned the car back on. Dealer said it was a known issue and they flashed the car with a new version of code. While it corrected the steering wheel problem, the DVD problem started right afterwards. Flaky code rather than a hardware issue??? I'll let you know if the new unit helps or not.

If your problem is anything like mine, it will not help. I was just called earlier today by my SA and he asked if they could keep the car another night. He said they'd been talking to New Jersey and the Factory, as well as Germany about a software patch as the problem isn't in the DVD drive.. They had replaced mine and it worked for about 1 hour then failed in the same way again. The problem is to do with how the DVD player is recognized by the iDrive central computers.

They are hoping this new coding from the factory will fix my problem, but aren't promising anything.

keep you all posted, but in the meantime, contact your SA's and tell them about what we're all learning, which is to say that the problem isn't in the DVD drive.

update....

Day 3 now, and the dealer is profusely apologetic.. said BMW is working hard to find the problem, and has several engineers on it. They've since replaced and re-software several components and no luck. They are offering to give me a BMW loaner for the duration and have offered to do an interior leather/carpet protection on the car ($800 value thru the finance guy) free of charge..

I'll give them A for effort..

Now that's service and effort. Same thing happened to me when BMW kept my E53 for a week because of a sun roof problem. I was not happy with their BMW loaner (smells) so they called Enterprise and got me an almost brand new Audi A8 rental. Just wish they will diagnosed these problems right the first time. Please keep us posted of any progress.

Ok, so they've given me a 3.0 X5, with a functioning DVD player to drive while they sort out the problem. The shop foreman (a great guy), said that BMW has 21 known cases nation wide with the same problem, so to me since it's not all of them (clearly), then it must be some defective hardware component. So, I'm sure they'll track down which one and replace it.

1 week into it, and the vehicle was supposedly fixed.. they tested it for a day and gave it back to me yesterday. Today, its' back to not working. This is odd to say the least. Apparently it's only some 21 vehicles in the country with this problem, so I hope this means it's a simple matter of swapping out all the DVD hardware, but who knows?

Anyone else with a failed DVD system and a fix yet?

The car is in today to get the DVD unit replaced. We'll see if it fixes the problem or not. Will report back later.

Got the car back about a week ago. Dealer installed new DVD player and coded car with CIP ver 26.2. So far after a week of using the player no problems.

I too got a replacement DVD with the USA code.. it was the code thing all along!

So is the problem hardware or software?

Is there an SIB on this, as I am having the same issues.

guys, sorry been tied up and haven't seen the responses.

The problem is hardware. I had to have them replace my drive with a drive from the loaner car I drove before it worked fine. The software fix, and the drive replacement they did at first (new drive part) both didn't fix it. The replacement drive did work for about a day, but then quit. This I think is normal for when the region code is incorrect on a drive.

HAVE THEM MAKE SURE IT'S A NORTH AMERICAN DRIVE THEY PUT IN!

If it wasnt a NA drive it would not play movies at all...are you sure about this?

:cheer: 1K posts, congrats X5FX

I think most drives play all formats for a certain number of times then defult to a country code. For example, on my new Mac laptop, I am told I get 5 plays of the DVD before I must select a country code to be permanent. This must be the case with why the drives are working for a short time then failing. I've had two installed that failed with in a day or two.. this last one is the only one that hasn't but the it came from a vehicle where the country code must have been set already.

WOW...didnt even notice. Do I get a prize?

I was having issues with rear entertainment...X5 has been at the dealer for a week now and just got a call that they are replacing the DVD player and it should be in tomorrow.

we went thru the same thing.. we got an X5 3.0 loaner with a rear DVD player that worked which was nice, but after a week, they also replaced the drive and it came back!!! Apparently the drive they put in (as well as a bunch of them out there) are not for the North American zone.. so I insisted they just take the drive out of the loaner and put it in, and so far it's been 100% perfect!

New drive doesn't mean it's fixed.. just be ready. I might work for a day or two, and then go back to failing.

hopefully you worked out the kinks for me...if not shame on BMW

keep us posted.

Just got her back (10 days later). Ticket says they replaced DVD with new unit and reprogramed entire vehicle.

I need more time to eval, but it looks like I have different issues now. I turned off the ignition and restarted the car, and the DVD starts back from the begining rather picking up where it left off.

Mine used to restart the DVD at the same spot, now it doesnt.

What is yours doing?

you mean it AUTOMATICALLY restarts or you turn it on with one of the on knobs manually, then it goes back to the beginning rather than playing from where it left off?

I wish there was a way for it to Automatically start up when I start the engine, but I keep having to reach back and turn it on for the kids..

Also, I wonder if it's at all possible for BMW to make the controls appear on the front AUX REAR screen? It sure would be a lot safer than reaching back to turn it on!

On ours after new unit and reprogramming the movie will continue where it was when you shut down the car. We are still seeing some problems with the new unit such as the sound does not work at times. You just hear static no matter if you play sound via speakers or wireless headphones. Turning unit off and back on usually clears the condition.

I have the same issues withe the DVD player and I am picking it up today after they kept it for the night to upload new software (does it take a whole day to flash the software patch?????).

This is the second time I took it in since I also have the ipod adapter problems too. I will update you if they fixed mine.

No I meant after you turn it on (manually with the knob).

BTW- so far the replaced unit has been working perfectly.

yes, the software update take a long time. If they are lucky 2-3 hours, but usually most of the day.

Software updates involve updating the whole vehicle and whenever a module is installed it must be programmed and coded even if the vehicles programming level is up to date.

The DVD issue sucks I agree. Techs can't just replace them without getting tech line approval however, even if the tech knows 100% that a new DVD player is needed. That's just how the BMW warranty system works. That's the reason for many of the delays.

Welll hopefully the issue will be fixed even if it takes so long. It is in the shop for a second night/third day.

To be honest the DVD issue has not bothered me as much as the ipod issue due to the fact that it makes my daughter car sick so we never turn it on. It has to be the location of the screen because she never had this problem with other car DVD players.

Same issue here. It would just stop working and I can't even eject the disk. It worked after restarting the car and then crapped out again. I made an appointment for Thursday to get it fixed with a list of other things that was not working right. My car is 5 days old.

For those of you who got theirs fixed, can you PM me with your SA's name and phone number. It would probably save me time to have these guys talk to each other. Thanks.

Just got mine back and the issue is not fixed because they could not replicate the issue.

Funny because when I got back home and tried to turn on the DVD it would do nothing...

I did get a software update that fixed the ipod interface and also now I get both the camera and the radar on the screen when backing up which is a great enhancement.

What "radar" are you referring to? I only see the back up screen and green and red lines when I back up. Thanks

come again? is this what I think it is.. both the camera and the park assist together?

thats what he is claiming in another thread. I asked for photos.

I have a call into my SA about it.. would like to be armed with solid info before I "Insist" on the update! ;)

I already put the pics in the other post but here it is too:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1071/...a8b92852_o.jpg

Were you able to get this resolved? I have an 07 3.0 and am now having the issue. Have a service visit tomorrow.

If you were able to get it resolved, what took care of it? Software update? New Unit?