[NiallG]

We've had the iDrive system reboot on us while we were driving - has now happened 3 times in last few weeks. Just wondering if anyone is experiencing this problem?

Each time it's a pretty similar sequence to if you do the manual reboot (holding down the volume/mute in center console) - the main touchscreen part goes black and only a basic speedometer screen is shown behind steering wheel (music stops if it's playing). The HUD also goes blank. Then after maybe 4-5 seconds the iDrive system boots up again and we get similar to when you get in the car, 'OK' prompt is shown etc.

Other thing is each time this has happened - the following set of conditions are in place :

- We are using the Navigation system with destination.
- We are in the Melbourne (CBD) area which is the heart of our big city. Note that we don't often go into the CBD (normally just travel in the suburbs around us), so it feels like more than a coincidence and I'm wondering if this is somehow a triggering factor.

Luckily the car itself hasn't stopped or anything when this happens - otherwise that would be super dangerous and result in an accident.

Anyone will similar experience or any thoughts why this might be happening? We have latest OTA iDrive installed from a couple of months ago.

[perto]

Hi, yes I have had one reboot as you describes while driving.

[wolfverine]

Same here - 2x so far this week and each time, it is when we were using the navi system with destination. Definitely quite disruptive (and dangerous?) especially when one is relying on the navi for guidance with unfamiliar roads.

[ScullyD]

Ah now that you mentioned this, i had totally forgot. This also happened to me a couple times, but only at the exact same intersection in my town. Almost as if there was a dead zone for GPS specifically in that location that idrive couldn't handle.

I'm thinking there will be a software fix for this in the near future, and its more an idrive 8 issue and not an issue with the car itself. Probably going to happen to people with X7's with idrive 8 if its not resolved by the time that car releases.

[BeemerGimic]

Originally Posted by NiallG

We've had the iDrive system reboot on us while we were driving - has now happened 3 times in last few weeks. Just wondering if anyone is experiencing this problem?

Each time it's a pretty similar sequence to if you do the manual reboot (holding down the volume/mute in center console) - the main touchscreen part goes black and only a basic speedometer screen is shown behind steering wheel (music stops if it's playing). The HUD also goes blank. Then after maybe 4-5 seconds the iDrive system boots up again and we get similar to when you get in the car, 'OK' prompt is shown etc.

Other thing is each time this has happened - the following set of conditions are in place :

- We are using the Navigation system with destination.
- We are in the Melbourne (CBD) area which is the heart of our big city. Note that we don't often go into the CBD (normally just travel in the suburbs around us), so it feels like more than a coincidence and I'm wondering if this is somehow a triggering factor.

Luckily the car itself hasn't stopped or anything when this happens - otherwise that would be super dangerous and result in an accident.

Anyone will similar experience or any thoughts why this might be happening? We have latest OTA iDrive installed from a couple of months ago.

Originally Posted by NiallG

We've had the iDrive system reboot on us while we were driving - has now happened 3 times in last few weeks. Just wondering if anyone is experiencing this problem?

Each time it's a pretty similar sequence to if you do the manual reboot (holding down the volume/mute in center console) - the main touchscreen part goes black and only a basic speedometer screen is shown behind steering wheel (music stops if it's playing). The HUD also goes blank. Then after maybe 4-5 seconds the iDrive system boots up again and we get similar to when you get in the car, 'OK' prompt is shown etc.

Other thing is each time this has happened - the following set of conditions are in place :

- We are using the Navigation system with destination.
- We are in the Melbourne (CBD) area which is the heart of our big city. Note that we don't often go into the CBD (normally just travel in the suburbs around us), so it feels like more than a coincidence and I'm wondering if this is somehow a triggering factor.

Luckily the car itself hasn't stopped or anything when this happens - otherwise that would be super dangerous and result in an accident.

Anyone will similar experience or any thoughts why this might be happening? We have latest OTA iDrive installed from a couple of months ago.

If this is a usual i8 issues then I'm not sure I'd want to buy it later in the future

[ScullyD]

Originally Posted by BeemerGimic

If this is a usual i8 issues then I'm not sure I'd want to buy it later in the future

I wouldn't lose sleep over this, its probably a situation where BMW isn't aware there is a GPS related software issue and since there are only about 1,000 iX sold in Q2, this problem is only starting to gain some visibility. Hence a fix is still probably not being worked on yet.

I haven't told a dealer about it yet cause i'm too busy using and enjoying my car (forgot it had happened until someone brought it up). So unless people have made their dealers aware of it, corporate might not even know its happening yet.

[NiallG]

Originally Posted by ScullyD

Ah now that you mentioned this, i had totally forgot. This also happened to me a couple times, but only at the exact same intersection in my town. Almost as if there was a dead zone for GPS specifically in that location that idrive couldn't handle.

I think that confirms my suspicion that it's being triggered by specific locations (possibly in combination with nav enabled) and not just a random glitch. Being a software dev myself, I'm guessing it's either a lack of data or (more likely) certain potentially corrupt or unrecognized data payloads coming through which is triggering the operating system to crash. Kind of like the infamous Windows 'blue screen of death', but we don't get a blue screen in iDrive and luckily the os at least reboots really fast and the car doesn't shut down.

Losing the navigation at a crucial moment has been the most annoying bit - as it's happening in the busy CBD for me there's not much opportunity to interact with iDrive and put in a destination again as I'm concentrating on busy traffic.

It does sound like a software glitch at least which can be sorted out. I did log an error in the past related to assisted driving problems direct to BMW HQ, will see if I can do something like that again so they are aware of it. On the other matter, after a couple of initial replies I was never contacted again - which was disappointing level of customer service.

[ScullyD]

Originally Posted by NiallG

I think that confirms my suspicion that it's being triggered by specific locations (possibly in combination with nav enabled) and not just a random glitch. Being a software dev myself, I'm guessing it's either a lack of data or (more likely) certain potentially corrupt or unrecognized data payloads coming through which is triggering the operating system to crash. Kind of like the infamous Windows 'blue screen of death', but we don't get a blue screen in iDrive and luckily the os at least reboots really fast and the car doesn't shut down.

Losing the navigation at a crucial moment has been the most annoying bit - as it's happening in the busy CBD for me there's not much opportunity to interact with iDrive and put in a destination again as I'm concentrating on busy traffic.

It does sound like a software glitch at least which can be sorted out. I did log an error in the past related to assisted driving problems direct to BMW HQ, will see if I can do something like that again so they are aware of it. On the other matter, after a couple of initial replies I was never contacted again - which was disappointing level of customer service.

I'll drive past the same location in my town later. My Sirius XM used to drop out in this same area on other cars, so i think its an error handling issue regarding lack of GPS data thats causing a crash.

I'll talk to my SA to see if there is a way to get this logged with corporate, as there needs to be a software fix for it.

[Paladin1]

Happens infrequently in my X5 with iD7, and in fact probably about once every couple or three months or so I need to reboot iDrive while driving because of some screen glitch. It's a computer....

[NiallG]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

Happens infrequently in my X5 with iD7, and in fact probably about once every couple or three months or so I need to reboot iDrive while driving because of some screen glitch. It's a computer....

The difference with this one is that it's rebooting by itself rather than you having any control over when that happens. On all occasions I was driving an unfamiliar + busy route and relying on Nav to get me to where I was going - so it was quite a shock to suddenly get a black screen. As per most busy CBD's too - one missed turn combined with traffic restrictions can suddenly mean an extra 20 mins or so to get back to where you needed to be.

[bmwspecialist]

I have experienced the random rebooting of the iDrive system on my 2013 328i many times. The circumstances have always been the same in my experience, and it has always happened while I am driving. The whole screen goes black and then it starts up again with the BMW logo as if the car was just starting up. It seems to be associated with the SiruisXM satellite radio because it only happens when I'm listening to the satellite radio, meaning that this has never happened while listening to FM radio. I've tried upgrading the firmware software from the center console and still the same issue. I've just purchased another 2013 328i and the same issue is happening with that car. Same circumstances as I've described above. BMW does not acknowledge that this is an issue and has no record of this happening in any vehicles.

[sor]

I am not sure it would be used but it would be nice if there were a dedicated section for iDrive versions. A lot of these issues can be traced across models where the same iDeive is used, and not inherently one specific model. It would be interesting to see which issues everyone is experiencing vs which seem to be a specific model or year.

[hugo_nz]

Originally Posted by sor

I am not sure it would be used but it would be nice if there were a dedicated section for iDrive versions. A lot of these issues can be traced across models where the same iDeive is used, and not inherently one specific model. It would be interesting to see which issues everyone is experiencing vs which seem to be a specific model or year.

Interesting idea but not entirely helpful or easily done. There are several hardware variants of the Head Unit based on country and specification. On top of that different regional units have different manufacturers. So the combination of hardware+software+specification+region gets really complicated. Even in the same model year there could be a number of hardware revisions of the same head unit.

[sor]

Originally Posted by hugo_nz

Interesting idea but not entirely helpful or easily done. There are several hardware variants of the Head Unit based on country and specification. On top of that different regional units have different manufacturers. So the combination of hardware+software+specification+region gets really complicated. Even in the same model year there could be a number of hardware revisions of the same head unit.

Yes, I understand. The goal wouldn’t be to filter everyone into specific hardware combos in a granular fashion, but more of a way to correlate and discover which issues affect which platforms.

For example maybe on an iDrive 8 forum we see iX and X1 and 7 series owners all say they experience the same bug. Maybe another thread we only see iX owners reporting.

I think the main challenge would just be in herding people to the iDrive forum rather than posting in their normal model thread.

[VirtualGuitars]

Slightly related. I find that rebooting iDrive manually while driving is much more convenient than waiting for it in your garage. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence for me, but I won’t get into that here.

[dean285]

Hi,

I had a similar issue with my 2018 X3. The HUD would reboot when navigation was engaged while driving in certain areas. In my case it was repeatable and always occurred in the same area (more or less) - on my way back from work. BMW replaced the HUD, applied s/w updates, put monitoring software on, asked me to stop using satellite radio, asked me to disable RTT - none of these things helped and it was going on for quite a while.

Incredibly annoying - If I was on a call, the sound got disconnected from the cars speakers, if the radio was on it would stop and of course the screen would go black and reboot.

BMW never found a solution.


However, The problem went away when my RTT expired (Real time traffic) and has never come back since. I know there is a way to disable RTT thru the menu - which I did - but that did not help. It was the expiration of the service which solved the problem (at least for me). It's been a few years now and was thinking of renewing that service but hesitant - the car has had several s/w updates since but don't want to deal with those reboots - so will probably hold off for now.

Good luck - hope this helps.

[NomiCodeMAN]

Hi I had same issue and BMW Coding Scotland fixed it for me. Even they can do this remotely in any part of world. I had an easy experience using their service