[Pugger]

This is following on from issues I reported here http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=546694

I thought I'd make a new thread as after various tests I'm coming to the conclusion that it is the Wifi causing the problems.

I have the Pro Sat Nav and literally 5 minutes after leaving the dealers the screen went bright red, then came back on but flickered quite badly before settling down flickering occasionally. Thanks the X3/X4 owner who also encountered the same problem, he told me it was interference from Wifi.

I found this difficult to believe, but having run a few test I'm nearly convinced this is the case.

I have wifi on my blackberry which was enabled and on my ipod touch which was also enable. Drive the car with both or only one of these activated and the screen would instantly or eventually breakup go bright red and eventually blank to black completely. Turn the wifi off doesn't get the nav screen to return to normal you have to stop the engine and then restart. Leave the Wifi options off and I have yet to have a problem with the NAV screen. Admitted its early days I haven't done enough mileage to convince myself 100% its wifi, but it does seem highly likely.

Has anyone else come across this problem? Any ideas what would cause the problem?

[509trooper]

How soon after you start driving does this happen? When I test drove a 35i with NAV, I had an iPhone 4 and and iPad 2 in the vehicle, both had WiFi enabled. Only drove about 5 miles, but I saw no NAV anomalies, and while we didn't have a route planned we were observing the map.

[Pugger]

This is the funny thing, sometimes with the Wifi enabled it can take 5 minutes or so for the screen to break up. Yesterday the screen went bright red within 30 seconds of me enabling wifi. By the way the screen is affected no matter what setting it on, it doesn't need to be on the sat nav, it could be on any page such as radio etc and it's affected the same way.

[sfax]

Originally Posted by Pugger

This is the funny thing, sometimes with the Wifi enabled it can take 5 minutes or so for the screen to break up. Yesterday the screen went bright red within 30 seconds of me enabling wifi. By the way the screen is affected no matter what setting it on, it doesn't need to be on the sat nav, it could be on any page such as radio etc and it's affected the same way.

Most likely to happen only when your WiFi is actually transferring data rather than just enabled. Depends on how your devices are setup. E.g. push/pull email settings. Also depends how often you're connected via WiFi. When you're on the move I would have thought that you aren't connected a lot of the time

I'll get my emails later via WiFi and hold the phone up to screen. I'm pretty sure I would have seen the problem if it existed on mine but I'll let you know.

[X3andZ4owner]

Wifi transmission is different from Cellular traffic / gprs/ 3G
My problems went away as soon as I turned off wifi on my iPhone ...
When enabled the phone searches for wifi connections periodically ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi


Seems to me that some cars have bad shielding on the computer or the LCD screen..

[Pugger]

Originally Posted by sfax

Most likely to happen only when your WiFi is actually transferring data rather than just enabled. Depends on how your devices are setup. E.g. push/pull email settings. Also depends how often you're connected via WiFi. When you're on the move I would have thought that you aren't connected a lot of the time

I'll get my emails later via WiFi and hold the phone up to screen. I'm pretty sure I would have seen the problem if it existed on mine but I'll let you know.

Sfax It was most certaintly transmitting last night as the car was sat outside my house and the ipod was connected to the network. The screen went berserk almost immediately. I think your probably correct, if wifi is enable on a product it will search for networks, so ia ssume this is when it affects the screen. What I don't understand is appears to be only me and x3/z4 that seem to have the problem. I'm just hoping that if your using say an Ipad2 in the car and connecting via 3G won't have the same issues. By the way X3/Z4 how did you link the problems to wifi, I wouldn't have detected it in a month of Sundays.

My wife has an android phone and that doesn't seem to causing any problems.

[sfax]

Just used my iPhone 4, connected to WiFi wireless router and held the phone right next to the screen. No problems at all, no flicker, no lines or anything, whilst downloading emails and listening to internet radio

[X5plug-in]

So either not the cause, not the same factors (might phones be using a different network / frequency?) or else something like faulty component protection somewhere that allows bleed thro & interference? Can't think of a fourth option, except you maybe just invented RedTooth!

[Pugger]

Well it now seems wifi may not be the problem. After 2 days with no problems it all went wrong again this morning. No wifi on, with any of the devices in the car, on starting up the screen went bright red then went blank. None of the controls worked, well they may have been but you couldn't tell.

Turned the ignition off, started it after a minute. Screen came on flashing red, it flickered red on and off for the 30 minute drive to work. My blackberry was connected via BT and my ipod touch was connected, but no wifi. Luckily my wife video'd the problem from start to finish. Sent it to the dealer, Car booked in for Monday, X1 waiting for me. I suspect it could be days before they sort this. They have sent the video to BMW support hoping they have an answer. Taken a bit of shine off the car, but hey there's plenty more to worry about. Oh, i'm getting 43.3 MPH 60% Motorway/40% stuck in Cardiff traffic.

[Nahoa]

Glad you were able to see that and record it. There's no way it's wi-fi or gsm interference. There's unfortunately something else going wrong with your car. Hope the dealership can diagnose it easily.

[Lotus7]

Originally Posted by Nahoa

Glad you were able to see that and record it. There's no way it's wi-fi or gsm interference. There's unfortunately something else going wrong with your car. Hope the dealership can diagnose it easily.

Clearly a connection or component problem. Might be as simple as a connector that's not fully seated, a loose wire or as bad as a defective display processor or iDrive CPU. Recording it on video was a brilliant idea, but it sounds like it's happening often enough that the service people should find the problem quickly.

Hope it turns out to be a simple fix.