iDrive / NBT rebooting spontaneously ("no signal" message)

GoranBonn · 01-23-2017, 02:03 AM

It seems that my 2013 NBT headunit is getting temperature sensitive. Last winter I observed it spontaneously reboot on two separate occasions. (Nav screen goes black, displays orange NO SIGNAL, after a few seconds an internal "click" is heard from NBT unit and it boots up again with Connected drive logo).

I asked BMW service about it but they weren't very helpful - they suggested that it might be a bluetooth issue, and that I should clear up my contacts list and make sure I have no funny characters in my contact names. But I did get the software upgraded.

This winter (and admittedly it's been consistently cold for the past two weeks, with morning temps around -5 to -8 C, I started having almost regular reboots on my (short) morning commute. The car is parked in a garage though, but usually on morning startup will warn that the temp is around 0C.

Typically the unit will reboot after about 20 minutes driving, when the cabin has gotten fully nice and warm. I keep the AC at 22C with the red/blue wheel on the middle of the red side.

The funny thing is that 4 weeks ago I did a 2000 km round trip with no reboots whatsoever - so it's not a software stability issue. Also there's no correlation to bumps on the road or vibrations, so loose cables are also not a probable cause. Had it also happen right at the end of the commute during parking, so basically with the car practically stationary. I'm not in a call when it reboots, have an iPhone SE with iOS 10 paired and inactive. Nav is typically not active and maps are freshly updated (I've seen people have issues with specific nav directions on specific roads - not the case here).

Today I even tried forcing the air circulation down and up, with no air to the front, thinking it might help, but still it rebooted. I'll have to do more experiments.

I've googled for similar threads of NBT rebooting but there was no usable fix found, apart from BMW simply replacing the units.

The car is no longer under warranty, unfortunately. And of course in wintertime seems all the electrical gremlins start coming out. I also had the front sensors act up with collision detection refusing to work for 2 days and then magically sorting itself out.

Any ideas what to try?

And, if I was to pick up a used NBT headunit on ebay and wanted to swap it myself, what kind of coding would I be looking at to get it to talk to the rest of the car?

mr_kay · 01-23-2017, 06:58 AM

I had a similar issue with my CIC navi...it was super annoying. My screen would display "no signal" but my music or whatever would keep playing, so I know it wasn't fully rebooting. It turned out to be that my fiber optic cable on my CIC harness was a little loose I guess? Either that or the screen connector. Anyway, I took apart my dash, undid all the connectors and put them back together. Haven't had the issue since. That was a few months ago.

kalmotam · 01-23-2017, 07:32 AM

I had this issue once in my 2014 328i the day after I updated my software via USB downloaded from the website. No issue after that. It only happened once. Freaked me out😓...might be a virus??

GoranBonn · 01-27-2017, 07:34 AM

Managed to record the damn thing rebooting this morning. Sometimes when it locks up, the display will go on and off, fading in and out from the last picture it was displaying. You can see the NO SIGNAL message appear and fade out, and then shows faintly the nav screen briefly before switching off and rebooting.

I'm thinking of pulling it out and reseating the connectors...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjECtlDE18w

01-23-2017, 02:03 AM	#1
GoranBonn Private First Class 144 Rep 125 Posts Drives: 2013 F30 330d SB Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Bonn, Germany iTrader: (0)	iDrive / NBT rebooting spontaneously ("no signal" message) It seems that my 2013 NBT headunit is getting temperature sensitive. Last winter I observed it spontaneously reboot on two separate occasions. (Nav screen goes black, displays orange NO SIGNAL, after a few seconds an internal "click" is heard from NBT unit and it boots up again with Connected drive logo). I asked BMW service about it but they weren't very helpful - they suggested that it might be a bluetooth issue, and that I should clear up my contacts list and make sure I have no funny characters in my contact names. But I did get the software upgraded. This winter (and admittedly it's been consistently cold for the past two weeks, with morning temps around -5 to -8 C, I started having almost regular reboots on my (short) morning commute. The car is parked in a garage though, but usually on morning startup will warn that the temp is around 0C. Typically the unit will reboot after about 20 minutes driving, when the cabin has gotten fully nice and warm. I keep the AC at 22C with the red/blue wheel on the middle of the red side. The funny thing is that 4 weeks ago I did a 2000 km round trip with no reboots whatsoever - so it's not a software stability issue. Also there's no correlation to bumps on the road or vibrations, so loose cables are also not a probable cause. Had it also happen right at the end of the commute during parking, so basically with the car practically stationary. I'm not in a call when it reboots, have an iPhone SE with iOS 10 paired and inactive. Nav is typically not active and maps are freshly updated (I've seen people have issues with specific nav directions on specific roads - not the case here). Today I even tried forcing the air circulation down and up, with no air to the front, thinking it might help, but still it rebooted. I'll have to do more experiments. I've googled for similar threads of NBT rebooting but there was no usable fix found, apart from BMW simply replacing the units. The car is no longer under warranty, unfortunately. And of course in wintertime seems all the electrical gremlins start coming out. I also had the front sensors act up with collision detection refusing to work for 2 days and then magically sorting itself out. Any ideas what to try? And, if I was to pick up a used NBT headunit on ebay and wanted to swap it myself, what kind of coding would I be looking at to get it to talk to the rest of the car?
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01-23-2017, 06:58 AM	#2
mr_kay First Lieutenant 126 Rep 367 Posts Drives: F30 335i Join Date: May 2014 Location: NYC iTrader: (0)	I had a similar issue with my CIC navi...it was super annoying. My screen would display "no signal" but my music or whatever would keep playing, so I know it wasn't fully rebooting. It turned out to be that my fiber optic cable on my CIC harness was a little loose I guess? Either that or the screen connector. Anyway, I took apart my dash, undid all the connectors and put them back together. Haven't had the issue since. That was a few months ago.
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01-23-2017, 07:32 AM	#3
kalmotam Enlisted Member 8 Rep 41 Posts Drives: 2016 bmw X4 F26, 2014 bmw F30 Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Iran iTrader: (0)	I had this issue once in my 2014 328i the day after I updated my software via USB downloaded from the website. No issue after that. It only happened once. Freaked me out😓...might be a virus??
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01-27-2017, 07:34 AM	#4
GoranBonn Private First Class 144 Rep 125 Posts Drives: 2013 F30 330d SB Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Bonn, Germany iTrader: (0)	Managed to record the damn thing rebooting this morning. Sometimes when it locks up, the display will go on and off, fading in and out from the last picture it was displaying. You can see the NO SIGNAL message appear and fade out, and then shows faintly the nav screen briefly before switching off and rebooting. I'm thinking of pulling it out and reseating the connectors... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjECtlDE18w
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