DAB 'Device Unavailable' Message

[SultanTiger]

I had a call from MB customer services in the Netherlands today out of the blue saying that they had followed up my e-mail to MB UK customer services from 2 weeks ago about being fobbed off by this issue for 4 months now. My car is now booked in for a software update that I'm assured will finally resolve the issue for non-command systems with the separate dab tuner in the boot.

I've noticed over the last few weeks that it only happens when I'm near home between Guildford and the M25 (and less occasionally on the M25 on the western side). It almost happens like clockwork.

I'll let you know if it does finally resolve.

 

[Snowgum]

Had mine done at MB Brooklands this morning. It took about an hour. All good so far.

 

[richard]

We have the fix for this now. It takes between about 45 mins and 2 hours depending on whether the other Audio related control units are up-to-date (as all Audio units get brought up to same software level)

Our local MB dealer is apparently now £288 inc VAT per hour! I asked about this on my ML on extended warranty and the answer was that it was not a hardware failure and thus not covered.

Richard

 

[jfhuk]

We have the fix for this now. It takes between about 45 mins and 2 hours depending on whether the other Audio related control units are up-to-date (as all Audio units get brought up to same software level) Our local MB dealer is apparently now £288 inc VAT per hour! I asked about this on my ML on extended warranty and the answer was that it was not a hardware failure and thus not covered. Richard

Sounds steep! My dealer did it for free and I'm out of warranty.

 

[richard]

Sounds steep! My dealer did it for free and I'm out of warranty.

Thats good to hear ! Luckily I can do my own, but I was surprised to hear that the MB extended warranty only covered hardware failures and not software issues. I guess that is just warranties not catching up with technology yet..

Richard

 

[motodrb]

Both DAB and sat nav update sorted during service today at Temple Fortune today. 5 hours including B service.

 

[nimishashar]

is anyone able to shed any light on whether this fix has been rolled out to all dealerships or is it a try your luck route

 

[Alfie]

is anyone able to shed any light on whether this fix has been rolled out to all dealerships or is it a try your luck route

Yes it has because we received the update ourselves last week. All service outlets with genuine Xentry will now have the fix.

 

[ioweddie]

Mine (S205) C220d 2016 model, was updated and an amplifier fitted on Monday free of charge as it's now a recall. The software update was done during its first service a couple of weeks ago and I had to go back yesterday as they were waiting for the part (amplifier for the aerial). All done it just over an hour and so far the DAB is working well with no loss of signal.

 

[SultanTiger]

Well so far all is well. The DAB is behaving itself nicely.

 

[Snowgum]

Funnily enough I have not had any episodes of device unavailable, but reception in some areas has been terrible, especially along the A303. I haven't heard of amplifiers being fitted. Is that part of the recall?

 

[Red C220]

Both out cars are booked into MB Gatwick on the 2nd and 4th August repectively.

Gatwick are saying this is a software update which is a possible fix, it's not suggested it's definitive.

I'll update when both are done. Mine is unusable on DAB at the moment so this should be an obvious improvement.

 

[richard]

OK, I got hold of a MOST analyser to work out what this fix does, and discovered another bug in the process.

The fix updates the firmware in the DAB tuner only. (but of course if the firmware in the rest of the audio system is out of date that comes up to the latest, but my cars have 2 month old firmware and only the DAB tuner got updated).

Now the DAB tuner sends more than 100 stations on the MOST bus. Before it sent only 100 (and of course kept rebooting).

However, the COMAND unit only displays 100 !!! So first time after I upgraded my system, I found it didn't show any of the BBC stations. In engineering mode on the COMAND it showed the BBC National Ensemble existed though.

So, I retuned and got BBC - so presumably some other stations are not displayed

I don't know whether Mercedes will realise the next issue exists though.

Richard

 

[jfhuk]

I haven't had any problems with Comand or the Dab tuner not finding stations since the upgrade. How did you find the issue Richard?

 

[richard]

I haven't had any problems with Comand or the Dab tuner not finding stations since the upgrade. How did you find the issue Richard?

No tuner resets, but i've seen the missing stations. But there are a lot of stations in Lightwater and reasonably unlucky one I was looking for were missing.

R

 

[SultanTiger]

It seems anywhere within 10 miles of Woking in Surrey is a hotspot for this issue (Lightwater is very close).

I've had the update applied 2 weeks ago. No reboots yet but 2 instances of 'device unavailable' with sound on switch on. Perhaps if the last listened to station is now one of the 'missing' ones referred to in your post above it causes this? But it soon corrects itself 30 seconds later.

 

[jfhuk]

I've been in and out of Sunbury (probably on the edge of the ten miles Woking radius) on a daily basis and haven't seen the greater than 100 station issue so far, causing problems.

The weird 10 second pause of silence whenever the BBC transmit the Greenwich time signal is back though after a months absence.

 

[nimishashar]

i've just had Mrecedes at Maidstone update my system on my 2013 cls 350, car spent the day with them, and still the dab radio cuts out, is there something i should be asking them to do or is it a matter of luck as to whether you get an enginrer who knows what they are doing

 

[richard]

i've just had Mrecedes at Maidstone update my system on my 2013 cls 350, car spent the day with them, and still the dab radio cuts out, is there something i should be asking them to do or is it a matter of luck as to whether you get an enginrer who knows what they are doing

They probably hadn't yet updated their Xentry Diagnosis machine to 07/2016 ...

Richard

 

[Red C220]

Both our cars updated this week at MB Gatwick.

Had a drop out on both the day they were returned, then realised I needed to run the "autostore" function again after the update.

Since I did that I've not had a drop out in either car. It's good to have DAB back.