New SLK and Comand Issue Reboot .....and more

[malcg]

Hi

Just wondered if any one has any thoughts .....

The Comand in my wife's SLK keeps rebooting itself ... not fun when you are following a route ....

The local dealer suggested a software up grade ... which took a couple of week for them to get hold of (don't know what upgrade this was).

Now to the interesting part. When my wife picked up the car Comand was now in German .. no problem ... reset it to English. Noticed all of the setting and locations had disappeared ... not too much of a problem. I then went to add a destination into the Nav memory ... got to the save part and it said "name exists or memory full" ... ummm! So I called it "XYZ...Z" (sure I don't know where that is ) ... got the same message. There are no locations showing in the memory but you can add from the map.

And to top it all, you get out of the car and lock it ... when you get back in, guess what, Comand is back in German and all the setting are screwed again.

Any ideas ... the dealer had a quick look (about an hour) but know wants the car says it may be a faulty Comand ... it was working OK (apart from the reboots) before the software upgrade. Here's hoping (or me insisting) this is a warrenty item .....

 

[richard]

The latest upgrade disk for SLK arrived a few days ago (go see my www.mercupgrades.com site and look in comand-aps faq)
- so this ties up with what your dealer said

But, given your COMAND was rebooting - and no one else here has been mentioning the problem (and they would i'm sure) I imagine you really do have a faulty COMAND - that may well have rebooted during the software upgrade and got more broken..

I guess/hope he'll retry the software install (it has no error messages and no way of rechecking it all installed properly :-( according to the instructions on the disk) and then replace the COMAND unit ..

Cheers

Richard

Hi

Just wondered if any one has any thoughts .....

The Comand in my wife's SLK keeps rebooting itself ... not fun when you are following a route ....

The local dealer suggested a software up grade ... which took a couple of week for them to get hold of (don't know what upgrade this was).

Now to the interesting part. When my wife picked up the car Comand was now in German .. no problem ... reset it to English. Noticed all of the setting and locations had disappeared ... not too much of a problem. I then went to add a destination into the Nav memory ... got to the save part and it said "name exists or memory full" ... ummm! So I called it "XYZ...Z" (sure I don't know where that is ) ... got the same message. There are no locations showing in the memory but you can add from the map.

And to top it all, you get out of the car and lock it ... when you get back in, guess what, Comand is back in German and all the setting are screwed again.

Any ideas ... the dealer had a quick look (about an hour) but know wants the car says it may be a faulty Comand ... it was working OK (apart from the reboots) before the software upgrade. Here's hoping (or me insisting) this is a warrenty item .....

 

[glojo]

Hi malcg,
You have not said how old your wife's car is? If it is relatively new, then surely it should have been delivered with all the latest upgrades? I would not be a very happy person.

If on the other hand it is second-hand, then it might indeed simply need an upgrade that was bought out after it was last serviced??? What surprises me is the fact that the dealer cannot do it straight away, I cannot believe yours is the only SLK that they have to look after? I suppose you might have to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I am suspicious of their reasoning.

Polite pressure and let them know you are not impressed.

John

 

[MikeL]

Hello malcq,

I had the same problem with the current shape SLK (R171) - the car was rejected (from new) after three months, but that is another story...

My comand periodically shut down and re-booted, it was a fairly common problem in USA vehicles, possibly caused by excessive heat, either ambient temperature or the unit overheating. Mine unfortunately didn't have time to get fixed.

Regarding the full memory, I can't remember the precise cause but it is known by Mercedes UK and is to do with software upgrades doing system self checks, the dealer should know about this one - technically it isn't a fault. I would suggest they have screwed up the software upgrade which is why the language is now German.

To be fair to the dealer the software packages keep changing, one reason being to stop owners attempting various spurious and/or illegal hacks - something that worked before might now have altered.

My last E-Class for instance was one of the first models in the country with comand (February 2003) and MB didn't have a UK country code so it was running on a universal software setting and was very unstable, when upgraded it was fine.

Mike

 

[miro]

The latest upgrade disk for SLK arrived a few days ago (go see my www.mercupgrades.com site and look in comand-aps faq)
- so this ties up with what your dealer said

But, given your COMAND was rebooting - and no one else here has been mentioning the problem (and they would i'm sure) I imagine you really do have a faulty COMAND - that may well have rebooted during the software upgrade and got more broken..

I guess/hope he'll retry the software install (it has no error messages and no way of rechecking it all installed properly :-( according to the instructions on the disk) and then replace the COMAND unit ..

Cheers

Richard

If a COMAND boots during an update it will generally fail to proceed and go into BOOTLOADER mode thinking that it is brand new again and does not have an OS. This can then only be loaded with Star.

 

[richard]

What surprises me is the fact that the dealer cannot do it straight away

I think thats because the latest software update was announced in the May wis update (although the document was dated march), but the disks were only available to dealers this week (my dealer got his order delivered earlier in the week) .. so I guess the dealer was being sensible by waiting for the absolute latest update ..

Cheers

R

 

[glojo]

I think thats because the latest software update was announced in the May wis update (although the document was dated march), but the disks were only available to dealers this week (my dealer got his order delivered earlier in the week) .. so I guess the dealer was being sensible by waiting for the absolute latest update ..

Cheers

R

Hi Richard,
I understand what your saying, BUT are you suggesting that without this latest flash upgrade ALL SLK COMAND units would have hte problem that this member is complaining about?

I accept upgrades improve the operating system, but from what I am reading this COMAND has never really worked. I have asked a very relevant question which so far has not been answered so I will not criticise the dealer too much.

When the owner took delivery the unit was set-up in German???? what type of PDI was done, what type of hand-over etc. I am aware of the 're-boot' issue but did not think it was as bad as has been described here?

Hopoefully the latest flash upgade will resolve this annoying issue?

Regards,
John

 

[richard]

I've re-read my postings above and realised I've been referring to 'COMAND' instead of seperately identifying the Navigation processor

The SLK has a COMAND head unit and a seperate Navigation processor.

As Miro says, if the head unit is updated and failed it normally ends up in boot mode and can only be fixed with Star - but its obviously broken when that happens.

The upgrade I've been talking about (the one just released) is the Navigation processor upgrade - and, according to the note on the disk package, it says it fixes "Problem: Navigation is not functional, Display shows "Navigation not available" & "Navigation DVD does not eject" ".
It has a rather ominous note also saying "Note: There is no initial verification, whether any previous update has been performed. There is no supplementary indication of a successful completion of the upgrade" - which is rather un-german behaviour if you ask me..

My feeling is since your issues are with navigation and navigation memory then you have a navigation processor fault. On old type comand the languages for the comand are stored on the navigation disk - so I suspect this may be true on the new ones as-well and thus could explain the language going back to German.

So my initial advice should have been: -

I guess/hope he'll retry the software install (it has no error messages and no way of rechecking it all installed properly :-( according to the instructions on the disk) and then replace the Navigation unit ..

In case you need to help the dealer out, the nav upgrade disk part nr is W220 589 04 22 00. The COMAND head unit upgrade disk is W171 589 01 22 00 (Europe) or W171 589 02 22 00 (USA). The nav upgrade just made it to the dealers, the COMAND head unit upgrade was a couple of months ago

Sorry if I confused anyone !

Richard

 

[richard]

Hi Richard,
I understand what your saying, BUT are you suggesting that without this latest flash upgrade ALL SLK COMAND units would have hte problem that this member is complaining about?

My comment about the new disk was purely about why the dealer may have taken a few weeks to look at malcg's car

I've listed the faults that the navigation processor upgrade "claims" to fix in the posting above this - and I do suspect they all can do those faults under certain, but rarely occuring, conditions (or else lots more would complain). Rebooting isnt one of those faults - so really I suspect a dodgy navigation processor (or wiring (electrical or fibre)) to it which failed to get a complete software load during the update that the dealer did (because it rebooted!) and thus is behaving very randomly now.

It maybee that rebooting is fixed by this s/w update if it can be installed without it rebooting in the middle - which is why i suggested trying to re-do the update before changing the (expensive) nav processor.

Cheers

R

 

[glojo]

In case you need to help the dealer out, the nav upgrade disk part nr is W220 589 04 22 00. The COMAND head unit upgrade disk is W171 589 01 22 00 (Europe) or W171 589 02 22 00 (USA). The nav upgrade just made it to the dealers, the COMAND head unit upgrade was a couple of months ago

Sorry if I confused anyone !

Richard

Hi Richard,
Is at least one of those part numbers simply for the latest DVD Navigation Disc? If so I do not believe it will resolve this particular problem. The COMAND head unit upgrade one just might, but my money is perhaps on Miro's suggestion, but depends on whether this is a new vehicle.

Thanks for clarifying your post. I have been down that road myself.

John

 

[richard]

Hi Richard,
Is at least one of those part numbers simply for the latest DVD Navigation Disc? If so I do not believe it will resolve this particular problem. The COMAND head unit upgrade one just might, but my money is perhaps on Miro's suggestion, but depends on whether this is a new vehicle.

Thanks for clarifying your post. I have been down that road myself.

John

No, the 220 589 04 22 00 part number is specifically a software update for the nav processor - not a nav map disk - its one of those disks that is not meant to be left with the customer ...
I havent seen any nav processor updates before this one (and I have most of the disks), only head unit or base unit. (base unit seems to be the name for the US all-in-one units on the B/C/ML etc) - and had assumed that this software was just released on the nav disks.

I've assumed the nav processor is rebooting because it was mentioned as happening during navigation - and because the dealer had to wait a couple of weeks to get the disk. But of course it could be the COMAND head unit, or the power wiring to it, or wiring between it and the Nav unit or even the Audio Gateway - since some memory settings are held there

In reality, we are all guessing as we don't know what Star diagnosis error log shows and isn't very useful sometimes !!

R

 

[malcg]

Hi thanks for all your inputs, the car went to the dealer today so hopefully it will be fixed ....

To clarify a few points, the car is a new car (March 2006) which we picked up from the factory in Bremen.

I can understand why the dealer didn't pick up on the fault after the upgrade, it only resets itself to German if you lock the vehicle. If you just switch it off all the settings stay the same. The dealer is actually leaning toward a head unit replacement but is going to try re-applying the upgrade.

The navigation is fine, apart from defaulting to Germany and German. Most annoying little thing is it also default to CET which means the clock is an hour out after locking the vehicle.

Will let you know what actually happens.

 

[malcg]

Re-applying the software upgrade fixed the problem.