Problems Reading Sat Nav CD

[amwebby]

Today I received a new Sat nav CD for Germany as I'm off on a 5 day trip.

Thought I'd better check out the CDs first so went to eject the current, UK, CD. Pushed the eject button and the display showed No CD but nothing came out.

With a bit of coaxing (business card pushed under CD to raise it above the felt edge) the CD came out.

Inserted the new 'Major Roads of Europe CD. Lots of noise from the drive and then "Cannot read CD, please insert DX CD."

Replaced original UK CD and got the same message! Rang local dealer who said pop down and we'll have a look.

After a lot of fiddling they finally got the unit to read all CDs by the followng method:

1. Eject CD, turn COMAND off
2. Insert new CD
3. Leave COMAND off for 2-5 minutes, during which time it made furious reading noises.
4. Turn on COMAND

They reckon the COMAND unit, or at least the CD-ROM part, is getting "a bit tired" and recommended replacing the whole COMAND unit..

Are they right? Is it worth trying a a CD-ROM optical reader cleaner or should I look into getting the COMAND unit replaced?

 

[television]

Today I received a new Sat nav CD for Germany as I'm off on a 5 day trip.

Thought I'd better check out the CDs first so went to eject the current, UK, CD. Pushed the eject button and the display showed No CD but nothing came out.

With a bit of coaxing (business card pushed under CD to raise it above the felt edge) the CD came out.

Inserted the new 'Major Roads of Europe CD. Lots of noise from the drive and then "Cannot read CD, please insert DX CD."

Replaced original UK CD and got the same message! Rang local dealer who said pop down and we'll have a look.

After a lot of fiddling they finally got the unit to read all CDs by the followng method:

1. Eject CD, turn COMAND off
2. Insert new CD
3. Leave COMAND off for 2-5 minutes, during which time it made furious reading noises.
4. Turn on COMAND

They reckon the COMAND unit, or at least the CD-ROM part, is getting "a bit tired" and recommended replacing the whole COMAND unit..

Are they right? Is it worth trying a a CD-ROM optical reader cleaner or should I look into getting the COMAND unit replaced?

Total crap "rom"s do not get tired, laser pick ups do, they get weak, I wish that I could get hold of the service menu for these things as the gain can be increased and you can re focus

 

[mightymouse]

i was in germany a couple of months ago and rented a brand new GL. It had the same issues and we even had to goto a MB dealer to get it fixed whist on holiday. the tech guy said that these systems are so crap that MB is coming up with the hard drive / memory version. if i were you i'd try to get my money back or just fix the laser.

what happened was that sometimes the cd would load fine but sometimes in the middle of navigation it would just cut out and say no cd. MB never managed to get it fixed and on the other hand i got a discount from europcar. not much but good enought

 

[Leon]

I have to agree, the laser is often the cause of non-readable discs. You may want to try a lens cleaner CD, this can sometimes help but not always.

 

[amwebby]

Well, I've just returned from the 1,070 miles around the autobahns. The sat nav CDs worked fine, as long as I used the workaround of turning the COMAND unit off before loading the new CD. Once it had read the CD whilst off (takes about a minute, you can hear it whirring away quite normally, no harsh noises) it was fine. The only slightly frustrating thing was the numerous attempts it often took to eject the incumbent CD. If anyone has any tips on this I'd appreciate it.

It did surprise me at first as the newer, 2008 CD, loaded some new options I wasn't familiar with, namely the option of Fast Route AND Motorway. I soon discovered you needed both of these checked before it would actually direct you to an auto-route or autobahn.

I also discovered that, despite these not being TMC discs, the TMC worked fine, obviously loaded from the older UK disc. TMC in Germany was very efficient, once alerting me to an accident within minutes of it happening, just 1,000 km ahead. In France and Belgium it simply couldn't find any TMC stations.

 

[ShinyF1]

They reckon the COMAND unit, or at least the CD-ROM part, is getting "a bit tired" and recommended replacing the whole COMAND unit..

Are they right? Is it worth trying a a CD-ROM optical reader cleaner or should I look into getting the COMAND unit replaced?

I'm sure they're spot on if they are offering to pay for it!!

 

[Diesel Benz]

I also discovered that, despite these not being TMC discs, the TMC worked fine, obviously loaded from the older UK disc. TMC in Germany was very efficient, once alerting me to an accident within minutes of it happening, just 1,000 km ahead. In France and Belgium it simply couldn't find any TMC stations.

I cannot understand this. TMC needs specif road data for the area. To me the discs have to support TMC for that area if you get TMC info shown on Comand.

Was this a DVD covering the whole Europe? At least France came with TMC later than many other countries (not free TMC from RDS), a TMC capable disc could cover TMC info for one country but not another one. A more recent disc could cover TMC for both areas. I cannot see how TMC could work from some info from a previously used disc.

 

[ShinyF1]

Well, I've just returned from the 1,070 miles around the autobahns. The sat nav CDs worked fine, as long as I used the workaround of turning the COMAND unit off before loading the new CD. Once it had read the CD whilst off (takes about a minute, you can hear it whirring away quite normally, no harsh noises) it was fine. The only slightly frustrating thing was the numerous attempts it often took to eject the incumbent CD. If anyone has any tips on this I'd appreciate it.

It did surprise me at first as the newer, 2008 CD, loaded some new options I wasn't familiar with, namely the option of Fast Route AND Motorway. I soon discovered you needed both of these checked before it would actually direct you to an auto-route or autobahn.

I also discovered that, despite these not being TMC discs, the TMC worked fine, obviously loaded from the older UK disc. TMC in Germany was very efficient, once alerting me to an accident within minutes of it happening, just 1,000 km ahead. In France and Belgium it simply couldn't find any TMC stations.

I find keeping the eject button held down helps - mine eventually emerges, but you have to be quick or it gets sucked back in again!

 

[Rory]

Well, I've just returned from the 1,070 miles around the autobahns. The sat nav CDs worked fine, as long as I used the workaround of turning the COMAND unit off before loading the new CD. Once it had read the CD whilst off (takes about a minute, you can hear it whirring away quite normally, no harsh noises) it was fine. The only slightly frustrating thing was the numerous attempts it often took to eject the incumbent CD. If anyone has any tips on this I'd appreciate it.

You might not know the answer to this, but I wonder if it's loading different firmware each time you change the disk?

COMAND APS in my C Class does this, although it does tell you on the screen - I had a V2.2 DVD and tried a V6.3. New firmware loaded. I then went back to the V2.2 and was quite surprised that it loaded the old firmware version.

 

[MBManInKen]

It did surprise me at first as the newer, 2008 CD, loaded some new options I wasn't familiar with, namely the option of Fast Route AND Motorway. I soon discovered you needed both of these checked before it would actually direct you to an auto-route or autobahn.

That's not a 2008 feature though, mine has done this since the beginning. You can select fastest, shortest or dynamic route, in addition you have checkboxes for motorways, toll roads and ferry crossings which you can use to indicate whether or not you wish to include/exclude any of those options.

 

[Stratman]

What's TMC? [/dunce_hat]

 

[amwebby]

That's not a 2008 feature though, mine has done this since the beginning. You can select fastest, shortest or dynamic route, in addition you have checkboxes for motorways, toll roads and ferry crossings which you can use to indicate whether or not you wish to include/exclude any of those options.

It is the checkboxes for Motorways, Tolls and Ferry Crossings that are new since my 2007 CD. These are now offered when I reinsert that CD so I am sure this is a basic software update.

Update 11:57 6/11/2007 - I've just checked the TeleAtlas website and it would appear that TMC data is now included as standard. They don't appear to offer non-TMC and TMC discs any more and no mention is made of TMC except under the Product Highlights where it says, "Dynamic route guidance helps you avoid problems on the Autobahn and gets you safely to your destination."

 

[garystu1965]

I have to agree, the laser is often the cause of non-readable discs. You may want to try a lens cleaner CD, this can sometimes help but not always.

I recently got a multitude of disk read errors. A visit to Wilkinsons to buy a £1 lens cleaning disk cured the problem in five minutes.

 

[MBManInKen]

It is the checkboxes for Motorways, Tolls and Ferry Crossings that are new since my 2007 CD. These are now offered when I reinsert that CD so I am sure this is a basic software update.

But this software update goes back to 2001 or 2002. It might be you never got the update installed it before, and perhaps your 2008 CD happens to have that update on it, but I can assure you that option is not in any way a recent one.

I've just checked the TeleAtlas website and it would appear that TMC data is now included as standard.

Yes, but again that has been the case for a few years now AFAIK.

 

[MBManInKen]

What's TMC? [/dunce_hat]

http://www.mercupgrades.com/COMAND+FAQ-faq-1.html#7

 

[amwebby]

Well that is interesting as my 2006/7 CD for the UK proudly proclaims that it has TMC data for the UK and I recall purchasing this from TeleAtlas after returning a 2006/7 version purchased from MB without TMC data.

With regard to the route options it may well be that they were always there and I had simply overridden them by initially choosing Dynamic Route Guidance, which then stayed as the default option, greying the others out, hence I never noticed them.

 

[Alfie]

TMC data is not available as standard.

Teleatlas sell two types of disk for Comand 2. With TMC and without. The disks are priced differently.

 

[amwebby]

TMC data is not available as standard.

Teleatlas sell two types of disk for Comand 2. With TMC and without. The disks are priced differently.

That was my impression too but it doesn't seem to be made clear on the site or the discs. Only by reading the Product Highlights can you ascertain if TMC might be included.