W164 ML COMAND freezes and restarts

[Bobby Dazzler]

The COMAND unit in Mrs D's W164 ML63 is misbehaving.

Sometimes all the buttons freeze and you can't even turn it off. Sometimes it restarts itself and it then works fine. Other times it gets caught in a continual loop of freezing, restarting, freezing, and so on.

Any bright ideas on how to fix it, or who could fix it?

 

[richard]

a) Make sure you have latest map - it has latest firmware for the COMAND
b) This can happen when something on fibre optic ring is breaking. So you may need to start bypassing things on the fibre optic ring such as CDC, Phone Controller, HK amp if you have that (which is a pain) . Its a real pain to diagnose this until it has broken properly though.

R

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Richard, thanks for your quick reply. I bought our map from COMAND Online ( ) in 2012, so it sounds like I may need to get a later version for the firmware. The bypassing sounds complicated

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

COMAND has locked up completely now, and whilst music plays it doesn't respond to any key pushes, except those from the steering wheel buttons. Worse still it seems COMAND wasn't ever powering down and so drained the battery - now removed.

Any recommendations on who is best placed to fix it?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I posted my COMAND unit off to be repaired, and reinstalled it on Sunday evening. A test drive on Sunday evening and a trip to the office and back today suggests that it's now working as it should be

Apparently there was a hardware and software issue but they guy who fixed it is being vague with his explanation, which is perhaps understandable.