W211 Comand unlocking problem/question

[glojo]

Hi John
At your suggestion I spoke to my servicing dealer. The lady said that she did not think my car could play mp3's, after my reply that I thought it might, she said that her manager will call me.....She could not quickly find what and when the last upgarde was made to the comand, my guess it was late January.
Harvey

Hi Harvey,
A thousand apologies if I was a bit short this morning... Too much pain, not enough morphine

The relevant upgrade was in approximately May 2004. (give or take a month) It was NOT a recall, so would only have been applied at the vehicles next service. It is though a popular request and a competant service department will have the upgrade available. It is a ten minute job that should be done free of charge, but I have heard of some less than friendly dealers charging for this technical required upgrade?? As I keep saying, there are a number of upgrades on the CD.

Mr E has made a point that I cannot (will not ) check out and that is whether the Mp3 option has been switched off??? I cannot get my head around any reason why this would be done and if someone has played with the engineers menu (secret menu) then the dealer will indeed have to charge you to correct the system.

I feel guilty about being grumpy and please feel free to take up my offer about writing a CD or DVD.

Steve has raised a very valid point about newer E-class, but both yours and ours are older vehicles. (January 2004 build date)

Bye for now,
John

 

[harveyn]

Hi John
No offence taken. Last night I had another go, again without success, but I think it is because my software version is 21/2003. I suspect it was not updated, when the dealer had the car in January for some recall or other, even though on the phone they said that they were going to update my comand. Steve very kindly talked me through things, and his version is 15/2004, I suspect this is the upgrade I need.
Hope this helps people.
Kind regards all
Harvey

 

[glojo]

I think we are making progress on this problem.

As I stated yesterday, I would be more concerned about whether the vehicle has had all the required recalls\upgrades.

My vehicles has had three recalls for SBC and FOURTEEN upgrades (modifications) several of the upgrades were in connection with improving the COMAND and how it operated.

There is an 0800 in your service booklet, I would try that to see what procedures your vehicle has had, they might be of help or they might simply refer you to your dealer.

Good luck,
John

 

[saorbust]

Hi John
No offence taken. Last night I had another go, again without success, but I think it is because my software version is 21/2003. I suspect it was not updated, when the dealer had the car in January for some recall or other, even though on the phone they said that they were going to update my comand. Steve very kindly talked me through things, and his version is 15/2004, I suspect this is the upgrade I need.
Hope this helps people.
Kind regards all
Harvey

If they plug your car into Star Diagnostics, it will automatically tell them if it needs and update and apply them. Its a bit like Windows update from Internet Explorer.

Try another dealer - the MP3 functionality is in the printed manual as a feature !!

 

[harveyn]

Update
My local dealer tried to enable playing mp3's in my car last week without success.
The software in my August 2003 built car can not be upgraded.
The only way possible would be to change the cd multi changer for a later version, which I think I will pass on.
Thanks to everyone for their help and thoughts.

 

[glojo]

Update
My local dealer tried to enable playing mp3's in my car last week without success.
The software in my August 2003 built car can not be upgraded.
The only way possible would be to change the cd multi changer for a later version, which I think I will pass on.
Thanks to everyone for their help and thoughts.

Hi Harvey,
I think your dealer is getting confused. The CD multi-changer is a different issue. My car will NOT play Mp3's through the multi-changer, that is an option that came out for 05 vehicles. I would simply have to buy a new changer to enable the function. We are talking about the DVD\CD slot on the actual COMAND.

I stand very much to be corrected on this and MbenzNL is the man to ask, but I still say your COMAND should play Mp3's on at least a DVD. Your vehicle was built in August 03 and it would be one of the first to have the DVD COMAND, but ours was only built four months later and it does play this type of file, if it cannot play Mp3's after it has been 'flashed' then the COMAND might be defective?

John

 

[harveyn]

Hi John
I am led to believe that the dvd slot head unit changed shortly after my car was built, its chasis number is very close to wdb211 226 2A 349155 (I'd rather not reveal its actual number here). The dvd slot/player can not be upgraded they said, I saw the guy trying the upgrade disk with no success. Cheers

 

[glojo]

Hi John
I am led to believe that the dvd slot head unit changed shortly after my car was built, its chasis number is very close to wdb211 226 2A 349155 (I'd rather not reveal its actual number here). The dvd slot/player can not be upgraded they said, I saw the guy trying the upgrade disk with no success. Cheers

Hi Harvey,
Apologies for my delay in responding but I have confirmed with MbenzNL who is in my opinion the most knowledgerable person there is on the various COMAND systems.

Your dealer is wrong. He is feeding you a line.

Sorry to disagree with them.

Regards,
John

 

[harveyn]

Hi John
It's becoming a murder mystery tour this episode! Incidently, my instruction manual made no mention of mp3 capabilities.
I saw the chap try and insert the latest upgrade disk, the updated version of W211 589 06 22 00, and to quote the him 'it was having none of it'.

Realistically, I am not sure how to proceed, other than to ask another dealer to perhaps try in a several months when the car is next due a service.

P.S. I really appreciate all your input.

 

[glojo]

Hi John
It's becoming a murder mystery tour this episode! Incidently, my instruction manual made no mention of mp3 capabilities.
I saw the chap try and insert the latest upgrade disk, the updated version of W211 589 06 22 00, and to quote the him 'it was having none of it'.

Realistically, I am not sure how to proceed, other than to ask another dealer to perhaps try in a several months when the car is next due a service.

P.S. I really appreciate all your input.

Good morning Harvey,
I feel for you and understand your predicament. Our vehicles come with so many options it is extremely difficult for main dealers to keep abreast of technical features (I would of thought impossible for independants\specialists).

Having read your previous post, I had my doubts about what I believed, so before replying I contacted someone that quite literally travels the World fitting this equipment, plus everyone holds him in very high regard. He confirmed my suspicions and you are being fed false information by the dealer.

The most important issue is to maintain a good relationship with the garage and if I were you . I would go back to the dealer, thank him for trying to upgrade your COMAND and then suggest they contact Mercedes-Benz UK and ask for more expert technical support. As I have repeatedly said, our COMAND was manufactured in those first early months of release and we now have the capability of playing Mp3's. It needed the upgrade and it must be installed correctly. I would be wrong to outline the full procedure, but if they simply plonk the upgrade into the drive, install the software and expect it to work, then they are not doing it right!

Regarding the COMAND manual, there is no mention of Mp3 capability in mine, so do not let them use that as an excuse.

I fully understand if you want to let this matter drop, as it must be frustrating, especially when the so called experts are saying you cannot do it, and an unknown forum member says you can.

Good luck with the decision,
John

 

[saorbust]

Regarding the COMAND manual, there is no mention of Mp3 capability in mine, so do not let them use that as an excuse.

Its in mine ! I had my car Sept 04, so it you have a car later than this it will definately be in the owners manual. On the electronic copy of the manual I have its page 50, very clearly in the Audio Section.

 

[glojo]

Its in mine ! I had my car Sept 04, so it you have a car later than this it will definately be in the owners manual. On the electronic copy of the manual I have its page 50, very clearly in the Audio Section.

Hi Saorbust,
I have the COMAND manual in front of me and in the index there is definitely NO reference to Mp3. It goes from 'Mix' to 'Multifunction Steering Wheel'! Reference to Mp3 should hopefully have fitted in between.

Your vehicle should have come with the Mp3 function? Whereas mine and Harvey's would need to be upgraded. The main manual goes from 'MON' to 'Multi-contour seat'. Again hopefully Mp3 would appear in between. When our vehicle was supplied the Mp3 capability was NOT available

I am NOT suggesting the electronic copy of the latest manual does not have any reference, how else would we know about the maximum folder options?

Regards,
John

 

[saorbust]

Sorry John - for me its in the Contents section of the COMAND manual.

Anyway - as usual for all the rule is RTFM.

 

[glojo]

Sorry John - for me its in the Contents section of the COMAND manual.

Anyway - as usual for all the rule is RTFM.

I had to look up what RTFM stands for It is NOT in the Contents of our COMAND manaul nor I suspect would it be in Harveys?

Perhaps the 'M' should be substituted for a 'T' for Thread? A 2003 early 2004 E-class would not have the Mp3 function, so I would not expect to see any reference to it. I wonder if our manuals refer to the V6 320CDI?

John

 

[steve.link]

Hi Harvey,

I bet when you get this MP3 issue resolved you will be able to access the DVD options as well.

 

[lexie]

some info i can give:

E240 october 2003 (model 2004) with factory fitted comand
-> had no mp3 functionality when bought, no reference in manual. i did try it, but would not recognize mp3 cd's or dvd's
-> 6 months later and a few software upgrades to comand (which they didn't tell me about but i noticed it because of minor changes in the displayed texts etc...). tried mp3 again and worked perfectly... all discussed menu's are there too

 

[glojo]

E240 october 2003 (model 2004) -> 6 months later and a few software upgrades to comand (which they didn't tell me about but i noticed it because of minor changes in the displayed texts etc...). tried mp3 again and worked perfectly... all discussed menu's are there too

Whew!!!
Thanks very much for the most welcome post. As I have stated all along this so called Mp3 upgrade is more than just that. It is one of many flash upgrades that our vehicles receive when they go into a main dealer for any type of work, service etc.

Hopefully it will reassure Harvey to persue his quest.

Regards,
John

 

[Hedge]

Don't know if this helps or hinders any.

A week ago I purchased a september 55 plate E220CDI (W211) with command. This is my first MB and I am currently well impressed. I was initially told by the MB garage my command did not support mp3 files however using the codes on this thread I looked (without changing) this hidden menu. The option to enable mp3 was disabled. I went back to the garage the next day and spoke to an engineer who took 2 mins whilst I was talking to another person to enable mp3 playing. He would not explain how. Now when I look in the hidden menu it is enabled!


Regards,

Mark

 

[prprandall51]

Don't know if this helps or hinders any.

A week ago I purchased a september 55 plate E220CDI (W211) with command. ......

Now when I look in the hidden menu it is enabled!

Thanks for the info Mark - can you please tell us if your COMAND manual has a section on how to configure and play MP3 disks?

Thanks
Philip

 

[harveyn]

UPDATE - GOOD NEWS

Sincere thanks to John (Glojo) and Steve........ after a long conversation with my dealer, he has come back to me saying that 'all NTG comand units' i.e. those with the additional dvd drive in the boot, SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY MP3's.

He has even offered to replace the whole comand unit if necessary! (He will try another unit in my car first, and take it from there.

I am not sure when I can book the car in, but will keep everyone updated.

All the best, and sincere thanks to everyone...cheers

Harvey