[jasonn]

I am writing to express my sincere gratitude to MEN@BimmerTech. It has been 24 hours now and the error has not resurfaced.

For many weeks now, I've had a persisting "Power Window Anti-Trap Function" which appears every 20 seconds accompanied by an annoying "gong" sound. I tried everything within my extremely limited expertise to resolve the problem: I cleared all my codes through INPA, recoded CAS & FRM using NCSExpert Profile, and of course tried re-initializing my windows. Nothing worked. I purchased my CIC from Tadas, a Lithuanian based seller. Tadas is a great person, very nice. Unfortunately Tadas defers all coding issues to Bimmer Retrofit, who does contract work for him. Bimmer Retrofit's diagnosis was that my car had outdated software which was causing conflict and advised that I get my car programmed to the newest software at a BMW Dealership. I felt that Bimmer Retrofit was unwilling to investigate further because it exceeded the scope of their arrangement with Tadas.





Suffice to say MEN@BimmerTech alone offered to resolve my issue when Bimmer Retrofit could/would/did not. For that alone, I am extremely appreciative. In fact, Bimmer Retrofit had advised me to get my car completely programmed for 8 hours at a BMW Dealership. Surely that is the probably the most orthodox approach, but as retrofitting the CIC is already unorthodox, I'm confident I would not have been alone in desiring an alternative approach.


Basic Outline

1. I poke MEN@BimmerTech on Skype
2. Teamviewer
3. MEN@BimmerTech does some config stuff (I assume - I left laptop in car and went to office)
4. MEN@BimmerTech notifies me to plug cable in + ignition.
5. I do so and go back to office.
6. Rinse repeat.
7. Done!
8. I tell MEN@BimmerTech that "I love MEN".
9. He signs off.

That's right...I love MEN. I'm not afraid to say it












FULL STORY IF YOU CARE:


I purchased the CIC from Tadas, a Lithuanian seller. It arrived very quickly in 5 days through TNT Express. In my package, the harness of the emulator was broken. It was also missing the USB socket and the Central Information Display (“CID”) cable. I notified Tadas of this and he immediately offered to replace the harness and that he would send me the missing parts. I told him this was not necessary as I could get the parts through LTBMW. I asked Tadas to just give me a discount on the Combox when it was time.

I was doing the DIY but as I removed the pins from the old black monitor harness, two of the pins touched each other and my car freaked out! Fast forward 2-3 weeks later, I finally discovered the issue lay with the harness. Now, I am to blame for this error, but Tadas kindly took the harness back and had Bimmer Retrofit ship me another. It arrived very quickly from Canada in 6 days. For this I am very appreciative of both Bimmer Retrofit Tadas—it was my error and they were very generous to replace that emulator.

After LTBMW and I hooked up the CIC, I immediately discovered that there was no HD Radio functionality, and Music Library. I informed Tadas of this and he referred me to Bimmer Retrofit. Bimmer Retrofit’s Sales Manager was very kind and professional. The Sales Manager diagnosed my issue and authorized a remote coding session. Sales Manager provided me a pdf with directions to download some zip file and Teamviewer.

On the day of the session, there were some understandable delays but eventually Bimmer Retrofit got around to me. This time it was not the Sales Manager who contacted me but the Coder (they all use the same Skype). The Coder was a little more gruff/rough but I explained my issue to him. Coder connected through Teamviewer and unzipped password protected folder. Coder did some config settings and asked me to connect cable + ignition. I did so and after a few seconds I saw my navi restart. Boom. HD radio and Library worked. In retrospect I feel I could have done it myself if I just coded the CIC in Expert mode...especially after reading this thread (basically my issue--since I had newest software I had probs) and Technic's post (the solution). However, Bimmer Retrofit was extremely prompt and professional so I must thank them for their excellent service.

As I played with my CIC more, I noticed 3 more issues: (1) No DVD; (2) Vehicle Info Status has Missing Fields; (3) Power Window Anti-Trap Error every 30 seconds. I informed Tadas of these errors. For (1) Tadas said Bimmer Retrofit would take care of it. For (2) he said my modules are too old and the CIC is too new and that is why I have missing fields. For (3) and he told me to initialize my windows. Throughout this time I wondered what the relationship Tadas had with Bimmer Retrofit. The sales Manager at Bimmer Retrofit clarified that they did contract work for Tadas but were not directly related. He kindly scheduled another coding session for me.

In the meantime, for (3), I searched anti-trap on e90post and there were many write ups—all with different methodology. Well I tried them all. I discovered my rear right window only went up in small increments. I reinitialized that window. But I still had the error. I reinitialized all the windows—still had the error.

Soon it was time for DVD coding from Bimmer Retrofit. So the Coder connected to my laptop. Coder spent a good hour trying to get a connection to my car. Coder blamed me for deleting prior configurations. I swore I did not. We rescheduled. I brought a different laptop the next day. Coder could not connect to my car. This new laptop was my coding laptop which had Ediabas/NCSExpert/Inpa on it, so he told me my installations of the software messed with his setup. I apologized profusely for having wasted his time and we rescheduled for next week. After he disconnected I was little peeved so I tested it out myself—it connected to my car just fine. Maybe the Coder just had a bad day. After all, last time he only took 15 minutes—he was in and out.

Anyway, as luck would have it, a member informed me that I could code the DVD myself as it was an option in the CIC. I could not connect to the CIC through NCSExpert so I researched the issue. After searching and organizing info, I coded the DVD myself. It was not difficult to do…I’m sure the Bimmer Retrofit Coder could have done it quickly if he had been able to make a connection to my car. I also stumbled across how to fix my missing fields in the Vehicle Info. Now, all that was left was the “Power Window Anti-Trap Display.”

When I asked Bimmer Retrofit about the issue, the Sales Manager told me that my software was too old and it was causing conflicts. The Sales Manager at Bimmer Retrofit advised me to do a complete program update at the nearest BMW Dealership. He told me this would take 8 hours and would probably resolve most of my issues. I knew there had to be a better way, but because the Sales Manager had already told me this, I knew that asking for an alternative would be pointless. So I went to Patrys@BimmerTech. Patrys told me he would rather not mess with it since it was Bimmer Retrofit’s duty to get me a fully working CIC. Ok, that’s fair. So I made a few threads and did more digging.

I stumbled upon a site called BimmerTools.info. This site had great information. Unfortunately it was all in Russian. But with Google Translate I made a thread asking for help. The site owner, MEN, offered his services. I was quite surprised! At least on e90post, MEN has a notorious reputation for carrot dangling. So I messaged MEN and he was ready to connect right away. Unfortunately I did not bring my laptop so I asked MEN for a reschedule. He obliged. He was busy the following day but on the third day, he worked his magic and now my error was gone. He warned me it could come back again. MEN also used Teamviewer. Instead of using some SSL Tunneling software, a modified Ediabas server, and encrypting with TrueCrypt that Bimmer Retrofit uses, he just turned my screen black and made use of the tools I had already downloaded and installed.

[aaabbbyyy]

What's error in your CIC?

[jasonn]

Originally Posted by aaabbbyyy

What's error in your CIC?

Haha I updated the OP

[jasonn]

Hi just a few more changes I noticed after MEN@BimmerTech fixed my car:

1. Instead of BMW Assist Menu I have ConnectedDrive Menu. Inside ConnectedDrive is a Sub-Menu for BMW Assist. The ConnectedDrive has no other functionality--for now. I just purchased the Combox retrofit!
2. I noticed I have a Satellite Menu option now...

I am still getting to know my CIC but wow...if MEN@BimmerTech didn't have his way with my car, I would never have noticed I was missing the Satellite View option.

This is why I feel that if you are interested in CIC it is extremely important to get to know the features first so you know what you are missing. But then again, if I had gone with BimmerTech in the first place, I have a strong feeling I would not have had to go hunting around to see if I were missing any features...

So it is crucial to sign with vendor who knows the system intimately. MEN@BimmerTech's confidence and familiarity with coding/programming is on a completely different level