[blakeelkin]

Hey there everybody. The NBT headunit on my 2013 f30 just failed I'm pretty sure. The IDrive just stays on the BMW logo screen and occasionally resets.

Does anybody know of any other possible ways to fix the head unit other than replacing it entirely? I read that you could possibly try replacing/repairing the hard disk.

Also is there any way I could just reprogram the head unit rather than paying 300 at the service center?

[blakeelkin]

Originally Posted by blakeelkin

Hey there everybody. The NBT headunit on my 2013 f30 just failed I'm pretty sure. The IDrive just stays on the BMW logo screen and occasionally resets.

Does anybody know of any other possible ways to fix the head unit other than replacing it entirely? I read that you could possibly try replacing/repairing the hard disk.

Also is there any way I could just reprogram the head unit rather than paying 300 at the service center?

Bump

[IAmATeaf]

If they can fix it for 300 that might be a cheap fix.

[steve@codemybimmer]

Originally Posted by IAmATeaf

If they can fix it for 300 that might be a cheap fix.

$300 would be for them to attempt the software update and if it fails, the next step would be to replace the head unit which is around $1500 plus a core exchange.

[blakeelkin]

Originally Posted by steve@codemybimmer

$300 would be for them to attempt the software update and if it fails, the next step would be to replace the head unit which is around $1500 plus a core exchange.

Yeah which is why I figure I could just try to update it myself so I don't have to pay $300 for nothing lol.

Do you guys know where I could find the components I need for the headunit? I'll be damned if I give them $1500 for a new head unit and to take a few pieces off my dash to put the new one in.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by blakeelkin

Yeah which is why I figure I could just try to update it myself so I don't have to pay $300 for nothing lol.

Do you guys know where I could find the components I need for the headunit? I'll be damned if I give them $1500 for a new head unit and to take a few pieces off my dash to put the new one in.

You could buy a CIC replacement off eBay but these are not plug and play replacement.

Given the questions you are asking, you do not have the capability to accomplish this alone.

Suggest you contact @steve@codemybimmer who replied earlier in this thread for his assistance.

[blakeelkin]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

You could buy a CIC replacement off eBay but these are not plug and play replacement.

Given the questions you are asking, you do not have the capability to accomplish this alone.

Suggest you contact @steve@codemybimmer who replied earlier in this thread for his assistance.

Thanks for the suggestion bud but managed to fix it for $100 a while back.

[2014carguy]

I know this is kind of an old thread, but how did you fix it for $100? I am having the same issue and also located in south FL. Thanks!

[IAmATeaf]

Yes I would also like to know

[Zheez]

My wife's X3 with NBT had a faulty hard drive last week. Kept rebooting, nav wouldn't loaded and a few other weird problems like not being able to eject the CD that was in the drive. I managed to fix it and I took a gamble with a £15 hard drive from Ebay as I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get it working, but I did. I did consider buying a replacement used NBT HU but for me that would've been around £200 and then another £30 or so on top to get navigation reactivated on the new HU. Even if I had done that, I would still have ended up with an HU with a 5-7 year old hard drive in it which I wouldn't be massively confident in anyway, so I thought it was worth a go.

It's a huge pain and quite a bit of effort but I got almost all the information I needed from here: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/u....787230/page-4

The stock drive is 200GB so there's no real point to go much larger as I don't think it can make use of it anyway, but the drive I used was a 500GB Toshiba MQ01ABD050 (as mentioned it cost me £15 and was a used mid-2015 drive). Unfortunately it appears that no SSDs work because NBT looks for the drive temperature on a specific SMART attribute that no SSD makes use of.

I used a QNX boot CD to boot a PC up with the new drive attached and then I had to create the 4 QNX partitions (types 177, 178, 179 and 180). QNX is quite frankly ridiculous because you have to define partitions by start and end cylinder values rather than their MB/GB size. Stock drive's partitions are:

177 - 124683MB (on a drive larger than 200GB, this is the one to allocate the extra space to)
178 - 17260MB
179 - 47514MB
180 - 1324MB

QNX's Fdisk utility tells you how many cylinders the drive has so I had to do a bit of calculation and trial and error to figure out the corresponding partition sizes. Once the partitions are created the create_hdd.sh script needs to be run against the drive (with -i parameter) to format the partitions and create the empty folders that NBT makes use of.

At this point, the drive can be put back in the NBT head unit and it will work. You can just reinstall nav maps from USB and if you're bothered about it, the Gracenote database from the service menu and everything appears to work fine except for the electronic manuals and references. I wasn't too bothered about this but figured that since I had the old drive (even though it was failing) I'd try to copy the manual files from it. An easier way is to reprogram NBT if you have the ability to do so as this will put the manual files back on the drive too.

I don't have a power supply that can power the car for long enough and while I'm happy enough to do VO/FDL coding, I've never messed around with firmware on anything in my cars so I chose to copy files from the old drive. I did it, but it was a nightmare because the drive is locked with a password. For the password you need the Ethernet MAC address, the Bluetooth MAC address and the HU's serial number in hex. BT MAC is easy as it's on a label on the front. Serial number is on there with a QR code but in ASCII format so you need to just look up a site that can convert ASCII text to hex (needs the last 2 characters from the top row and all 7 from the bottom row then put 00 in front of the hex converted value and you have your long serial). The Ethernet MAC was one that I wasn't sure about for a while - some people say it's on a label on the front of their HU but it wasn't on mine. I ended up plugging my Enet cable into the OBD port then running a DHCP server on my laptop and looking at the IP leases that were given out - one of them has the same first 6 characters as the Bluetooth MAC which in my case was 9CDF03 (and this ID is owned by Harman/Becker Automotive Systems) so this confirms it's the HU's Ethernet MAC.

With the 3 elements of the password figured out you can use the hddsecurity app to unlock the drive, mount the drive in QNX then copy the manuals from the old drive to another. I copied mine to a USB stick then hooked up the new drive, unlocked it again (as NBT locks the drive on boot up) and copied the folders back (iba.nbt, iba.rr and info folders on partition 177) and put the drive back into NBT. All works perfectly and the manuals are all there and working fine.

All the info and links to files that I needed were in that thread. It does take some careful reading, some figuring out and some Linux skills do help a bit but it is definitely possible I'm actually considering replacing the drive on the NBT HU in my own car so it's up and running with a brand new drive rather than a 6+ year old one that's taken years of abuse. Especially while the entire process is relatively fresh in my mind.

[blakeelkin]

IAmATeaf 2014carguy
Hi there, sorry for the late response! I'd suggest going with Zheez's fix. I replaced my NBT headunit with a $100 one off of amazon and was going to go the VO code route (I can find you the thread for this if you'd like) but I actually had my default code saved onto my phone since I was using Bimmercode at the time. However, I'd say this guy's way is even cheaper if you'd like to go that way. Either way, better than paying the $600 (not including shipping) when getting it precoded by someone else.

[OGxFUBAR]

Originally Posted by blakeelkin

IAmATeaf 2014carguy
Hi there, sorry for the late response! I'd suggest going with Zheez's fix. I replaced my NBT headunit with a $100 one off of amazon and was going to go the VO code route (I can find you the thread for this if you'd like) but I actually had my default code saved onto my phone since I was using Bimmercode at the time. However, I'd say this guy's way is even cheaper if you'd like to go that way. Either way, better than paying the $600 (not including shipping) when getting it precoded by someone else.

I can buy my headunit pre-coded?!? I do not mean to Necro this thread, but i have been without a Headunit since August. I was looking at Salvage, i get the salvage but then have to have it coded, and then it can go south because of the VIN. According to the Euro Mech i spoke with at his shop. So $600 and they may not be able to unlock the salvage unit.

How does it work with your $600 Method?

---

Im also interested by your route for $100 you took. If your willing to divulge some?

[blakeelkin]

Originally Posted by OGxFUBAR

I can buy my headunit pre-coded?!? I do not mean to Necro this thread, but i have been without a Headunit since August. I was looking at Salvage, i get the salvage but then have to have it coded, and then it can go south because of the VIN. According to the Euro Mech i spoke with at his shop. So $600 and they may not be able to unlock the salvage unit.

How does it work with your $600 Method?

---

Im also interested by your route for $100 you took. If your willing to divulge some?

I don't think you can be locked out of a head unit. However, you do need to ensure that the head unit you find has the exact part number to yours, as there's multiple types across the f30 lineup. Asking $600 just for a coding is extremely ridiculous however, for with a small amount of research on these forums on how to VO code, you can do it yourself with a laptop and a $20 wire that connects to your OBD port.
In my case, I had a backup of my old head unit saved on BimmerCode (a easy coding app for iPhone/android). However without this previous save you would have to go the VO code route, which involves working with the ESYS software. Sorry for the late response, if you have any more questions feel free to ask! However, I can't help you too much regarding coding through e-sys but there's a bunch of people on the forum who I'm sure would be willing to help! Edit: I bought my head unit on eBay, just waiting for a used one to show up cheap.

[IAmATeaf]

So was the 500gb drive just a normal sata laptop drive? As I’ve read that the drive in the car at the mo is a liquid filled drive?

[Zheez]

It seems to be, it looks no different to any other 2.5” SATA drive. It’s listed as an automotive drive however which does have different specs to most normal ones such as being rated for colder weather etc. But a normal drive has been coping fine with the relatively mild UK winters at least - just not sure how they’ll be in harsher climates.

[paulwtech]

Originally Posted by blakeelkin

Hey there everybody. The NBT headunit on my 2013 f30 just failed I'm pretty sure. The IDrive just stays on the BMW logo screen and occasionally resets.

Does anybody know of any other possible ways to fix the head unit other than replacing it entirely? I read that you could possibly try replacing/repairing the hard disk.

Also is there any way I could just reprogram the head unit rather than paying 300 at the service center?

Get in touch with Bavarian Coding https://www.facebook.com/Bavarian-Co...4502282915941/

[starmanbl]

Originally Posted by Zheez

My wife's X3 with NBT had a faulty hard drive last week. Kept rebooting, nav wouldn't loaded and a few other weird problems like not being able to eject the CD that was in the drive. I managed to fix it and I took a gamble with a £15 hard drive from Ebay as I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get it working, but I did. I did consider buying a replacement used NBT HU but for me that would've been around £200 and then another £30 or so on top to get navigation reactivated on the new HU. Even if I had done that, I would still have ended up with an HU with a 5-7 year old hard drive in it which I wouldn't be massively confident in anyway, so I thought it was worth a go.

It's a huge pain and quite a bit of effort but I got almost all the information I needed from here: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/u....787230/page-4

The stock drive is 200GB so there's no real point to go much larger as I don't think it can make use of it anyway, but the drive I used was a 500GB Toshiba MQ01ABD050 (as mentioned it cost me £15 and was a used mid-2015 drive). Unfortunately it appears that no SSDs work because NBT looks for the drive temperature on a specific SMART attribute that no SSD makes use of.

I used a QNX boot CD to boot a PC up with the new drive attached and then I had to create the 4 QNX partitions (types 177, 178, 179 and 180). QNX is quite frankly ridiculous because you have to define partitions by start and end cylinder values rather than their MB/GB size. Stock drive's partitions are:

177 - 124683MB (on a drive larger than 200GB, this is the one to allocate the extra space to)
178 - 17260MB
179 - 47514MB
180 - 1324MB

QNX's Fdisk utility tells you how many cylinders the drive has so I had to do a bit of calculation and trial and error to figure out the corresponding partition sizes. Once the partitions are created the create_hdd.sh script needs to be run against the drive (with -i parameter) to format the partitions and create the empty folders that NBT makes use of.

At this point, the drive can be put back in the NBT head unit and it will work. You can just reinstall nav maps from USB and if you're bothered about it, the Gracenote database from the service menu and everything appears to work fine except for the electronic manuals and references. I wasn't too bothered about this but figured that since I had the old drive (even though it was failing) I'd try to copy the manual files from it. An easier way is to reprogram NBT if you have the ability to do so as this will put the manual files back on the drive too.

I don't have a power supply that can power the car for long enough and while I'm happy enough to do VO/FDL coding, I've never messed around with firmware on anything in my cars so I chose to copy files from the old drive. I did it, but it was a nightmare because the drive is locked with a password. For the password you need the Ethernet MAC address, the Bluetooth MAC address and the HU's serial number in hex. BT MAC is easy as it's on a label on the front. Serial number is on there with a QR code but in ASCII format so you need to just look up a site that can convert ASCII text to hex (needs the last 2 characters from the top row and all 7 from the bottom row then put 00 in front of the hex converted value and you have your long serial). The Ethernet MAC was one that I wasn't sure about for a while - some people say it's on a label on the front of their HU but it wasn't on mine. I ended up plugging my Enet cable into the OBD port then running a DHCP server on my laptop and looking at the IP leases that were given out - one of them has the same first 6 characters as the Bluetooth MAC which in my case was 9CDF03 (and this ID is owned by Harman/Becker Automotive Systems) so this confirms it's the HU's Ethernet MAC.

With the 3 elements of the password figured out you can use the hddsecurity app to unlock the drive, mount the drive in QNX then copy the manuals from the old drive to another. I copied mine to a USB stick then hooked up the new drive, unlocked it again (as NBT locks the drive on boot up) and copied the folders back (iba.nbt, iba.rr and info folders on partition 177) and put the drive back into NBT. All works perfectly and the manuals are all there and working fine.

All the info and links to files that I needed were in that thread. It does take some careful reading, some figuring out and some Linux skills do help a bit but it is definitely possible I'm actually considering replacing the drive on the NBT HU in my own car so it's up and running with a brand new drive rather than a 6+ year old one that's taken years of abuse. Especially while the entire process is relatively fresh in my mind.

Hi,
I apologize for waking up to the old post, I have the same problem and I got the same hard drive as yours (MQ01ABD050), can you please tell me the number of cylinders for each partition, I'm struggling because I can't figure out how to do it.
And if you can help with commands. First time using QNX.. Also, were you able to increase the media partition and if so could you please share how?

I installed and prepared everything so I want to do it right. QNX sees the hard drive and I can access with fdisk

I have create_hdd.sh bud don't know how to use it

Thank You in advance and for sharing your experience

[Zheez]

Originally Posted by starmanbl

Hi,
I apologize for waking up to the old post, I have the same problem and I got the same hard drive as yours (MQ01ABD050), can you please tell me the number of cylinders for each partition, I'm struggling because I can't figure out how to do it.
And if you can help with commands. First time using QNX.. Also, were you able to increase the media partition and if so could you please share how?

I installed and prepared everything so I want to do it right. QNX sees the hard drive and I can access with fdisk

I have create_hdd.sh bud don't know how to use it

Thank You in advance and for sharing your experience

Just sent you a PM with the link to my stuff. My media partition is now larger, but I'm not sure there's any gain - NBT still only recognises 20GB available for music storage, for example.

Cylinders I used for my MQ01ABD050 drive are (ignore the 200GB references, it is a 500GB drive)
BLOCK_SIZE=512
## new partition table
HDD_SIZE_200GB=60800
DEF_DATA_200GB="177 /mnt/data rw 52374"
DEF_SHARE_200GB="178 /mnt/share rw 2201"
DEF_MEDIA_200GB="179 /mnt/quota/mm rw 6057"
DEF_DEBUG_200GB="180 /mnt/quota/sys rw 169"

Other info is in the files I linked you to, hope it helps.

[starmanbl]

Originally Posted by Zheez

Just sent you a PM with the link to my stuff. My media partition is now larger, but I'm not sure there's any gain - NBT still only recognises 20GB available for music storage, for example.

Cylinders I used for my MQ01ABD050 drive are (ignore the 200GB references, it is a 500GB drive)
BLOCK_SIZE=512
## new partition table
HDD_SIZE_200GB=60800
DEF_DATA_200GB="177 /mnt/data rw 52374"
DEF_SHARE_200GB="178 /mnt/share rw 2201"
DEF_MEDIA_200GB="179 /mnt/quota/mm rw 6057"
DEF_DEBUG_200GB="180 /mnt/quota/sys rw 169"

Other info is in the files I linked you to, hope it helps.

Thank You so much for you help, I reply in PM.

Once again, thank you

[mikedaul]

Originally Posted by Zheez

Just sent you a PM with the link to my stuff. My media partition is now larger, but I'm not sure there's any gain - NBT still only recognises 20GB available for music storage, for example.

Cylinders I used for my MQ01ABD050 drive are (ignore the 200GB references, it is a 500GB drive)
BLOCK_SIZE=512
## new partition table
HDD_SIZE_200GB=60800
DEF_DATA_200GB="177 /mnt/data rw 52374"
DEF_SHARE_200GB="178 /mnt/share rw 2201"
DEF_MEDIA_200GB="179 /mnt/quota/mm rw 6057"
DEF_DEBUG_200GB="180 /mnt/quota/sys rw 169"

Other info is in the files I linked you to, hope it helps.

Hi there - I'm having the same problem with a dying hdd in my NBT head unit and I found this thread. Would you mind PMing me your script files too? Replacing the drive is a much better sounding solution than replacing the head unit.

Thank you for sharing all of your work!

[eng646]

I suggest that you search for someone with expertise in head unit repairing (electronics background) so he can run a test to see the faulty part , certainly not anyone can do that.

[Coding.67]

Would you mind PM me your script files too?

Tks