Scratched or bad data discs will cause reboots. I've seen it happen, just so you know.

 

Mine have been replaced and are both clean and in perfect condition.

 

Well, actually, my point was against the Ford field engineer. He/she should have know about the new map disks, and if at all competent, should have brought a set with them.

I mean, how can a person be the official Ford expert on our Nav system, and not know?

 

I'm sorry if I wsn't clear. I did not ask about the new version of discs being tried because I did not know a new version had been released. The dealershiip did not report to me that a new version was or was not tried. They might very well have tried that, they might not have, I simply don't know. The one place where it always reboots is not the only place where it happens, but it is the only place where it is always happens. The other places are random with no discernable pattern and are not repeatable.

 

As I have stated a few times - it isn't a problem with the NAV system but RF (Radio Frequency) that are shutting down the system. It isn't a problem with the NAV disk and a bad read on them, because I have had the black-out many times at the same locations without the NAV disk running. So I would say it is a shielding problem that effects the entire radion/Nav system.

Phillip

 

Ah, for me, there is a pattern, and is always repeatable.

 

They did suggest the rebooting should not reoccur if there was no NAV disc in the unit. I'll try that this evening at my "always" place. The RF issue you raised in consistent with Ford's current thoughts on the problem as I understand them.

 

Does "without the NAV disk running" mean the NAV disk is NOT in the system AT ALL? Just making sure, its a bit ambiguous.

As far as I can tell the system tracks GPS at all times when a disk is in the system EVEN if the NAV button is not pressed and the MAP button is off as well. If someone wants me to justify that assumption I'll explain the observations that lead me to that conclusion. In any case if your disk were in the drive but you weren't "actively" using the GPS function, it would not matter if I'm right. The system would reboot at the same location when a spot on the disc was read in the background.

 

I believe you are correct. I went home the "always" way this evening. Two things of note:

1: the system did NOT reboot.
2: the system did not display direction of travel.

I still do not believe (nor does Ford) that it is a disc problem.

 

So that does appear to inidcate that the Navigation function still has to be running for a problem to occur even if its in the background.

My own suspicion (I'll explain why I THINK so) is that it is actually a disc problem even if the Ford tech doesn't think so (I'm not sure a tech could tell if it was or wasn't a disc issue). Not a scratched disk or dirty disk since yours are new! I'm wondering if there just happens to be a bad spot in the database on the old discs. I've had the same thing happen once on a disc I made with a CD-R recorder but not on the orginals. The effect is EXACTLY as you describe, a reboot in the same location every time. When I went back to my original discs it was fine. I'm wondering if I had an error on my CD-R version and that their might be an error in the ORIGINAL database version on the disc and location you are using.

Incidentally.... #2) is the reason I'm pretty sure its navigating all the time when the disc is in. It seems to need that to keep track of direction. Also you'll find that if you leave the disc in all the time you have alot less problems with the initial "I'm drving in the middle of a field" issue alot of people describe because the system doesn't have to get an initial lock, its always tracking location then.

Its somewhat hard to accept it would lock up over an external RF signal for me. I'm an EE and I've done some interference/susceptability tests on equipment before. Its possible but usually the RF signal has to be REALLY strong unless you've built a piece of crap, or that its on JUST the right frequency (ie at the receiver frequency)...I'm not aware of anything that shares the GPS spectrum, I suppose their MIGHT be... They use the things for guiding passenger airplanes these days... I know if I was the FCC I wouldn't be letting anyone share that frequency spectrum!