# I think my CPT-8000 cell phone died on me



## Mathew (Feb 8, 2002)

Im having some weird problems with the BMW cell phone. Yesterday i tried calling someone through the car, but nothing went through. I tried a few more times, but nothing happened. I unplugged the phone from the wire, and started to dial, but none of the buttons would work. It was on, but nothing was happening. It just had the home screen. The phone wasnt frozen cause the time and signal bars changed, but if i pressed a number or function button, nothing would happen. I tried to turn it off, but it didnt want to turn off. I just took the battery out and put it back in. But when i turned it on again, the same story happens all over.

I cant remember the last time i sed the phone before yesterday, but it couldnt have been more than a week ago. Its plugged into the car 100% of the time, so i know the battery couldnt have been drained. I even plugged it into the house charger, but it didnt want to give any signs of it working. So basically i can turn on the phone to get to the home screen, but it doesnt even work.

Has anyone else had a problem with this piece of crap phone, or any insight?? We got the car and phone about 3 months ago, its kinda soon for it to be acting up  Ill try and swing by my dealers tomorrow and see what the deal is, they were closed today.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

I had a similar problem on a generic (non-BMW) StarTAC 7868W (Verizon branded). It would sit there and display the current time, signal strength, etc. but wouldn't receive calls, and the blinking green "I'm happy and on my home system light" kept blinking green even when I left my home area. In my case, power cycling the phone would "fix" it, for a random period of time - days to a month or more. But since I could never tell if the phone was actually working, I kept having to dial voicemail to see if I had any missed calls.

I had a Verizon store update its firmware and they said "that will fix it, we see a lot of this", but it didn't. I finally took it in to the Verizon store where I bought it, and they gave me a refurbished-by-Motorola phone which didn't have that problem, but which couldn't keep a grip on the charging cable.

When I bought my 325 wagon, I bought the CPT8000 with it. So far, that phone has been working fine (and now that the dealer fixed the error in the wiring harness, I can use it in the car, too ).

If you bought the phone on the same invoice as the car, it should have the same warranty and your dealer should take care of it. I assume there's also a return-to-Motorola generic warranty if you bought the phone from another dealer and installed it yourself.


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## Mathew (Feb 8, 2002)

Terry Kennedy said:


> *
> If you bought the phone on the same invoice as the car, it should have the same warranty and your dealer should take care of it. I assume there's also a return-to-Motorola generic warranty if you bought the phone from another dealer and installed it yourself. *


Well, the phone came with the 7 series, and all the phone stuff is already in there. Im gonna go to my sales guy tomorrow and see him. He's pretty good with helping us out, so im hoping that he will just give me a brand new one. I dont think they have any firmware updating capabilities, but i could be wrong. Warranty stuff shouldnt be a problem


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

///Mathew said:


> *I dont think they have any firmware updating capabilities, but i could be wrong.*


I doubt it - brand-new-in-the-box CPT8000's come with a really old version of the firmware (I expect BMW paid Motorola to customize one firmware release and never kept up with the updates).

Since I brought up the subject of firmware updates in the first place, I am almost positive that "updating" a BMW CPT8000 with generic TimePort firmware will break the integration with the car (meaning it is in the firmware and not special hardware in the phone).


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## Mathew (Feb 8, 2002)

Well, my dealer just gave me brand new everything, which i figured he would. So, ill see how this goes.

Oddly enough, he said that they have been having problems with AT&T phones. I dont know why they would...its the only phone you can use...maybe its got to do something with networking :dunno:


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## rwebbe (Jan 20, 2002)

*Buying A New 8000?*

Am thinking seriously about having my dealer install a phone. Should I ask if all firmware updates are in the box. Have enough trouble with bad firmware on Nav unit, so getting more problems with phone would create an overload on my think tank.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

*Re: Buying A New 8000?*



rwebbe said:


> *Should I ask if all firmware updates are in the box. Have enough trouble with bad firmware on Nav unit, so getting more problems with phone would create an overload on my think tank. *


My CPT8000 came with firmware 7058 (ancient - October 13th, 2000), but I haven't had any problems at all using it. I expect that if there were problems with it, either with car integration or with carrier access, they would update it.

Note that 7058 is most likely specific to Verizon Wireless, and firmware for other carriers may be different.


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