2001 E38 GPS system?

Have you considered looking in the Menu Options for the settings?

I have not got a BMW with a GPS, but I have plenty of electronics that have a menu with a Settings option where I can tell the device to turn on automatically when it sees the power come up, or wait to be turned on manually.

I've poked around in it pretty extensively but haven't found anything that would suggest I can turn it off.

In order to work a GPS receiver has acquire a first fix. There are three ways of doing this: -

Permananently on - Receiver stays on all the time. Warm start - receiver remembers previous position from last use and uses this to update its position (and the time). Cold Start - receiver makes no (or few) assumptions about its position and sets about acquiring position etc. from scratch - this can take from several minutes to nearly an hour. This is a feature of the Navstar system.

A warm start is suitable for a car, because when the ignition is off it probably isn't moving, but it will get confused (e.g. after a ferry trip). So for a BMW the GPS needs to be on when the ignition is on for it to work acceptably.

Note some BMW's use information from the ABS sensors to help track movement and orientation of the car.

Things have improved especially since

Well I am sure this can be arranged as long as he doesn't mind inaccuracy until it is all synched up - more likely it just a question of what the default display is. On my BMW I would prefer if the default was current position...

The factory fit VDO unit in my E65 3.0d SE takes about 30 seconds to fid where it is after leaving the UK on the Channel Tunnel train and arriving in France (Calais) - pretty quick as it usually takes me a couple of mins to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road - dammed foreigners!

It's all down to religion and the teamsters!

"Mankind is in the 10,000-year old range"

- Jeff Strickland, super genius.

Hi Dizzy - been on vacation?

On vacation and off his meds. I never said that mankind is in the 10,000 year old range. I also lay no claim to being a super genius either -- I'm just a regular genius.

It takes 20-30 seconds for my GPS to acquire a fix, which it does quite well... though that is irrelevant because it could be doing it in the background.

There doesn't appear to be any way to make the GPS system, let's say: interface, not turn on when the car is started.

It's incredibly annoying to have to click on the accept message and turn off the GPS in order to be able to see the output from the audio system every time I start the car. I know where work is and I know where home is... there's no reason for the GPS to be on all the time.

Only Mel Brooks is 10,000 years old.

--scott

We all know that but it does look pretty and the following drivers can see you are a wealthy man with sat-nav. Wealthy? You can save all that money you might have spent on paper maps - save the environment???????????????

Maps get outdated sat-nav doesn't - Ok the maps might but download a new one. Still no paper.

So its not factory and people do follow too close - pity they don't put the little red blob on the sat-nav screen to show that the car behind is too close.

After all James Bond has one like that!

Hugh

In addition to be a smooth-brained cretin, Jeffy is a shameless liar.