E39 M5 Mobile Car Phone Question - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

captain_anonymous_2003 · 29th April 2009, 00:02

I have ordered a sim card for the phone already for free online. And I bought new batteries for it today and have put those in. My question is pretty simple. Should the phone turn on even if there is no sim card? I mean will it turn on and say "no sim" or something like that.

I am not getting any indications whatsoever on the phone, the car is saying "INSERT CARD" which is understandable. Am I right in thinking the phone will just be totally inactive until a card is installed? Or does the phone have a fault that will need sorting before I can use it with the sim I have ordered.

I have tried switching the switch under the cradle from 0 to 1. Hasn't made a difference. The phone display is dead. Tried it in the car face up, face down, ignition on, ignition off, etc etc..

Should it behave like that without a sim card? I mean all my mobiles will do SOMETHING without a card. Albeit not much.

Thanks in advance..

Craig

skeggy · 29th April 2009, 01:14

when i bought mine it would turn on regardless of whether there was a sim card in it

captain_anonymous_2003 · 29th April 2009, 14:01

Seems like I might have a problem then, does anyone know what might be causing my issue?

RichardP · 29th April 2009, 17:30

Which phone is it? I'm assuming it's the BMW cordless one form it's requirement to have batteries :

I used to have one of these in an E46, can't remember much about it, but it did power up without a SIM car in the car.

captain_anonymous_2003 · 29th April 2009, 19:55

I've got it working on normal batteries (of course not putting it in to recharge). The issue is that the rechargables I am using were not strong enough. They are only 1.2V and the phone needs 1.5 volt to run.

With these normal batteries at 1.5V it fired straight up! I will have to get some other rechargables now. I'll see if I can find a BMW recommended list of MODERN recharagable batteries somewhere.

Cheers

Craig

captain_anonymous_2003 · 29th April 2009, 20:27

A follow up question to the above. Does anyone have any battery recommendations for the phone that happen to be available still now? Seems I wasted my money on these other ones!

RichardP · 29th April 2009, 23:41

The phone was probably designed for Nickel Cadmium rechargeable batteries, these have a very slightly higher voltage than Nickel Metal Hydride, only about 0.05V, but it could make all the difference. NiCa batteries are no longer sold, due to the Cadmium component being pretty nasty to the environment.

Have a look for RAM batteries, Rechargable Alkaline, these are 1.5V but may not like being charged by something designed for NiCa.