Infotainment system pitifully slow and dysfunctional

S

Seeeker

:
2009 Mazdaspeed3
Have a CX-5, 2016.5 Grand Touring. Since the beginning pretty much, the default infotainment system has been a problem, a nuisance. It's slow enough as it is, but in cold weather it is almost completely non operational. It takes a full ten minutes - at least - of booting up to become usable. This involves a slow start up, several reboots, endless hanging and spinning gears and that irritating Warning window. During this time there is no audio, no clock, no navigation. I have just put up with it... Mazda only said "Well, we could update the software." They did that once under warranty, no improvement. They didn't seem to have any idea what to do, and I assumed there was nothing to be done about it.

Now again we are leaning into colder mornings this season, and it's just worse. Totally unusable. It's really mind boggling how poor and weak this system is. Like an after thought they put no effort into. The computational power is like a Texas Instruments calculator from 1980.

The navigation system is also pitiful. It cannot be relied upon. Constantly giving me poor directions and bad routes. I usually cross reference with Google Maps, but this is all very time consuming, and I just stopped using it altogether.

Question: Can this entire system be replaced with something newer and better? Some entire 3rd party infotainment and navigation program? The system does seem to integrate with the car itself somewhat, so, not sure how any of this works. And if yes, where can I start looking?

Thanks for any tips or guidance.
 
Last edited:
Seeeker said:
Have a CX-5, 2016.5 Grand Touring. It's slow enough as it is, but in cold weather it is almost completely non operational. It takes a full ten minutes - at least - of booting up to become usable. This involves a slow start up, several reboots, endless hanging and spinning gears and that irritating Warning window. During this time there is no audio, no clock, no navigation. I have just put up with it... Mazda only said "Well, we could update the software." They did that once under warranty, no improvement. They didn't seem to have any idea what to do, and I assumed there was nothing to be done about it.

Now again we are leaning into colder mornings this season, and it's just worse. Totally unusable. It's really mind boggling how poor and weak this system is. Like an after thought they put no effort into. The computational power is like a Texas Instruments calculator from 1980.

The navigation system is also pitiful. It cannot be relied upon. Constantly giving me poor directions and bad routes. I usually cross reference with Google Maps, but this is all very time consuming, and I just stopped using it altogether.

Question: Can this entire system be replaced with something newer and better? Some entire 3rd party infotainment and navigation program? The system does seem to integrate with the car itself somewhat, so, not sure how any of this works. And if yes, where can I start looking?

Thanks for any tips or guidance.
Click to expand...
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you have a problem with your system.
Your symptoms are NOT normal.
There's no way they all work like that.
If everybody's info system was as bad as yours is, there'd be a huge outcry.
I live in Canada, and it gets freeekin' cold here, and the info system boots and works perfectly no matter how cold it is.
It also doesn't slow down just because it gets cooler.
I also have no problem with the Nav system. It works just fine.
I start my car, and five seconds later I'm in reverse backing out of my driveway, and the backup camera is operational.
Put it in drive, and system has booted up and ready to go.
You need to hassle your dealer about this problem. It's not right.
 
Seeeker said:
Have a CX-5, 2016.5 Grand Touring. Since the beginning pretty much, the default infotainment system has been a problem, a nuisance. It's slow enough as it is, but in cold weather it is almost completely non operational. It takes a full ten minutes - at least - of booting up to become usable. This involves a slow start up, several reboots, endless hanging and spinning gears and that irritating Warning window. During this time there is no audio, no clock, no navigation. I have just put up with it... Mazda only said "Well, we could update the software." They did that once under warranty, no improvement. They didn't seem to have any idea what to do, and I assumed there was nothing to be done about it.

Now again we are leaning into colder mornings this season, and it's just worse. Totally unusable. It's really mind boggling how poor and weak this system is. Like an after thought they put no effort into. The computational power is like a Texas Instruments calculator from 1980.

The navigation system is also pitiful. It cannot be relied upon. Constantly giving me poor directions and bad routes. I usually cross reference with Google Maps, but this is all very time consuming, and I just stopped using it altogether.

Question: Can this entire system be replaced with something newer and better? Some entire 3rd party infotainment and navigation program? The system does seem to integrate with the car itself somewhat, so, not sure how any of this works. And if yes, where can I start looking?

Thanks for any tips or guidance.
Click to expand...
My son's 2016 Mazda 3 had the problems you are describing during periods of extreme cold & we live in PA. I googled and found others with similar symptoms. There seemed to be a problem with the Nav SD card. Apparently the extreme cold caused connectivity issues. Removing the card solved my son's problem. He just left it out because he uses Google Maps on his phone & his Mazda 3 was out of warranty.
 
Thanks for all the input. I cannot believe it's simply software. Why would one version be totally unusable, but if I just update to the next version, everything will be great. No. And they did that a while ago. Nothing changed. The whole thing is a piece of crap. I live in a different state now, and it's out of warranty. So I will probably have to go to a local dealer and just ask if they can install an entire new... something? It's just ridiculous.
 
dlsea said:
If I were you I'd make sure to also stay current on the software updates. You can easily do it yourself if you're a little bit techy. Visit this website to download instructions and software: https://my.hidrive.com/share/hsodpqja.l#. Go slow and follow directions carefully, good luck.
Click to expand...
Thank you... I just downloaded the instructions, good god... add this to the list of complicated tasks to figure out in my life. The instructions themselves are rather like incomprehensible jibberish.
 
Removing the SD card literally takes seconds. If it doesn't help, nothing lost. The system keeps trying to boot & can't cause of the cold induced connection issue to the SD card. My son's system worked fine under "normal for PA" temperatures.
 
It's a shame that you didn't pursue this issue while the car was still under warranty. If you pushed it hard enough, Mazda might have replaced the entire system. Now it seems that you're stuck with a system that was defective from the get go.

I would try what meow_man suggested first. It may help with the problem. Outside of that, I'd probably try to source a used infotainment system from a totalled CX-5 and swap it in, or I would search YouTube for some DIY aftermarket solutions. It seems that most aftermarket solutions will not prevent a function from working, but you lose the ability to change the existing settings of some functions (like beep volume, BSM on/off, etc.). To be fair though, if the instructions provided by dlsea are too hard for you to follow, it might be a good idea to seek out a good A/V installer, confirm that they can do the job, then buy the parts and pay them to install.
 
I also have the same CX that you do, 2016.5 GT with the same infotainment system. I have ZERO issues with it and I'm still running the original firmware.

I've said this over and over and I'll say it again. The problems that you are having are most likely a result of poor connectivity between the infotainment system and the SD card. The system uses info from the SD card in the boot process and if that info gets corrupted the system becomes unstable or inoperative. Cold weather exacerbates the issue.

Get yourself some safe for plastics contact cleaner.

Like this.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

With the car off eject the SD card. Apply contact cleaner to the contacts on the card, both front and rear. Insert the card into the reader. Eject it and reinsert. Do that a few times so that the contact cleaner from the card transfers to the contacts inside of the reader. Don't use too much cleaner.

Now leave the card in the reader and test.
 
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Conrad 16.5 said:
I also have the same CX that you do, 2016.5 GT with the same infotainment system. I have ZERO issues with it and I'm still running the original firmware.

I've said this over and over and I'll say it again. The problems that you are having are most likely a result of poor connectivity between the infotainment system and the SD card. The system uses info from the SD card in the boot process and if that info gets corrupted the system becomes unstable or inoperative. Cold weather exacerbates the issue.
Click to expand...
To Seeeker: any update? Did you do as Conrad suggested?
 
I also have a 2016 MX-5 Miata Club with the exact same infotainment system, the firmware is the same version as my CX-5. Both work perfectly...
 
Funny how posters on car forums just seem to disappear when given sound advice.
I see this all the time. Come on a forum, rant and complain about something, and then.....crickets. Sigh.
 
Buzzman12 said:
Funny how posters on car forums just seem to disappear when given sound advice.
I see this all the time. Come on a forum, rant and complain about something, and then.....crickets. Sigh.
Click to expand...
Side note...We're aiming to change that, for an extra bit of notification assistance, you can add the @ symbol next to the username and that person should be notified that another Member has mentioned them...For example:

@Seeeker, please post an update if possible, thanks! 😁

@Buzzman12 Posting sound advice is greatly appreciated by many including myself and it can be incredibly helpful to others even if there is no followup from the OP so please, everyone...Keep posting your advice, the Community appreciates it and you! (y)
 
Antoine said:
Posting sound advice is greatly appreciated by many including myself and it can be incredibly helpful to others even if there is no followup from the OP so please, everyone...Keep posting your advice, the Community appreciates it and you! (y)
Click to expand...

Second this, we've had a few instances where a spam account posted a seemingly genuine question and the community chimed in with some very helpful responses. We would ban the account but leave their posts and threads intact, just in case an actual person might find the info useful in the future.
 
Remove the Navi SD card and unpair cell phones.
See if MID is still slow.
If not, you can narrow down the issues one by one by putting them back one by one.
It is not supposed to be that slow.

BTW, newer models might have faster CPUs now.
My '17 CX5 definitely boots up faster than our '14 or '16 with similar setup.
 
Still waiting for an update from the OP.
@Seeeker, if you're out there, how about bringing us an update?
 
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