My MSN signal bar is not working right .

I had a hard time having them activate it. MSN sent the signal 3 times but showed intermintent signs of working after 2 days with no signal meter showing but says active. I live in Niagra Falls Canada but only tells me gas infomation in buffalo. 17 klms away. Weather updates from Toronto and no movie info, traffic info from both Buffalo and Toronto.

MSN says contact pioneer . Pioneer says contact MSN ???????????

My Navigation woks fine.

Have you checked msndirect.com to make sure those services are available in your area?

msn direct is slightly spotty in the nyc north jersey area so upstate / canada may be worse so yea check msndirect website for service coverage

My signal bar never lights up, but the MSN works. Probably a coverage issue in your area

Same here. It never shows signal, but it updates (excluding the movie listings, that never works)

Same here in Phoenix. Bar never showed any signal strength but it did work ok intermittently. Seems that I would get some, but not all information at times (movie listings hit or miss here too). I am using the splitter, otherwise no AM and no MSN. Also using a shorty antenna.

I will give MSN a little credit. The traffic function worked ok most of the time and gas prices were accurate.

I recently lost MSN completely. One day it just went away. Still have 1 month of the free subscription left and reset through the Internet a couple of times. Right now it is stuck in the connection page. Probably need to reset the head unit but getting MSN back is not worth the hassle at this point. Everything else works fine.

Edit: Reset the unit and all is fine with MSN again. Had to redo my presets, and video settings but no big deal.

Thanks all,

When I talked to MSN they said I had excellent coverage between Buffalo to Toronto and The coverage map shows good coverage area. I had my head unite installed by a good dealer.

Other than this I had a few start up flaws but seemed to have worked them out. Mostly infomation from this site.

Thanks all !!

MSN Direct said my coverage area was also very strong but the past 6 times I tried to get the forecast it said [ No Local Weather Data ].

Movie times is a joke, the closest theater on the MSN is like 20 miles away, when there's 3 theaters around here within 10 miles. Love the traffic info except that most of the information is in the Bronx/Queens area. Gas prices is hit or miss, sometimes it will have every station, sometimes the closet one is 18 miles away. IDK I think for a place that has great coverage the MSN Direct is performing this poorly, It's a waste of money.

My MSN Direct worked fine for a few. After that it says “Connecting to MSN Direct†and nothing happens. I contacted MSN, they blame Pioneer. The MSN rep actually said that Pioneer Engineers are aware of the situation. I call Pioneer and get put on hold for 20 min and transferred three times for them to blame MSN’s signal strength. No knowledge of the issue and no patch or other solution was offered by Pioneer. All they can suggest is that I return the unit. I live in the Greater Seattle Washington area, MSN’s home. I have never seen more than three bars of signal strength. My FM Reception works fine in comparison. If MSN can’t maintain a signal in their home turf then what is up? IMOP it is a software glitch or a communication/protocol error. Based on the fact that resetting the unit always brings back the MSN service but looses all of my EQ and other settings, and previous experience with Microsoft authentication, it would seem a software or protocol problem indeed. Has anyone else had similar misfortune?

My MSN Direct worked fine for a few. After that it says “Connecting to MSN Direct†and nothing happens. I contacted MSN, they blame Pioneer. The MSN rep actually said that Pioneer Engineers are aware of the situation. I call Pioneer and get put on hold for 20 min and transferred three times for them to blame MSN’s signal strength. No knowledge of the issue and no patch or other solution was offered by Pioneer. All they can suggest is that I return the unit. I live in the Greater Seattle Washington area, MSN’s home. I have never seen more than three bars of signal strength. My FM Reception works fine in comparison. If MSN can’t maintain a signal in their home turf then what is up? IMOP it is a software glitch or a communication/protocol error. Based on the fact that resetting the unit always brings back the MSN service but looses all of my EQ and other settings, and previous experience with Microsoft authentication, it would seem a software or protocol problem indeed. Has anyone else had similar misfortune?

Do a soft reset. See my post above. Fixed mine. Won't fix lack of information though. That is a MSN problem, not Pioneer.

yea....not worth the $

yea....not worth the $

Depends on where you are. Certainly worth it in Chicago...

yea....not worth the $

 

Depends on where you are. Certainly worth it in Chicago...

Damn this thin. How can it be great in one city (Chicago), not so great in another (NYC) and horrible in its place of origin (Washington)??

yea....not worth the $

 

Depends on where you are. Certainly worth it in Chicago...

 

Damn this thin. How can it be great in one city (Chicago), not so great in another (NYC) and horrible in its place of origin (Washington)??

That's a question to Microsoft and their data provider.

I only use traffic and gas price information, and those seem to be reasonably accurate and useful...

i live in so cal and its supposed to have good service but it sucks. it takes way too long to load when it finally loads. the weather takes forever and sometimes the movie theatres are inacurate. not worth my $129

I"m in the same boat with the MSN function. I'm just trying to get teh activation code off of my unit, however when I press the status button to connect to get that info off of my headunit, i just get the trying to connect message. I live in a strong MSN coverage area too, so I don't know what's going on! I'd at least try to take advantage of the 3 free months!

I"m in the same boat with the MSN function. I'm just trying to get teh activation code off of my unit, however when I press the status button to connect to get that info off of my headunit, i just get the trying to connect message. I live in a strong MSN coverage area too, so I don't know what's going on! I'd at least try to take advantage of the 3 free months!

Hey Snakeyes i couldn't find your post for a "soft reset" unless it was the one where someone recommended pressing the reset button. Yes pressing the reset button will refresh MSN Direct for a couple of powercycles, but that is not acceptable because i loose all of the EQ, Crossover, and other settings. I have already pressed the reset button on three occasions and the unit has come back "Connecting to MSN Direct" after a couple of stops. Is there another way to reset these units without loosing all of your settings?

This is a stupid question...

How can I enable MSN Direct Menu in F700BT? I've seen Stephanie's F700 unit was able to access MSN Menu(could not connect to server though...), however she did not show us how to enable it. Is it the sys.txt' device type?

I have "PIONEER746UC" written on my f700.

Hey Snakeyes i couldn't find your post for a "soft reset" unless it was the one where someone recommended pressing the reset button. Yes pressing the reset button will refresh MSN Direct for a couple of powercycles, but that is not acceptable because i loose all of the EQ, Crossover, and other settings. I have already pressed the reset button on three occasions and the unit has come back "Connecting to MSN Direct" after a couple of stops. Is there another way to reset these units without loosing all of your settings?

That is what I meant by soft reset. I had the same issue where mine locked in the connect screen when I would select status and getting zero info. I reset the unit and MSN connected shortly afterward. No problem since but there is always tomorrow.

I had to reset everything just like you mention and know of no way around that. Wish I had an answer for that one too. Not that big of deal since I have no amps but a pain no less.

Hey Snakeyes i couldn't find your post for a "soft reset" unless it was the one where someone recommended pressing the reset button. Yes pressing the reset button will refresh MSN Direct for a couple of powercycles, but that is not acceptable because i loose all of the EQ, Crossover, and other settings. I have already pressed the reset button on three occasions and the unit has come back "Connecting to MSN Direct" after a couple of stops. Is there another way to reset these units without loosing all of your settings?

 

That is what I meant by soft reset. I had the same issue where mine locked in the connect screen when I would select status and getting zero info. I reset the unit and MSN connected shortly afterward. No problem since but there is always tomorrow.

 

I had to reset everything just like you mention and know of no way around that. Wish I had an answer for that one too. Not that big of deal since I have no amps but a pain no less.

In my experience, MSN problems usually start after messing around with Test Mode. Without that it usually keeps working. If I do, it gets stuck, but a quick reset fixes it...

well, i did a soft reset again this morning and, Voila, it connected and I was able to get the code i needed to activate the account! Did that online, went back to my truck and it works like a charm! Did notice that the gas prices were not incredibly up to date, but everything works great.

I think you're right Boris. My 90 is bone stock but took it to the Ford dealer for alarm service and they cycled the key a few times in quick succession. That confused the head unit and the boot sequence was interrupted. After that I started getting the connecting screen for MSN. Reset fixed it.

well, i did a soft reset again this morning and, Voila, it connected and I was able to get the code i needed to activate the account! Did that online, went back to my truck and it works like a charm! Did notice that the gas prices were not incredibly up to date, but everything works great.

This depends on when people who collect gas price data look at stations and transmit information. In Chicago most stations seem to have today's prices, but there are always several with 2-days old pricing...

Is there any way to get MSN direct cheaper than 50 a year or 150ish lifetime?