Parking Sensors

[Ian in Northampton]

I've noticed that my parking sensors seem to switch themselves off at random, and I have to push the dashboard switch to get them going again. This isn't good when, as I habitually do, you park by ear (a trick I learned in Paris, where you drive/reverse into a streetside space until you hear yours hit the car in front of/behind you).

 

Actually, the Galaxy parking sensors get me into a lot of trouble - I regularly drive our other two cars (anyone want to make me an offer for a nice, P-reg, 1.8LX Mondeo estate, 75,000 miles, well-maintained, cambelt just done...?) and forget, when I'm backing up, that I don't have the sensor - with inevitable (if, fortunately, thus far non-catastrophic) results.

 

Seriously: does anyone know why the parking sensors do that?

[Richmond]

Mine sometimes refuse to switch off at the switch, although they do so when I have exceeded whatever speed it is (15mph?).

[davec]

we had the rear sensors as an extra on our 97 110 ghia x and I think they were

[Guest MATT]

Seriously: does anyone know why the parking sensors do that?

Are computers starting their rebellion against those that created them?

http://divx-covers.oukej.cz/covers/Terminator%203_front(by%20JZ-soft).jpg

:unsure:

Don't know whats up with yours?

[Ian in Northampton]

Hmmm... It occurs to me, what's even weirder is that the parking sensor is a 'push in for on, release for off' button. Am I changing gear so flamboyantly that I keep knocking it? I take it, Matt, that you blame Bill Gates? I certainly do...

[Guest MATT]

...dont even mention his name.

[Guest frandickinson]

My parking sensors now just beep continuously when trying to park. The car was quite dirty so I thought it might be that but after cleaning it the problem persists.

 

Has anyone suffered a similar problem and if so do you know a cure?

 

Thanks

 

Francis

[johnb80]

...dont even mention his name.

This really annoys me, what has this guy done wrong? He has created products that most of the world want, he's not holding a gun to you head is he ? If you don't like his products go and buy something else or even write your own.

 

I maintain several medium sized networks (200 - 500 machines) and since the advent of XP Pro and Server 2003 the machines are extremely stable and Network admin a complete breeze. In addition to this the help that Microsoft give to education is extremely generous to say the least.

 

Regards - John

[Richmond]

I'm sure that Gates and Microsoft are not as bad as they are said to be by some. However, Microsoft is a fine example of a company abusing it's monopoly (albeit a monopoly gained by producing a pretty good product and marketing it well); compare the near ubiquitous MS Word (crap) with some of its competitors, such as Corel WordPerfect (not crap).

[johnb80]

I'm sure that Gates and Microsoft are not as bad as they are said to be by some. However, Microsoft is a fine example of a company abusing it's monopoly (albeit a monopoly gained by producing a pretty good product and marketing it well); compare the near ubiquitous MS Word (crap) with some of its competitors, such as Corel WordPerfect (not crap).

Thats a matter of opinion, I use word all the time and I can't fault it. You say it's crap, from what point of view ? what can your products do that word can't? I'd be very interested to hear. Note I haven't slagged off your preferred product.

 

Why does the world think gatesy has a monopoly, I don't see it as any different to Ford fitting X make of radio or VW diesels into a Galaxy, have they got a monopoly, why cant I have a BMW diesel fitted etc etc Plain ridiculous if you ask me. When you consider the combinations of processor, motherboard, graphics, sound etc that they have to put up with I think they do a bloody good job. Before anyone knocks Bill Gates they should stand back and really consider where we would be without him. I spent years as a Novell Certified Network Engineer knocking NT networks, I was shocked and stunned the first time I was made to look after one, now with Server 2003 anyone purchasing Novell needs locking up in a darkened room.

 

Regards - John

[Richmond]

My criticism of Word was not directed at its users and was not intended personally. Feel free to slag off WordPerfect.

 

I use Word as my office felt that it had to change to Word from WordPerfect because so many people with whom we exchange files use Word, and although WordPerfect can read Word files, the same is not always true in reverse (depending on the version of Word). We originally chose WordPerfect because we felt that it was the best product for our needs, which are straightforward word processing; producing letters, reports and that sort of thing, nothing too fancy.

 

My criticisms of Word are of details, but nevertheless heartfelt. For example, there is no 'reveal codes' function which allows you to see on screen all the formatting commands in a document and to search for such commands (I am told that the next version of Word will have this facility). The Word table facility is badly conceived and difficult to use compared to WordPerfect. The bundling of formatting instructions into templates in the way in which Word uses them is intrusive and unhelpful. I could go on (and on and on and on). I suppose that my criticisms of Word are in the end subjective, but I doubt very much that many people would regard Word as the equal of WordPerfect. (Both make you pay for massive amounts of functionality which most users will never need, which is intenslely annoying).

 

The way in which Microsoft for many years packaged MS Word with Windows is (along with other anticompetitive practices of Microsoft) in large part responsible for its dominance in the word processing market, rather than the quality of the product. Microsoft have consistently refused to make source code available to outside software writers until forced to do so. There is no way in which Word would have dominated the word processing market if MS had not first dominated the OS market.

 

As I said, I don't regard Gates and Microsoft as instruments of the devil, but neither are they saints. Something like Windows was inconceivable 30 years ago and most of the time XP works very well. However, if most suppliers sold goods as flawed as Windows has been they would be out of business (that applies to software suppliers in general).

[GSMGuy]

JB - I agree with you re Bill.. But back to the subject lol..

 

The switch for the parkassist is a "push to make" it doesn't latch, so maybe yau are nudging it changing from 1st to reverse, or vice vera? I have no idea how close your knuckles would come to the switch, as I have an auto..

 

 

Don't know if disconnecting the front would work, or just stop the whole lot from working - BUT, you can adjust the volume and frequency of the beeps independantly for the front and rear.. Although you'll ned a VAG tool or VAG-COM but theoretically you could turn the sound from the front ones off..

 

Mine occasionally goes constant on the back ones - usually if it is raining heavily, I presumethe water just flows down the tailgate and over the sensors, confusing matters - Once the rain stops, they are fine - Also do you have a tobar, as this can cause probs, I swapped mine for a longer necked one which has cured the problem, but I have heard the placement of the electrical sockets can cause an obstruction too..

 

HTH

 

Mike

[johnb80]

My criticism of Word was not directed at its users and was not intended personally. Feel free to slag off WordPerfect.

 

I use Word as my office felt that it had to change to Word from WordPerfect because so many people with whom we exchange files use Word, and although WordPerfect can read Word files, the same is not always true in reverse (depending on the version of Word). We originally chose WordPerfect because we felt that it was the best product for our needs, which are straightforward word processing; producing letters, reports and that sort of thing, nothing too fancy.

 

My criticisms of Word are of details, but nevertheless heartfelt. For example, there is no 'reveal codes' function which allows you to see on screen all the formatting commands in a document and to search for such commands (I am told that the next version of Word will have this facility). The Word table facility is badly conceived and difficult to use compared to WordPerfect. The bundling of formatting instructions into templates in the way in which Word uses them is intrusive and unhelpful. I could go on (and on and on and on). I suppose that my criticisms of Word are in the end subjective, but I doubt very much that many people would regard Word as the equal of WordPerfect. (Both make you pay for massive amounts of functionality which most users will never need, which is intenslely annoying).

 

The way in which Microsoft for many years packaged MS Word with Windows is (along with other anticompetitive practices of Microsoft) in large part responsible for its dominance in the word processing market, rather than the quality of the product. Microsoft have consistently refused to make source code available to outside software writers until forced to do so. There is no way in which Word would have dominated the word processing market if MS had not first dominated the OS market.

 

As I said, I don't regard Gates and Microsoft as instruments of the devil, but neither are they saints. Something like Windows was inconceivable 30 years ago and most of the time XP works very well. However, if most suppliers sold goods as flawed as Windows has been they would be out of business (that applies to software suppliers in general).

Hi,

I haven't taken anything personally, never do on forums and I do respect people have choice. I do get my soapbox when people know Microsoft because there's no real justification.

 

Microsoft have NEVER bundled Word with Windows it has Notepad, Wordpad and in 3.1 Windows write.

 

Tools>Options>Formatting marks You are allowed to set see all marks, or just selected ones. This has been in Word as long as I can remember and proves you haven't really looked at it. The table aspect is a breeze to use and can have conditional formatting include spreadsheet type calcs etc. The Office package integrates very well with database, spreadsheet and wordprocessor all talking to each other (including dynamic data). Furthermore for very specific and specialised fuctions it all integrates to visual basic though I habven't found this necessary at all.

 

Regards - John

P.S. To all the others, sorry for being off topic.

[Ian in Northampton]

Good grief - I wander away from a topic for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose... :lol: Fwiw, I sit somewhere in the middle on this argument. On the one hand, despite their flaws, MS operating systems and application software are remarkable achievements (although I hate the recurring 'feature bloat' - but then, I don't want/need those features). On the other, there is little doubt in my mind but that MS abuses its position of dominance in the market.

 

And back to the topic... I'm pretty certain I'm not accidentally knocking the switch on and off. Yes, my knuckles drag along the ground when I walk, but in the car I can keep them nicely under control (such as moving the right one up and down from the wrist out of the driver's window... :) )

[Richmond]

Were we off topic? Sorry about that. John B80, I thought that MS did bundle Word with Windows until the US FTC or something similar stopped them. In any event, there's no doubt that MS's dominate OS position has helped them dominate word processing with (IMHO) a product inferior to some others.

 

The Tools>Options>formatting>all facility in Word is better than nothing, but it doesn't show all formatting; it is nowhere near as helpful or user friendly as the 'reveal codes' facility in WordPerfect, which is particulary useful if you have to reformat a document prepared elsewhere. Similarly, while of course tables can be done in Word, they are not as user friendly as in WordPerfect and the calculation/formula facility is inferior (perhaps because of MS Excel which includes probably all the functionality missing from Word). Word has always given me the impression that it is cobbled together with less regard for the user than WordPerfect (which is hardly surprising given their relative commercial positions). The fact that my office had to change to Word although we didn't want to suggests that either we are idiots (a possibility) or that Word has an an unjustified dominance of the market (my preferred interpretation).

 

I'm not an expert user of either package, but I have used both extensively, and, without any axe to grind, I have no doubt that for ordinary word processing use, WordPerfect is a better designed, more user friendly package. This is also the view of the (few) other users in our office with whom I have discussed it, including some of our secretaries, who use it all the time.

 

I think that we may have to agree to differ or start our own word processing forum.

[johnb80]

Agreed and I haven't metion Diesel once. Damn there I go again, sorry, I take it all back :lol:

[johnb80]

Good grief - I wander away from a topic for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose... :) Fwiw, I sit somewhere in the middle on this argument. On the one hand, despite their flaws, MS operating systems and application software are remarkable achievements (although I hate the recurring 'feature bloat' - but then, I don't want/need those features). On the other, there is little doubt in my mind but that MS abuses its position of dominance in the market.

 

And back to the topic... I'm pretty certain I'm not accidentally knocking the switch on and off. Yes, my knuckles drag along the ground when I walk, but in the car I can keep them nicely under control (such as moving the right one up and down from the wrist out of the driver's window... :lol: )

Humble apologies for hijacking your thread Ian, keeps people typing ! :lol:

[Galactic Ales]

I'm a new Galaxy owner, but the first annoying thing I found was lack of parking senzor display. I'm used to see the distance and direction as obvious in the cheapest chinesse parking sensors.

[jon46]

:D Hmmm parking sensors - just another source of electronic beeps, I'd turn them of for peace and quiet - but then theres the lights on beeps, door not fully closed beeps, how dare you move forward before securing your seatbelt beep, soooo no real answer I am afraid. And then if they did get turned off I would get the blame me when shewho must be obeyed reverses into the wheeley bin, and that conversation would be concluded with beeps - we are creating an unfortunate dependancy....on beeps! Still saves us from becoming skilful on distance judgement. Ho hum. :rolleyes: