I have had this issue for several months now and it has puzzled me to no end. My problem is that my OEM head unit face controls are unresponsive except the volume ****. I have a cd in the unit that keeps playing all the way through and then repeats. I can't eject the cd nor advance tracks. When turning off the car, I can't turn the unit on. I have checked the two fuses in the kick panel and both are good. *scratches head* any ideas? I know there is another fuse attached to the back of the unit. Could this be the one that is bad? I asked an audio specialist at the latest MINI meet in my area but he was unfamilure with the OEM units and thought that it may be a ribbon cable issue. That still doesn't explain the volume **** working and the lights also illuminate in the dark. The one other thing odd is that the central air controls for the a/c and fan do not light up at night. Please give me some sort of direction to go on.

 

I'm not a fan of part replacement diagnosis, but that would be an easy, and relatively cheap way to see if it's the unit or the car.
I would think it's some glitch within the head unit circuitry.