*OFFICIAL* BMW Diagnostic Scanner PA Soft 1.4 Thread

Originally Posted by fire730

Wasted an hour of my life and I can't figure out why this thing still says the adapter isn't plugged in. Any ideas? Removed and reinstalled the program 3 times and it still tells me the same thing.

2001 325iT.

Thanks for any help.

Anyone have any ideas??

Tried it again today and I noticed only the yellow light was working on the OBD adapter. I fiddled with the cable and the green light comes on now but it still tells me its not plugged in. What can I check? I dont have access to another Bmw and I havent really found any fixes by scanning through all these pages.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271118420577...84.m1497.l2649

Just bought this one. Free shipping that won't take a month and only $29.

I'll try it and let you guys know if its the real deal.

As detailed somewhere in this long thread, back in July or August, my Xcar360 scanner quit working after having it for two days. They said send it back. So I did, on the slow boat to China. I don't remember the address but it was something like this-

145 Blvd. of Lowest Quality
Tranquil Sweatshop Garden
Fok Yu City
China

Then I ordered a slightly different one (Loftek) from Amazon. More expensive but shipped from the US and had a real return policy. It worked first try and still works today.
Fire730 messaged me recently to see if I ever got the Xcar scanner working after it came back. Here's my reply:

" I got it back from xcar weeks later. Still didn't work. Same problems as before. I'd like to try and get my money back but I just can't bring myself to waste any more time on the stupid thing. The one I got on Amazon looks almost identical, but it works fine. Plug the xcar scanner into the same laptop and it won't work. I should put it on the forums as free to a good home. Maybe some computer guy could figure it out. Sorry to give you bad news. "

If it sounds like I'm not happy with Xcrap, it's because I'm not. I guess I could have sent it back to China in September yet again to see if they could fix it. I would probably be getting it back right about now. Instead, I decided I had already wasted enough of my life on it. I'm out 35 bucks, lesson learned. I'm posting this as a follow up.

Originally Posted by ShookMasta

Just bought this one. Free shipping that won't take a month and only $29.

I'll try it and let you guys know if its the real deal.

Definitely update here after you get it. I can't get my xcar to work and like Steve855 said I don't want to waste anymore money shipping that freakin thing back to China.

Hopefully, Fire730 doesn't mind me sharing our email conversation for the benefit of others.

Fire730 said:

"Thanks for the quick reply. Well that's my (and apparently your) bad luck. Many sold that work fine and we got a couple of paperweights.

Where did you get it on Amazon and how much was it from there? Do you have a link or a search suggestion? Not that I want to throw away more money.

Thanks for your help.

Also did it cost you money to send it back or did they pay for all the shipping?"


And I replied:

http://m.sears.com/productdetails.do...708&sid=&psid=

"This is what I got when my Xcar clunker quit working after less than a week. I bought mine from Amazon but they now list it as no longer available. I needed it quicker than one month shipping from china (amazon shipped from KY) and I wanted to be able to return for refund if it didn't work. Thankfully I didn't need to. It seems a little better quality than Xcar but it's hard to say for sure. Maybe I just got lucky this time. It uses the same install procedure and what seems like identical software. Worked first try for me and I'm no computer wizard.

If you're thinking about sending yours back to Xcar, save the postage and just smash it with a hammer. You'll be much better off and it won't cost anything. Seriously. You know you want to. "

I forgot to mention that I paid shipping to China, they paid shipping back to me. They were very polite in their emails to me, and they did ship it back to me, but in the end they got my money and I got a scanner that won't scan.

Caveat emptor.

Got the tool in today.
Hacked my w7-64 drivers to pieces and got it all to work on my 7u64 lappy.
Pulled codes, played with options, got scared and didn't write anything...

Pretty cool though.

I've read through this and a bunch of other posts and searched but cannot seem to find...

Is there a DIY outlining a logical process for using this magical tool?
is it wise to pull and print all the codes, then reset / clear everything and see what comes back?
Or keep it as-is forever?
Is there a comprehensive list of the error codes / shadows / problems or things to be ignored?

Tj

Any idea why this won't clear shadow codes for the ABS and Wheel speed sensors?

Originally Posted by tech4tech

Any idea why this won't clear shadow codes for the ABS and Wheel speed sensors?

From what I have heard... Shadow codes are codes that this tool picks up but are not picked up by BMW... So you see them... But they aren't really there. (Not an issue and ignore them.)

Originally Posted by Big Rick

From what I have heard... Shadow codes are codes that this tool picks up but are not picked up by BMW... So you see them... But they aren't really there. (Not an issue and ignore them.)

Perhaps I've mis-spoken. I get some codes marked in yellow color. My understanding these are not active codes, but rather some code history -- things that happened in the past. When I tried clearing all codes with PA Soft, it had cleared the yellow DME codes, but not the codes for ABS and Wheel speed sensors. I believe these codes resulted from the dyno used for the smog test, but still curious why they are not clearing from some modules while clearing from the others. Thanks

Reading, clearing codes and basic coding seems pretty simple. There are more complex features involving hexadecimals and such. Anyone play with these?

Originally Posted by ShookMasta

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271118420577...84.m1497.l2649

Just bought this one. Free shipping that won't take a month and only $29.

I'll try it and let you guys know if its the real deal.

did you get it yet? i was about to order the one from xcar 360 when i saw your post. looks cheaper and faster and easier to fix if there is a problem.

Originally Posted by trj

Here is the link:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1622061

It will give you step by step instructions on what to do. I am still waiting for my cable to arrive

Did this to the TEE and ended up with a BLUE SCREEN after completing all the steps. Windows wouldnt restart properly got 3 blue screens then had to go into safe mode and remove the FTDI driver files from the Univ.Serial Cont. NO MORE CRASH DUMPING FOR ME

So what is the "other" alternative route(s), aside from obtaining a laptop/netbook with xp on it? I'm anxious to get this thing started already!!!

Mine did the same thing every time I tried to close the program. After I finally got it to load. I have a $34 paperweight as far as I'm concerned.

Originally Posted by JTripper

Did this to the TEE and ended up with a BLUE SCREEN after completing all the steps. Windows wouldnt restart properly got 3 blue screens then had to go into safe mode and remove the FTDI driver files from the Univ.Serial Cont. NO MORE CRASH DUMPING FOR ME

So what is the "other" alternative route(s), aside from obtaining a laptop/netbook with xp on it? I'm anxious to get this thing started already!!!

Originally Posted by fire730

Mine did the same thing every time I tried to close the program. After I finally got it to load. I have a $34 paperweight as far as I'm concerned.

I have it running on virtual windows xp on my mac with parallels.
However, the steps given in the link are supposed to work. Many here in this thread has made it to work. May be you got the wrong drivers or the chipset was not compatible. Sorry guys, it didnt work.

I dont have windows 7 64 bit laptop anymore. So, I will try to figure it out on virtual windows 7 64 bit on my mac. Dont know how it would help, but I will certainly try. However, it will have to wait till the holidays are over.

Just bought one of these xcar360 ones, followed all instructions to the letter, read this entire thread once before buying and once more after receiving and no go.

Software loads fine on my Windows 7 Home laptop, and 2 XP machines from work, the scanner is found by all PC's in hardware and the software program itself but everytime I run scan or car ID I get 2 error messages: can't read IKE modile and DME I think is the second one. Software then quits and I have to start over.

As well I: tried it with the key in both positions, as well as with the car running with no change; I downloaded the software directly from PASoft, no change; verfied the amber light lights right away with connection and during scanning the green light flashes.

I opened the scanner tool and checked connections according to the PC board and all seem OK as well

Ideas? Its an 02 330xi

You know that you have to connect the OBD connector to the car with the ignition on for the final drivers to load??

You may just need to go in and delete the driver and try to reinstall just the driver?

Using some driver trickery I got it to work on a w7 PC, but on the next try it failed.

On my XP laptop i loaded and it failed, reloaded and used a different USB port and it succeeded and repeated.

Concur with the delete and reinstall following the exact instructions and using the S/W that came with the gizmo.

Originally Posted by jfoj

You know that you have to connect the OBD connector to the car with the ignition on for the final drivers to load??

You may just need to go in and delete the driver and try to reinstall just the driver?

Swear I did that but I will try again.

How can i disable my amber light when switching the on!? I just need then to blink when indicator is on thats all