I have just purchased from Bavarian Autosport a DVD "Repair Manual" covering my Sixer and it is not working in my computer. It was installed correctly and I have room for it but I keep getting a "System Error" message followed by a bunch of numbers. I have emailed bmw.tradition@bmw.de for advice (their name was on the DVD) and will contact Bavarian Autosport on Monday but I was wondering if anyone else had tried this method of gathering information on our car, and if so, what kind of luck you had?
I'm not a mechanic but I want to know as much about the car as possible for my own enjoyment and so I can better explain problems to the mechanic.
Thanks.

It's designed to work with win 98 and an older version of Acrobat. If you're using XP you'll get a memory error. There is a work-around, but I ended up putting it on an old laptop we had that was still on Windows 98, and it works fine, so I never bothered trying to make it work on my XP machine.

There is a problem with that software and any pc with more than 512k ram. Seems it will not open or operate with any computer with a good amount of ram. Sounds funny, but I've tried to fix mine to run it for months with no luck. There is some answers on Google that dicsusses this exact problem, but I never found and solution except to remove ram, which I'm not about to do. Good Luck, post if you find the soluton.

do u mean 512 MB of ram? cuz thats .5 mb. which is small, too small it seems for even a 90s computer

There are actually two issues:

It won't work with the newer versions of Acrobat Reader, use the 5.1 included on the BMW CD.

It won't work with over 512K of RAM. The fix is to modify the Boot File to give you the choice of booting in 512K or the full RAM at start up.

Here is the Boot File Mod:
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/63/32/

Here are all of the posts to find the answer, it also has instructions on how to set it up so you don't have to use the CD.
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,267795/

do u mean 512 MB of ram? cuz thats .5 mb. which is small, too small it seems for even a 90s computer

Nope, He means 512K, as in thousand. My first computer ('81) had 16K and is was a big deal when I upgraded it to 32K and then finally 64K. :redspot :D :cool

For the longest time, WinTel boxes were stuck at 512K of ram because of the crappy operating system forced on them. Venders wrote work-a-rounds to use more RAM which became known as Expanded Memory and Extended Memory, which were eventually included with windows, even though at it's heart windoz was still an 8 bit operating system.

do u mean 512 MB of ram? cuz thats .5 mb. which is small, too small it seems for even a 90s computerYes it is 512MB as a limit on the mobile Traditions CD. As said above you must also install Acrobat 5.1 and start it first if you have other newer versions on your computer. There are two work arounds for the memory limit. One involves physically removing memory and the other involves a boot loader file that works on XP and will limit Windows XP to 512MB on boot up. I too ended up getting an old machine for use with the CD. I have not even tried to install it on my Vista machine. Although the CD is convenient (when it works) I have ended up buying a Factory blue cover shop manual.

Yes it is 512MB as a limit on the mobile Traditions CD. As said above you must also install Acrobat 5.1 and start it first if you have other newer versions on your computer. There are two work arounds for the memory limit. One involves physically removing memory and the other involves a boot loader file that works on XP and will limit Windows XP to 512MB on boot up. I too ended up getting an old machine for use with the CD. I have not even tried to install it on my Vista machine. Although the CD is convenient (when it works) I have ended up buying a Factory blue cover shop manual.


Where did you buy this manual?

There are actually two issues:

It won't work with the newer versions of Acrobat Reader, use the 5.1 included on the BMW CD.

It won't work with over 512K of RAM. The fix is to modify the Boot File to give you the choice of booting in 512K or the full RAM at start up.

Here is the Boot File Mod:
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/63/32/

Here are all of the posts to find the answer, it also has instructions on how to set it up so you don't have to use the CD.
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,267795/

This is way beyond my computer skill. Could you specify an old computer that might be available that I could purchase and then install this CD? What would I need to look for? Or is that a foolish idea to start with?

Where did you buy this manual? I got it from a company in Washington state. Their URL is http://www.books4cars.com/