Carsoft Group Purchase

[stanksbeamen]

Originally Posted by jwbakerjr

Has anyone gotten this software to run on VISTA? If you have would you mind sharing how you installed the software? I must be missing something.

I have done a full system recovery on my laptop, reinstalled the CarSoft software as the administrator. I still have the same problem, the drivers for dongles loaded and the dongle was recognized successfully. It then said to restart the program, when I did the only thing that appeared was the message to insert the dongle and the dongle is recognized and the same thing happens over and over.

VISTA Home Premium Version 6.0 Service Pack 1

I'm getting the same thing...Does anyone know if we require different drivers? I get the driver was installed successfully but it says "This is the wrong installer for the current operating system. Please use the 64 bit version of the installer!"

Not sure what to do now... What a PITA! I hope this means that I dont have to upgrade/down grade my practically brand new laptop.

[scottjoh]

I am using Vista as well and have the same problem.

"Dongle Installed successfully, Please restart the program..." over and over and over again.

Very disappointing. I guess I'll continue using PA Soft 1.3.6 for a while longer. It least it works.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

This sux.

I'm a Vista guy, as well. Have not received my carsoft, yet though.

Whomever gets it up and running on Vista, please post a detailed "how-to".

Thanks

[fun2drive]

XP guy and my software works perfectly.
I saw the Vista write up and looks like it still has a bug yet to be corrected...

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Originally Posted by stanksbeamen

I get the driver was installed successfully but it says "This is the wrong installer for the current operating system. Please use the 64 bit version of the installer!"

Not sure what to do now... What a PITA!

ditto

If anyone figures out how to get it to work on Vista, PLEASE post up.

Thanks!

[scottjoh]

Since I could not get my Carsoft 8.2 to work on my Vista laptop I decided to try it on my XP laptop and it installed and worked. Yeah! But that is where my excitement ended.

I went straight outside to read the codes on my cars ZKE5 (aka GM5) and also read the codes on a customers module and was very pissed off with Carsoft.

I've been using PA Soft 1.3.6 which will read out the fault codes and display them in cryptic decimal and hex number. So when I read my ZKE5 with PA Soft I get the following 10 Errors
0x3D
0x29
0x02
0x07
0x28
0x2B
0x2A
0x01
0x08
0x45 (<- I found out that this one is not really an error. It's the packet checksum)
I know that 0x29, 0x2A and 0x2B are door lock relay faults. The other ones I'm clueless on and I was hoping that Carsoft would give me a little hint as to what these faults mean. I was very wrong!

With Carsoft I get 5 errors and 4 of them look the same with a completely worthless description.
Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F11
11 Power sunroof module faulty

Come on. Base-module (GM) faulty! four times. They've got to be kidding. How is that going to help me narrow down the problem? How is that going to save me a costly trip to the dealer. It's not. As far as I'm concerned Carsoft was a waste of money.

From what I've seen I'm better off with my $40 pirated copy of PA Soft and interface from China. At least it gives me the raw error codes which I can look up (if I ever find a fault code description chart)

With other diag tools I've seen the 0x29 fault code throw up the message, "Relay for central locking" and on another software it spits out "Relay for rear FH drive sticks". Now that is useful.

Carsoft sucks!

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Suxor.
Could you get your PAsoft to work with vista?I have a cheap eBay version of it too - that I could not get to work with vista.

Originally Posted by scottjoh

Since I could not get my Carsoft 8.2 to work on my Vista laptop I decided to try it on my XP laptop and it installed and worked. Yeah! But that is where my excitement ended.

I went straight outside to read the codes on my cars ZKE5 (aka GM5) and also read the codes on a customers module and was very pissed off with Carsoft.

I've been using PA Soft 1.3.6 which will read out the fault codes and display them in cryptic decimal and hex number. So when I read my ZKE5 with PA Soft I get the following 10 Errors
0x3D
0x29
0x02
0x07
0x28
0x2B
0x2A
0x01
0x08
0x45 (<- I found out that this one is not really an error. It's the packet checksum)
I know that 0x29, 0x2A and 0x2B are door lock relay faults. The other ones I'm clueless on and I was hoping that Carsoft would give me a little hint as to what these faults mean. I was very wrong!

With Carsoft I get 5 errors and 4 of them look the same with a completely worthless description.
Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F1
1 Base-module (GM) faulty

Fault Code : F11
11 Power sunroof module faulty

Come on. Base-module (GM) faulty! four times. They've got to be kidding. How is that going to help me narrow down the problem? How is that going to save me a costly trip to the dealer. It's not. As far as I'm concerned Carsoft was a waste of money.

From what I've seen I'm better off with my $40 pirated copy of PA Soft and interface from China. At least it gives me the raw error codes which I can look up (if I ever find a fault code description chart)

With other diag tools I've seen the 0x29 fault code throw up the message, "Relay for central locking" and on another software it spits out "Relay for rear FH drive sticks". Now that is useful.

Carsoft sucks!

[scottjoh]

Mad Dog 20/20,
I did get PA Soft to work in Vista, but, the problem isn't the OS. I believe the problem is with the baud rate and PC's without real serial ports. The baud rate for the K-Bus is 10.4kbaud (but I believe it's more accurately 10.417kbaud). Not the more standard 9600 baud. I believe this is so module manufacturers can use a nice frequency clock like 4MHz, 10MHz, 20 MHz which can be divided nicely to come up with 1kHz, 10kHz, etc for timing different events in the car more nicely. It also divides down to 10.417kbaud using whole number. To get an accurate 9600 baud systems designers use oscillators like 1.8432MHz, 3.6864MHz or 11.0592MHz which don't give nice whole number dividers for getting 1kHz, and 10kHz. I believe problem is now PC's want standard baud and 9600 baud is 8.3% off from what the car uses. With a true serial port using a variant of the 8250, 16550 family of UARTs the software can program the baud rate generator with non standard values and tweak the serial port to get within 1% of the proper baud rate. With a lot of these USB to Serial port adapters they don't fully support the entire 16550 UART register set. I originally tried my modern laptop with only USB ports with a PalmConnect USB to serial port adapter and that didn't work at all. I tried it on an old Thinkpad with real serial ports running Window 98SE and it worked like a champ. No hardware errors, no lose of communication. I bought a IOGear GUC232A USB to serial port because I heard this is one of the better ones and it did work with my Vista laptop, but, it was hit or miss. A couple weeks ago it worked great and I was able to read codes out of four GM5 modules and all the other modules in my car, but, last night it was very flakey and I had to get the trusty, dusty old Thinkpad out to test the setup and it worked flawlessly.

So what options do we have when all our PCs and laptops have no true RS-232 serial ports anymore. There may be a USB to serial adapter out there that works properly, but, it seems to be hit or miss with more misses than hits. I see two solutions for the current problem and that is to use an old machine or get a PCMCIA serial port card. They should have 16550 compatible chips inside. If designing a system from the ground up to work with the current generation of PCs I would put a microcontroller in the interface box that can talk at the correct baud rate and can talk true USB out the other end. The protocol on the PC software side will need to be rewritten to use this scheme though. I was thinking about designing a small PIC controller board to do baud rate translation, but, found it easier to just use an old laptop.

[///Mmmm, Donuts]

Originally Posted by scottjoh

I am using Vista as well and have the same problem.

"Dongle Installed successfully, Please restart the program..." over and over and over again.

I got mine going on Vista Home Premium SP1. After you install the software, open explorer (or use the search) to find the carsoft.exe file. It'll be under \program files\nv ads\ultimate home 8.2 by default. Then right click > properties > compatibility, and check off "run as administrator". I also checked off "run this program in compatibility mode" for XP SP2. Then run Carsoft, you'll get the "restart" message, it'll close, and the next time you open it it should work...at least mine does.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Originally Posted by ///Mmmm, Donuts

I got mine going on Vista Home Premium SP1. After you install the software, open explorer (or use the search) to find the carsoft.exe file. It'll be under \program files\nv ads\ultimate home 8.2 by default. Then right click > properties > compatibility, and check off "run as administrator". I also checked off "run this program in compatibility mode" for XP SP2. Then run Carsoft, you'll get the "restart" message, it'll close, and the next time you open it it should work...at least mine does.

Tried this. Did not work.
Is your vista 32 or 64 bit?

thanks

[///Mmmm, Donuts]

Originally Posted by Mad Dog 20/20

Tried this. Did not work.
Is your vista 32 or 64 bit?

thanks

I'm running the 32-bit.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Originally Posted by ///Mmmm, Donuts

I'm running the 32-bit.

Yeah, I figured as much - see Stanksbeamen and I are getting that "This is the wrong installer for the current operating system. Please use the 64 bit version of the installer!" message because we are running 64 bit Vista.

Ugh.

[Carsoftwest]

I looked at the forum today hoping to see some nice comments about Carsoft 8.2 and Carsoftwest but instead I see many VISTA users are having problems with the dongle drivers. I'm sorry to see this and I understand your frustration. It is not possible for me to fix this problem but I did send a message to Dirk Scevenels owner of Carsoft International and he wants to solve this problem quickly. Please send a message with your phone number to info@carsoftinternational.com or call them at the number posted below, they will call you and fix the dongle problem. This was Dirk's reply to my message;

Dear Tom,

I’ve seen the postings on the forum… and, as I am in the airport checking in for an 8 hours flight, there isn’t much I can do right now…

At the other hand, please hand over (or post) the following number: +32 475 52 65 93 and ask them to give a missed-call (3 rings with a visible number) and we will call back within a maximum delay of 30 minutes around the clock… until we are able to post a download (if necessary).

I am very sorry for the inconvenience, but the strange thing is that none of our customers reported any VISTA incompatibility issues and our test computers with VISTA are working fine as well…

Anyway, I really hope we will be able to get everyone on our track and try to give them the best service in the world…

Best Regards,

Dirk
PS: I will follow-up the situation real close.

[jwbakerjr]

I have received two calls from info@carsoftinternational.com and Geert was able to get me running temporarily by taking control of my computer and ultimately placing a BMW Home Shortcut on the desktop.

I read the earlier post stating: "I got mine going on Vista Home Premium SP1. After you install the software, open explorer (or use the search) to find the carsoft.exe file. It'll be under \program files\nv ads\ultimate home 8.2 by default. Then right click > properties > compatibility, and check off "run as administrator". I also checked off "run this program in compatibility mode" for XP SP2. Then run Carsoft, you'll get the "restart" message, it'll close, and the next time you open it it should work...at least mine does."

This did not work for me either. I found the following information at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...on-of-Windows:

Run the Program Compatibility Wizard
1.Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.

2.Follow the instructions in the wizard.

This appears to have worked for me. I am not sure this is the best fix. I will wait for a return call from Geert on Monday to see what he has to say but it now starts using the CARSOFT Ultimate icon on the desktop with no dongle problems.

Link above does not seem to work. If you want full details go to www.microsoft.com and search "make older programs run". However all I had to do was run the Program Compatibility Wizard

1.Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.

2.Follow the instructions in the wizard.

This may get some of you up and running until we get a detail solution from Carsoft International on Monday. I have connected the interface to my car and the software appears to be running OK. The dongle seems to be a big mistake and just something else to keep track of. What do you do if you loose your dongle? Cost?

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Got a call from Geert. He got things working for me. Great service.
I dont have any check engine lights, but got an error code for "F228" via Carsoft. Anybody know what that is?

I was not able to read long term fuel trim or short term fuel trim or reset adaptation. These functions were some of the main reasons I bought Carsoft. Does it not execute these functions on a '97 M3?

[scottjoh]

Originally Posted by Mad Dog 20/20

I dont have any check engine lights, but got an error code for "F228" via Carsoft. Anybody know what that is?

I was not able to read long term fuel trim or short term fuel trim or reset adaptation. These functions were some of the main reasons I bought Carsoft. Does it not execute these functions on a '97 M3?

Yeah, aint it great. Error Codes with no description. WORTHLESS! That's the main reason I bought Carsoft.

Now that error code is going to bug the crap out of you until you take it in to dealer and pay to have it read and explained to you. Isn't the point of Carsoft and similar software to empower us to make sense of these fault codes so we don't get taken to the cleaners. At least that was my thought.

Oh, BTW I did get it to run on Vista yesterday after following ///Mmmm, Donuts' instructions, but, it I had to do it over and over again about 4 times before it started working.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Anybody know why I can't reset adaptions? I can do everything else in the DME module, but when I try to reset adaptations I get "no reponse from module!" message.

This is on a 97 M3.

[stanksbeamen]

Originally Posted by Mad Dog 20/20

Anybody know why I can't reset adaptions? I can do everything else in the DME module, but when I try to reset adaptations I get "no reponse from module!" message.

This is on a 97 M3.

This is also one of the reasons why i bought this product. I see you got it working? Something you can explain to me through PM or should i just send them an email and wait for the call? LMK if you figure it out, i want to check my ltft and stft...

Thanks.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

Originally Posted by stanksbeamen

This is also one of the reasons why i bought this product. I see you got it working? Something you can explain to me through PM or should i just send them an email and wait for the call? LMK if you figure it out, i want to check my ltft and stft...

Thanks.

Geert called me and then took over my computer and did a lot of stuff to get it working. No vague idea what he did. Seems to be working fine, now though. They have now issued via e-mail a vista-specific install. e-mail Tom at sales@carsoftwest.com.

[fun2drive]

I was under the impression reading David Mc write up that we would be getting knowledge about the codes. If not than I am not too happy as that was the reason I bought this too. I have a Peake code reader but it is insufficient for the task at hand.

David if you see this can you tell us if we should be getting some idea of what the codes mean? Honestly it makes no sense to have a tool like this without the supporting description of what it means.

[shellback]

what other existing and proven alternatives are there for this product?

[scottjoh]

Originally Posted by shellback

what other existing and proven alternatives are there for this product?

shellback,
A little while ago I started compiling a list of various BMW diag software/hardware packages and have put it on my web site.

http://www.bmwgm5.com/Diag_Tools.htm

It's very incomplete on what each package is capable of doing, but, at least it lists the packages that are out there so you can look into the ones that seem interesting. I've also included links to web sites and prices.

Since Carsoft has turned out to be a bust for my purposes. I'm considering Bavarian Technic, but, I'm going to do more research and call their tech support with specific questions before pulling the trigger. The price seems right at $287 with USB to OBD-II interface. Did you catch that, USB to OBD-II interface. No messing around with USB to serial adapters which may or may not work correctly! Or having to pull out an ancient Pentium 1 laptop running Windows 98 which has a real serial port.

[DavidsM3]

what is this thing, some kind of scan tool? i feel noobish

[rayjones55]

hi who ever getting this error ,"This is the wrong installer for the current operating system. Please use the 64 bit version of the installer!" message because we are running 64 bit Vista ,when installing the 32 bit wibu key . Download the 64 bit driver at http://wibu.com/download_user.php and the driver name is WibuKey Runtime-Kit (Win 32 / Win64) then install it and then it should work

[stanksbeamen]

Anyone know a local store that carries an adaptor for USB to serial port? I have to buy one so I can use this stuff...TIA

Originally Posted by DavidsM3

what is this thing, some kind of scan tool? i feel noobish

Yes, its a scan tool and can read live data. Very useful stuff but lets hope it all works out. I will send an email tomorrow for them to call me. I downloaded the link in my email and I still get the same errors. I didnt even have the dongle in the computer and it said it successfully installed so yeah...