Being a cheapskate and having read about it here, I invested a small amount of money with the Chinese and purchased one of these tools.

Loaded the software onto a directory (ie didn't run it directly from the CD, but from the HD) on a 64-bit W10 machine and immediately Windows Defender popped up and removed a file, lpk.dll. The software then came up as clean and appeared to install, but said the dongle had a hardware fault.

The proper demo software on the manufacturer's site sees the dongle as OK.

An AVG scan of the CD files says lpk.dll is a high severity threat.

Searches on the internet seem to bring up cracked versions of the software, but look dodgy.

Is anyone here using this successfully? Can anyone suggest a decent source of the software? Old 110 2.3 Petrol ???? - ????
Old 110 200tdi ???? - 2004
1996 Discovery 300tdi 2004 - 2015 met fiery end being welded
2004 JEEP Grand Cherokee 2015 - 2017
2004 L322 Td6 2017 -

Well, this is going pretty badly. The PA Soft genuine trial version sees the OBD2 plug device and talks to it, but it fails to communicate with the 2 busses on the vehicle. Replacing the infected lpk.dll file on the Chinese CD with a clean original Microsoft one doesn't bring the Chinese version of the software to life.

It looks to me as if both the hardware and software are faulty. I would like to hear from anyone using one of these scanners about how well or badly it works. Probably the cost of returning it to China would be more than I paid for it, so maybe I'll end up poking around in the hardware.

I've plugged in my trusty very cheap Bluetooth dongle and fired up various trial and free PC software which seems to all work, but down to the level expected. I can send AT commands and receive responses, so that all looks potentially good, if not a lot of immediate use.

A brief test on an Android phone also shows Torque reading at least the revs, so that looks promising.

My aim is to eventually get an IID tool, but I'm a bit wary as I only have cheap Android phones and tablets and the website warns against generic phones. Old 110 2.3 Petrol ???? - ????
Old 110 200tdi ???? - 2004
1996 Discovery 300tdi 2004 - 2015 met fiery end being welded
2004 JEEP Grand Cherokee 2015 - 2017
2004 L322 Td6 2017 -

Hi,

Sorry just seen this. I’ve heard of the dongle being a bit ropey from some suppliers whereby the soldering leaves a lot to be desired, and there is a way to rewire the dongle to give full functionality.

Have a look at this thread on another forum and give particular attention to the method of connection and powering up both the car and laptop http://e46fanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1010094 and have a search around on the web.

If you have no luck I’ll pop mine in the post and you can give that a try...

Cheers  ______________________________
Simon
______________________________

Range Rover Classic 3.5 efi - Gone
Range Rover Classic 3.9 efi - Gone
Range Rover Classic 4.2 LSE - Sadly gone
Land Rover 110 3.5 - Gone
Range Rover P38a 4.0 SE - Pleased it's gone
Range Rover P38a 2.5 DHSE - Just sold
Range Rover L322 4.4 v8 Petrol - Current

Thanks, Simon, for the offer and the pointer to the other discussion.

I've spent part of the morning composing a message to the ebay seller about the trojan and the hardware problem and will probably give them a day to respond before I look deeper into the hardware.

There seem to be no obvious soldering faults Old 110 2.3 Petrol ???? - ????
Old 110 200tdi ???? - 2004
1996 Discovery 300tdi 2004 - 2015 met fiery end being welded
2004 JEEP Grand Cherokee 2015 - 2017
2004 L322 Td6 2017 -

Making some progress here.

I came to an agreement with the Chinese supplier of the tester, kept everything and had 50% refunded.

Removed all the virus-type software. Ran several anti virus scanners on the individual files and copied the important and apparently clean ones to Windows 7 64-bit laptop. Installed the latest FTDI chip drivers. Remade one possibly iffy solder joint in the interface.

When starting up, it gives IKE and EWS not found messages. But now it runs and reads engine codes (seemed to have a "live" glow plug error, which is a bit worrying) and, apparently gearbox codes (no errors displayed). Gambled and hit clear errors, after ensuring logs were working, and they have all disappeared


I've dismantled the plug unit again and all the wiring still seems OK, but pin 8 is not connected. I see that this is listed as BMW optional second K-line. Does anyone know if this should be linked to pin7? It would be a shame to blow the car up.

I'm thinking of also investing a small sum in an ebay INPA/ediabas interface as well in the hope that it will work and also allow me to see if its pins 7 & 8 are linked. Old 110 2.3 Petrol ???? - ????
Old 110 200tdi ???? - 2004
1996 Discovery 300tdi 2004 - 2015 met fiery end being welded
2004 JEEP Grand Cherokee 2015 - 2017
2004 L322 Td6 2017 -

as with most Chinese software you need to turn off internet connection and disable virus checkers ect BEFORE trying to install, if you have tried even once it will put a stop to all further install's

best thing to do is see if the software will run in a virtual machine and try there, an old version of XP is normally best for running Chinese software

if you keep having issues feel free to pop over and see me for assistance (by the safari park)

Thanks, Lukie, especially for the offer. I'll see how things go. I normally run any untried software on a machine not connected to the internet, but leave a virus checker running. I tend to avoid virtual machines, although I do use them as, back in the old days, I had a lot of trouble getting usb data through the 2 levels.

However, I dismantled the plug again. Pins 1 and 2 were not connected together, nor were pins 7 and 8. I connected pins 7 & 8 together, as this seemed the most logical, but left 1 & 2 apart.

Plugged it in and it all burst into life with no IKE or EWS reading errors. I did a full scan and hopefully I'll be able to read through the log file of, mainly historical it seems, errors in the warm.

I've just looked at a couple of places so far. The glowplug error has returned although the car starts fine. Maybe this is one of the things that differs between BMW and RR?
Also, the thing I embarked on this for, the LCM. It reports a wire off the dimmer pot, which I suppose might account for the extremely dim dashboard lights. Old 110 2.3 Petrol ???? - ????
Old 110 200tdi ???? - 2004
1996 Discovery 300tdi 2004 - 2015 met fiery end being welded
2004 JEEP Grand Cherokee 2015 - 2017
2004 L322 Td6 2017 -