Need HELP to get BMW 1.4.0 Scanner working in XP and/or Windows 7

[alan11]

I really need some help from someone who's actually managed to get their BMW 1.4.0 scanner working in either XP or Windows 7.  I got the scanner (Chinese copy) a week ago and have tried and tried and tried, but it still isn't working.  I should say that I've read many posts on several of the BMW owners sites, some of which have been useful (ie I made some progress) and some of which have been just plain wrong. I'm trying to get the scanner working on either an IBM T40 running XP SP3 or an HP Pavilion DV7 series 4000 running Wndows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Firstly about the scanner, I took it apart when it arrived and have joined pins 7 & 8 together by a link wire soldered to both.  Whilst it was apart, I noticed that only 5 of the 6 wires coming from the circuit board are connected to pins on the 16-pin plug (ie, pins #1, #4&5 (joined), 2 leads both joined to pin #8, and pin #16). Is this correct, and should the sixth wire also be joined to one or more of the multipin connector ?

I've donwload three different sets of Drivers from the FTDI Website and tried various combinations on both PCs. Now I understand that the process is different for XP and Windows 7 in that with XP, you should be able to plug the scanner into the PC, and it should immediately recognise it as an unsupported device and prompt for a Driver.  I've tried plugging the scanner into the PC when not connected to the car and when connected to the car, but the PC does't recognise the scanner, and if I do a search for new hardware, it still doesn't find it. 

Now to Windows 7, I've manaed to get to the point where I can run the BMW1.4.0 programme and it does load and respond with "Device drivers (or another FTDI drivers) are installed" and "BMW Scanner adapter is not plugged in".  However, when I plug the scanner into the car and then plug the USB lead into the PC, it doesn't recognise the scanner is connected and it doesn't show-up in the "Devices" list.  Even if I scan for new devices, it is not found.

So this is where I've got to and I'm stuck.  I should say that I'm an IT professional and I'm still baffled by this.  It seems to be overly complicated, or else the scanner is duff, or the drivers are too tempramental.

If anyone has any ideas on what I might be doing wrong or how I might approach this differently to get it working, please let me know.  If necessary, I'm happy to call a UK landline (at mutual convenience) to talk through the initial set-up to the point where the PC will recognise the scanner when it's plugged into the car, and 'yes' I do know there's more set-up to do after that.

Alan

[Horizon]

When I installed mine on XP, I coppied the drivers into my documents, loaded the software onto the PC, the disc that came with the scanner was a duff copy, so I downloaded the software of the net.
Right clicked on my computer, manage devices / device manager. In the list of devices you will see BMW scanner, click on this, it then prompts you to add a driver from the disc or a specified location. Then copy the drivers from my Documents. Can't remember if you have to have the scanner plugged into the PC and the car. The car powers the scanner hardware, NOT the USB lead
Good luck, if I managed it you can 

[alan11]

The problem I have is that the Scanner does not show-up in device manager, and I've tried with it unpowered and powered from the car.  Until I can get the device to be recognised by the PC (ie to show-up in device manager), I can't load a driver.  What I don't know is if, in addition to installing the Scanner software itself (which I've done) and downloading the latest drivers to my PC (which I've done), there is anything else I need to do before powering-up the scanner from the car and plugging it into the PC's USB port ? 

I think the reason the scanner is not being recognised by XP is because it's principally a Com-Port (ie Serial interface) device, and with version 1.4.0 it includes a 'Serial to USB' interface in the scanner device which needs a driver in order to work correctly. So the question is, how do I get XP to recognise the scanner ?  Am I missing a vital step ?

[alan11]

Please note, I've posted this into the wrong section of the Forum.  Maybe an Admin can move it to the E53 Forum.

Alan