[SOLVED] can't get OBDII reader to work

[micky]

Foxwell NT301 OBDII code reader

Worked fine a year ago.

In my trunk for a year, but car is white so it doesn't get that hot, doesn't get that cold because it's Maryland.

Now, no matter what button I push I get the One-Click I/M ReadinessKey report.

I'd like to get DTCs, trouble codes!

Apparently a CD came with it, but I can't find that, so maybe I can DL the software from Foxwell. Can't find it, can only find update software.

OKay, that's good enough.

I download the NTWonder update file, but it's named NT+Wonder+Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.pdf

It's labeled a PDF file, but it it won't display as a pdf file, or at all, in either of two pdf readers.

So I rename it to be an .exe file. Then it won't run "on this computer", windows 10.

Before I write to them, I wanted to see if you guys know what I am, or they are, doing wrong. ???

Foxwell seems to be a respected company, and this device has a 4.5 rating out of 5 on over 12,000 ratings.

OTOH, one guy who gave it 1 star says "Tech support on the manufacturer's website is a joke at best with broken links or updates." That's what I've got, a broken update, and I also came across this page

that says

DEAR CUSTOMER Thank you very much for visiting our website. Please note that we have two websites, but you have no access to both websites with your account** due to technical reasons. You have to register** on one of the two websites according to the actual situation. Should you have any issues, please feel free to contact us [e-mail]

**But there is no way to register or log in!! Sound like some madman fiddles with their website in the middle of the night.

[gfretwell]

Put it back to PDF and try to open it in Word. Sometimes that can open a file Adobe thinks is corrupt (not exactly a PDF) You can open it in Notepad and see if the first 4 bytes are "%PDF"

[micky]

I tried LibreOffice and it says the file is corrupt. (I don't have Word.)

I don't have Adobe either. I've been using Firefox and Chrome browsers and they just ignored it when I tried to open the file. At last Libreoffice gave me an error message.

Aha. I didn't know that. But I actually did that first, after I read it here.

And the first line is PK   ¢lgK þrhMâè

And the second line is: ÿ , NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.exeìý

Almost the same as the file name, NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.pdf .

So it supposed to be an .exe file, which is not surprising since it's called an installer, complete with a version number, and what I guess is a date, 20171107, and yet even when I renamed it to end in .exe, it won't run. (And I had dl'd 2 copies of it and they show the same values inside.)

I guess I have to write them.

By now you've read the intereting part, so if you want, skip to the PUNCHLINE at the bottom.

Or maybe PK means it's a PK zip file? Do people still use PKZip? Regardless, I'll try to unzip it.

Well that seemed to work, unless one can unzip any file and get the same file! It's not quite the same file. The dl'd file is 15,262,507 and the only result of unzipping is one file, 16,714,240. Since it's longer, it must really have been a zip file iiuc.

I have to look for instructions on updating the software, but if I do that and it's still broken, they'll say it's my fault. The thing is about 2 years old and I've used it on only one car, and only about 5 times. If they believed that, they might give me a new one, or tell me to update the software. But if they don't believe me and this doesn't work, I'll have nothing. Maybe I should write them. And someone should tell them they're labeling zip files as pdf files. I wonder how long that's been the case. Is that an attempt to get past virus checkers?

You know, even though it might be obvious, there should have been installation instructions when I unzipped it. Foxwell could be doing a better job. This wasn't junk, it was $65. It shouldn't be giving me so much trouble.

And yes, PKZip is still in use. They call themselves "The Gold Standard in Data Compression".

It's free for 30 days and I can't find out how much it costs after that. I hate that.

BTW, somewhere I have another code reader (and eraser fwiw) but this is much more expensive, gives more info, and live data, when it's working, and I wanted to use this. ;-(

PUNCHLINE Well, this is pretty embarrassing. It's been working all along. It has a big blue button in the middle called I/M and I've been regarding it as the Enter button, but the enter button is actually in the lower right in the same dull orange color as every other button.. I had the same problem when I first bought the thing, but it's been 2 years and I forgot how it really works. It's 11PM and it's 33^F, too cold now to go outside considering it will be a lot warmer in 16 hours.

They still have their file mismarked, with no text to help. Not only that, the date on the file they offer is 11/07/2017 but the date in my reader is 7/17/2018.

Even though my version is v2.24 and their file seems to be v5.20.

[micky]

Well, I finally found installation instructions at

And part of what it says is:

So they did plan to call it a zip file.

So I ran the file but Malwarebytes called it malware and it dissappeared. To run it again I'd have to unzip it again.

Malwarebytes is definitely too finicky, but since the date is older than what I have, I'm going to stop now. (It complains about lots of websites too, that AVG never complained about.)

One would think they could have written this so antimalware program didn't complain about it.

A newer version would just have data for newer cars, anyhow, cars made since 2018, and my car is a 2005.

[micky]

Well on a nearby page, at this Australian website (instead of the USA site for Foxwell) I foudn another downloadable file, this time ending in .zip. It was also twice as long, didn't get stopped by Malbyteware, and displayed pictures of various Foxwell code readers during installation.

It's meant to install to the PC, not to update the reader. Though one of its functions is to update the code reader.

This gets a tiny bit at the end of the manual.

[Tekkie©]

On Thu, 01 Apr 2021 23:37:25 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...

Ignore it in Malwarebytes. Try running it as an administrator.