PV997

I should have guessed! I came up through SE also, antenna and communication payload systems. The engineers stick out like sore thumbs on the Porsche forums, which seem to be mainly populated with non-technical professionals. No engineer ever started a sentence with, "well, the dealership said..." unless it was followed with "and they are full of it". Our problem is we think others should care as much about how it works as we do, and can't understand it when they don't.

scadams

It’s a blessing and a curse but I wouldn’t give it up.

911TurboRules

scadams - Thank you! The Snapshot idea is a good work around. I found that to quit the program when you're done DO NOT click the "Close" button in the PIWIS program to exit. Instead just click on the Windows Start button and Shut Down Windows. If you forget and click the Close button from the PIWIS program then revert back to the Snapshot from before so you don't have to delete the VM and reimport the PIWIS OVL file.

But this is something new. I used to be able to click on Close in the PIWIS program and then it would shut down Windows and the VM. When I restart the next time the menu would be fine. Not sure what changed. I redownloaded the OVA file and tried this on a Windows 10 machine and still it would loose the menu after the first run.

Either way, this new way (new to me) of clicking on the Start button and shutting down Windows without closing the PIWIS program works. This doesn't seem like the proper way to quit a program so not sure what the long term issues would be but it works for now.

Thanks for all the help you guys!

Phrog Phlyer

tapcon

I also lost the menu on start up of the PIWIS file. Got an error message that it could not locate, or the image file was corrupted.
Went to the Import Appliance tab in the VM menu, and located the PIWIS .ova file folder on the harddrive then clicked next.
This brought up the Appliance Settings for the PIWIS file. At the bottom is the Machine Base Folder file info. I changed this to .ova file folder location and clicked import.
Took a minute as the .ova file overwrote the corrupted VMs file and the menu returned.

Not sure if this clearly describes the process as my computer/system engineering skills are limited to screwing things up a couple times in order to figure it out

Own Goal

PV997; this fits pretty much with the PDK stickie. Been floating for awhile. If in the future would like this merged into the stickie, let me know. I admire the group effort by our resident engineers to reverse engineer and crack the PDK. Intresting delima on this topic re the software and clone devices. Not so simple here. Porsche deciding to lock down and seal the PDK as non serviceable device was a corp decision. I could be wrong but don't think when paying well north of $100,000 for a PDK car you signed a software license agreement. You own it. Given number of units in service still surprised someone hasn't become the Jake Rabe or Charles Navarro of PDK rebuilds.

scadams

Whatever method y’all use to recover the settings that broke the PIWIS software menu, by all means go with what you prefer. My write-up was simply a means to help the ones who are fine starting from scratch. I went with the blank slate method mainly because I knew I’d spend less time going with that since I wouldn’t be losing any important data than digging thru the settings files to figure out what it broke.

So long as you use the Pause & Close method the VM will be fine and the menu issue will not be a problem.

Also, I’d recommend performing the following on WinXP to check for and fix any OS issues.

1. run Disk Defragmenter (Start -> Run -> type “dfrg.msc” and hit enter. There is some fragmentation but not much.
2. run Checkdisk (Start -> Run -> type “chkdsk /r” you will prompted that it will run on the next restart and it flags the OS to run it. Do the Pause & Close method the. Start it back up and it’ll run the offline chkdsk and fix the issues.
3. When it’s done Pause & Close the create a snapshot.

PV997

Hi Own Goal, thanks for the offer. I think I'd like to keep the PDK post standalone as it's pretty focused whereas this thread is great but it's all over the map. I'll likely incorporate some PDK-specific PIWIS info into the PDK post as things start to get a little clearer.

As to Porsche what they are doing really is indefensible. The PIWIS in a powerful tool that allows monitoring down to specific sensors, but they won't let their techs use it that way! Their t-shooting algorithms assume the tech is just a button pusher who can't think for themselves, interpret the raw data, and use critical thinking to draw conclusions. For $200/hour (or whatever insane rate they charge) I would expect a little smarts and not just someone following a list of instructions. I'm sure many of the techs are capable of it and would like to use their diagnostic skills but PCNA won't let them.

To quote George Costanza from "the dealership" episode: "Yeah right.. I’m gonna get my car repaired at a dealership. Huh! Why don’t I just flush my money down the toilet?"

Own Goal

I love the P cars and have since I was a teen ( 1960's!) ..however Porsche has a bad habit of covering up engineering and production mistakes. The PDK no service, no diagnostics and sealed unit, the price is what we feel like is about done it. I'll get mine fixed if it goes bad because I can, but dealer up will get a blister job.

PV997

Ok, this is weird, I just lost the menus also and have not updated VB (still on 6.1.2). I had specifically turned off the updating function in Virtual Box to prevent it. It took deleting the VM and reloading from the OVA file to get them back.

I think 911Turbo is right in that using the PIWIS close button causes the problem. When you close it this way their is a brief message that says "writing settings to file" or something like that and the menus are gone next time it is started. When you close the VM directly ("X" in the upper right hand corner) there is no message and the menus work afterwards. So some configuration file is getting updated when PIWIS is closed that causes the problem. This would explain why SC's snapshot method works as it captures it before the config file is updated on closure.

CAVU

A great point about the power supply. Attached is the most recent TSB I can find on the subject: Some info to consider as we use our PIWIS, Durametric or other tool of choice:

"To provide stable voltage and sufficient current throughout certain service operations, you should connect the vehicle to a battery charger (sometimes referred to as a power supply). However, you may experience ECU programming and coding issues if the chosen battery charger has insufficient power. Many workshop manuals currently advise use of a battery charger with a 40 or 70 A current rating. However, with the increasing current requirements of modern Porsche vehicles, we recommend a battery charger capable of producing a minimum current of 90 A."

turb0

Can the PIWIS clones process/support the VIN-specific Sport mode software programming (997-044-903-03)?

KlausS98

Question:

Is there any consensus for best price/reliability of the chinese sellers ? Please share your experience

TIA
Klaus

PV997

As far as I know no one has done a side by side comparison but several of us have bought the units and are satisfied. I bought the PIWIS2 from OBD2.market (no affiliation) mainly based on price, their online photos of the unit internals, and the size of their operation. They have dozens of different testers available, and have had a large online presence for quite a while. Maybe not the best criteria but it worked for me as I'm very happy with the unit and have had no problems.

Provided one gets the "Samtec" version of the clone they seem to be comparable, so it comes down to cost and seller reputation. I use the term reputation loosely since we are talking about a bootlegged unit.

Hopefully this doesn't come across as shilling but for $400 you can never take your car to a dealership again. That is a must-have bargain as far as I'm concerned.

PV997

Maybe a stupid question but has anyone been able to get the PIWIS software working on a touchscreen? Since we're emulating Windows XP perhaps this is just a non-starter but it sure would make the unit more user friendly.