Strange Direct Scan problem....

[Vader 87]

I was using DS on my GN over and over and it worked just fine everytime.....havent used it in about a month now and i go to plug it up and it doesnt work...same laptop and all. It keeps throwing all this different info at me when the cars in the on position and when i crank it says hardware timeout. It worked just fine up until this point....any ideas??? TIA Jason

 

[bruce]

Edge card sonnector maybe pushed into just a hair too much.

On mine, had ocassional weird problems, shorted the ecm cable to about a foot, and the parrarel cable is a 3'er now.
No problems since doing that.

 

[Vader 87]

Another strange thing is it gives me the right readings and all when i go into the display but after about 2 or 3 seconds it says hardware timeout.

 

[Vader 87]

anybody???

 

[TurboDave]

Edge connector flakyness. Just get it all cleaned up. They tend to corrode as time goes by. It's a thin film corrosion you can't see.

 

[Vader 87]

i used a Qtip and some rubbing alcohol and that did nothing...im gonna try scraping it with a razor blade and see what happens.

 

[Vader 87]

well the razor blade did nothing as well and that connector is clean....in the scope mode the line will get half way across the screen before it gives me a hardware timeout....isnt that strange??? im beginning to think this is more of a pain than what its worth. Any more suggestions?

 

[Vader 87]

could the printer cable end that goes to the laptop have some corrosion? Its just been sitting in my passenger seat for a month now.

 

[TurboDave]

Sounds like your laptop is "timing out" the parallel port for some reason. I'd start looking at causes in the laptop setup.

 

[Vader 87]

what am i looking for? i dont know what could cause a laptop to do that.

 

[TurboDave]

From your description, it sounds like DS starts up and works fine for a short time (shows good data, etc) and then after a short time, it pops up with a hardware fault. Is this correct?

It's been my experience that DS is either going to hook and work or it's not. If there's a connection problem that's going to yield a hardware fault, it should do it right away, not after somewhat of a delay.

 

[Vader 87]

well now i changed laptops and it works for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes and then gives a hardware timeout....W Ttype can verify this he was there. sometimes it'd work for 5 minutes and sometimes 30 seconds.