Topic

Done my best to download the software for the first time on a DELL Lap top machine operating with windows XP . I don't see the blue screens as indicated in the download instructions at the bottom of those instructions. I made a folder as suggested. If I "click" on the icon pscandownloader I get a grey screen with a port showing at the top (which is presumably a reference to the port in which the usb cable is using in the PC) with a prefix A.
I click on English and see nothing else. "Clicking" on NEXT does nothing (other than tell me that the interface is not connected to the vehicle). All I can see happening is the "forward slash symbol rotating next to the "QUIT" button at the bottom left of the screen.
What else should I be seeing please, and what am I doing wrong?

The blue boxes in the installation instructions are I think only relevant to Windows 10 & 11. I need to update the instructions to say that.

The fact that you can see the grey window with language boxes shows that you have installed pscan successfully, and, the numbers that appear in the "Select port" pull down box suggests that you have successfully installed the FTDI driver and that it is picking up the pscan interface okay (unless you happen to have something else connected to your laptop that has an FTDI chip, which is unlikely).

In order to actually use the software it needs to communicate with the pscan interface, and in order for that to happen the pscan interface needs to be powered up.

The pscan interface is powered by the car, not the laptop. You can tell if the pscan interface is powered because there will be a green flashing light on the box.

Please do the following:-
1. Plug pscan into your car.
2. Check that there is a green flashing light.
3. Switch on the ignition (and also start the engine if you want to look at live data that need the engine running or vehicle moving).
4. Click "next" in the software.

Maybe there needs to be more notes about this in the software itself because this is by far the most common question from new customers.

Thank you for the response, I'll try that. Hopefully there will not be any further need for internet access when doing this (there is no mobile signal where the vehicle is parked).
The most important bit to have established is that as far as can be determined what is shown on the screen is normal and that there should be no issues when connecting to the vehicle that will make matters worse.

You only need Internet to install or update the software, which you have already done, so you will be fine.

Happy to say that I now have two working blippers. A great relief.
Whilst connected I thought I’d see what faults were present in the system.
After toggling through the menu drop down list they all showed a similar presentation to the one shown in the attached image.
Anyone got an idea how the system might show more information and then to save it.
At present I don’t seem to be able to see any info in the system . I’d expect to see a screen showing me something to demonstrate nothing in alarm or the last alarm (similar to what can be seen in the table for the alarm).

The features of the 5AS alarm system that pscan has are described here:-
https://pscan.uk/features/5as.html

The factory MG Rover tool may support a few more things but it has been a long time since I have compared the two. These alarm modules are pretty basic, it may not support what you are look for at all.

After coding in the two fobs I moved out of 5AS to Engine management..
At that point I could not see a way forward to show values as illustrated in the PSCAN web page example.

And assuming I do get to view the data/information am I right to think that I “click” on one of the icons identified as text to export the data?
An example of what I could see when searching on panel lights etc can be seen in the attached image.

The primary purpose of that button is to log live data.
The idea is that you can start logging something, drive around for a bit, and then view the sensor data with a spreadsheet program and graph it as well if you want.
There are more notes on that feature here https://www.the-t-bar.com/forum/pscan-uk-diagnostic-tool-forum/96526-logging-data-to-a-file

Thank you for the reply. Do I understand correctly that the ignition needs to be on to interrogate any of the ECUs?
I think this will be Yes but would like clarification.

I'm afraid this might be a pscan lesson for dummies but here goes.

After reading the information in the link I'm still a bit unsure. I refer to the instructions
1. Go up a level
2. Create a subdirectory inside where you are
3. Show hidden files
4. Go to home directory
5. Bookmarks

So does this mean create a file beneath pscan.uk that was previously created on the hard drive, or does it mean a new file at the same level within the hard drive (and presumably it can be any name). I don't see hidden files in the pscan folder I created. What is the relevance of hidden files, home directory or Bookmarks (I certainly don't have any of those)?

in the example shown in the link a file has been created called C:\USERS\ADMIN\DOCUMENTS. The information is to be saved (in the example) as mycar1. Is that what is meant "subdirectory and creating a file"?

Why am I only selecting an ECU at this stage as surely I did that initially?

It had originally been my intention to interrogate the various ECUs (without running the engine) to clear any fault codes and anything to do with service interval.
I presume that from the information available that I need to run the engine with pscan connected and then down load data in order to see the result.
That did not seem to be necessary when inspecting the status for the alarms.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
I really do not wish to overwrite or delete data that makes the car work/function.

Any feature in pscan that actually changes the vehicle (apart from erasing error codes) comes with appropriate warnings and it will ask you to press the button again (as in, are you really sure?).
Provided that you don't ignore warnings, and if there is a warning that you don't like the look of just press "cancel" or "back", you won't do any harm; so just click on stuff and don't worry too much about experimenting a little.
For your log file just create a new folder/directory somewhere in your harddrive and save the log files in the new folder/directory.