I bought the cable & software from Fang Fei seller on Amazon last week:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The installation instructions were pretty bad but the seller has been good about communicating back and forth. I installed the v10 software that was on the cd (it actually had several folders with older versions too) and then installed the MVCI driver. I did it while the laptop was not connected to the internet, so no activation key was needed.

I'm running a Windows 7 N Ultimate 32 bit operating system. The software works and when I plug the cable into the OBD port and select Connect to Vehicle, i'm getting an error message that says that it is unable to connect to VIM

Has anyone gotten this error and had it resolved? The seller is now telling me to send it back for a refund, but I'd like to keep trying before I do that.

Thanks.

I had trouble with version 10 as well, but got version 8 to work very well. Also, make sure you are using a USB 2.0 port if possible. The USB 3.0 ports tend to be flaky with the chinese cables.

OK, cool. Will uninstall v10 and try v8.

Please let us know your results. I am interested in buying the same product you did if it works well.

In older threads about Techstream, guys were using Windows XP because newer versions of windows weren't working. Don't know how true that is now though.

I think they fixed the driver issue with it only working on XP. I was able to get it installed on 7.

I bought this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was from a different seller, but it's worked perfectly for me, running version 10 in a Windows XP VM on a Mac host. I've actually installed it twice now, and the second time had to modify an ini file:
How to solve Toyota Techstream ?Software Registration? error ? OBD365.com Official Blog

(Maybe because I was online?)

Not sure how much the sellers differ, though.

I have also modified the .ini file without success. Were you getting a resttration error or one you couldn't connect to VIM?

I'm going to delete the software (hopefully tonight), install an XP mode in my Win7 laptop, and install v8 and see how that goes. It may not be tonight, as I have a long honey-do list today, but I'll get to it soon and post back what happens.

I was just getting a registration error - everything else worked fine. I could be wrong, but I think that VIM error means it's not talking to the cable properly. if you go into device manager, does it show up/is there an unknown device in there? You might want to look for a different set of drivers online.

Another thing to check - you should get the "device connected" noise when you plug in the cable, independent of connecting to the car (the cable has a USB-Serial interface internally). If that doesn't happen, the cable's likely defective.

Made some progress last night, but not a ton. I uninstalled V10 of the Techstream software as well as the MVCI driver. I googled and found the Win7 XP mode, which I downloaded and installed but I could not find it anywhere on the laptop. After much more googling, I found that I also need to install a Windows Virtual PC. I downloaded it, but I have not been able to install it. It gets hung up on 'checking this computer for installed updates'. Sat there for an hour or so. I stopped it, rebooted, and tried again, this time keeping the computer off the internet. It went thru the installation process, but at the end it gave me an error that it was unable to install it. Will try again tonight. If that does not work, i'll just try to install v8 in the Win7 environment and see what happens....

I was unable to install the virtual pc software on my laptop. I tried several times and it never got past the 'checking for installed updates on this computer' stage.

So I installed v8 on the Win7 operating system. This time, I booted up the computer with the OBD cable attached to the car via the USB port, and ignition in the off position. When the computer booted up, it installed drivers for the 'new hardware' it found via the USB cable. However, when I launched techstream (with the ignition in the ON position, but the car still turned off), I got the same error that it was unable to connect with VIM.

I also checked the device manager to see if there were any driver issues, and there were 2, but neither were under USB. And both those issues were still there when I turned the car off and unplugged the cable.

Any ideas? I don't think it's a bad cable. Definitely seems like a software or driver issue.

Try this Techstream software package recently uploaded by Elusive01. He was running it on Win 7. I am going to buy the cable and try it myself. Make sure you do a clean uninstall of the prior version(s).

Elusive 15 TRDP/SW Build Thread

If that doesn't work, I can check how the cable is supposed to show up when I get home tonight.

@cutty01 - thanks, I will try that

@keph13 - that would be great if you could tell me. Do you run the software with the engine running? Or just the key in the On position?

Hi @marlinsfan , any luck with your Techstream installation?