Techstream, method to customize?

On an old W7 32 bit PC a copy of Techstream 13.00.022 is installed. It came with the VCI cable and is of dubious provenance. In any case, it works fine for reading error codes and sensor values, and it will run active tests, like sounding the horn, but for the life of me I cannot see how to get it to customize a value. For instance, I want to enable the car alarm, and turn off the autolock. On the screen which shows the current values there is a box down at the bottom which contains a list of options, one of which is "customize". However after changing that value to "customize", left click, right click, or control left click, on either the "autolock" tag or the "30s" value, does nothing. Elsewhere in the program there is an option to "customize" but it asks for a password, and says that it locks out after 10 failed tries. It wasn't clear if it was talking about the vehicle or a remote Techstream account. Perhaps that (unknown) password is needed before anything can be customized? I saw a post somewhere which showed a "customize" tab on the first level of options - that is not present here.

How to proceed?

 

Well, this has been going poorly (on Windows 7, 32 bit, with Xhorse J2534 with firmware 1.4.1).

So far I have tested 13.00.022 (from mega.nz via a link which no longer works), 15.00.26 (from Vxdiag's download site, and 16.00.017 (from a working mega.nz link).

What they all have in common:

1. no working customize
2. the setup screen which has the "dealer email", "usertype", and other fields is rendered incorrectly, so that it truncates at about 2/3 from the left edge, so that "OK" and "Cancel" are not visible. It is still possible to navigate it in though, blindly, by using tab to move between fields and then "enter" to press OK (first field after "Dealer Website").

The miniVCI driver that came with 13.00.022 is from XHorse Electronics. The Firmware update tool shows 1.4.1 but the "online update" method fails because it can no longer find a server. For all I know there may never have been a more recent driver for this device. Device info:

Device SN MVC1006000001
Model MVCI-HC
Firmware 1.4.1
Dealer 001
Status Connected


The installation instructions for 15.00.26 are from here:
How to Install VXDIAG VCX NANO Toyota Techstream 15.00.026?

The supplied "Toyota Launcher.exe" always failed with "please connect device". Probably it won't work with anything but their OBD2 device. However, if it was started with "TS_launcher.exe", which came with the 13.00.022 download, it will start and works more or less like that older release.

The installation instructions for 16.00.17 are from here:
How to Install and Activate Toyota Techstream 16.00.017 Driver & Software? | OBDII365.com Official Blog

It loaded a driver for the mini-VCI which had somewhat newer date stamps than the driver that came with the 13.00.022 download, and it worked, mostly. However inside it is still the "Advanced Installer .7.2.1 from XHorse Electronics 2/1/2006, just repackaged. It's Firmware Update tool seems to be identical to the one from 13.00.022.

When 16.00.017 runs when started with "Techstream Patch 32bit" shortcut it shows fewer ECUs than did 13.00.022. I didn't check this for 15.00.026 since it never started with its supplied "Toyota Launcher.exe".

There may be a problem with the MIni VCI. There are claims that only newer firmware supports the VPW protocol:

Xhorse Mini VCI cable Firmware V2.0.4 supports VPW protocol – UOBDII Official Blog

However, if 16.00.017 is started directly the VIM info shows:

Vendor Name : XHorse ELECTRONICS Co.,Ltd.
Device Name : XHorse - MVCI
ProtocolsSupported
CAN : 1
CAN_PS :
ISO15765 : 1
ISO15765_PS :
J1850PWM : 1
J1850VPW : 1
ISO9141 : 1
ISO14230 : 1
SCI_A_ENGINE : 0
SCI_A_TRANS : 0
SCI_B_ENGINE : 0
SCI_B_TRANS : 0
ETHERNET :
IP4 :
UDP :
TCP :
Function Library : C:\Program Files\XHorse Electronics\MVCI Driver for TOYOTA TIS\MVCI32.dll
ConfigApplication : C:\Program Files\XHorse Electronics\MVCI Driver for TOYOTA TIS\FirmwareUpdateTool.exe
Function Library (0500) :
ConfigApplication (0500) :

Which appears to claim that it supports VPW. Perhaps it does not actually do so though, which would explain why none of these show a "configuration" button.

See also: Toyota Techstream Cable Which Firmware is better? - VXdiagshop.com

Oh, also "Avast" kept flagging "malware" for various files, like the "Toyota Launcher.exe", the setup when trying to remove the 15.*.* installed MCI driver, and for Techstream 16.00.017 the "CUW.exe" file.

 

Let's try turning this around, since it may be that only a tiny fraction of Techstream variants which are downloadable actually enable customize.

If anybody has an Amazon/ebay "mini VCI / J2534" XHorse counterfeit (apparently) cable that has working "customize" buttons in a Techstream version from somewhere off the web, please post the Techstream version number, and if possible, a link to a page which describes how to install that version.

OR

If you have some other cable/adapter, preferably wired, but possibly blue tooth or wireless (if it can work without a router), that has customization working with a known downloadable techstream, please post details.

Note, carista sometimes supports customizations, but it does not on this vehicle:

Toyota Prius 2nd gen 2007 | Carista OBD2 supported vehicles | See what’s available for your car - Carista

 

I just tried v12.10.019 downloaded from here:

Toyota TechstreamV12.10.019 Free Download: 100% Works | OBDII365.com Official Blog

Using the installation method linked here:

How to Install Toyota Techstream 12.00.127 on Windows 7 | OBDII365.com Official Blog

In the second set of links it shows the exact same device parameters I posted above, and it also shows the "customize settings" and "utilities" buttons. In my case those buttons did not appear with 12.10.019 running. The supplied license key was accepted, and it showed the expected 5000 day expiration period.

I'm wondering if maybe there isn't something stuck in the registry or application data or who knows where else? Either that or maybe Avast is somehow breaking the installation or run. Will try uninstalling (again), cleaning everything I can think of, then reinstalling without Avast running. Bet it doesn't work. My bet is that some of these fake XHorse devices just don't have the ability to do this properly, and that techstream deetects that, disables the buttons, but provides no information that this happened.

 

That is the DLC3 cable test which is is under "Help". The result on mine was just like what you posted above. I am not a fan of that test! It never completed any test (that is, changed from the "confirming" to "OK" state) by itself. At each step I had to count to 30 then press "next" and then the state changed. Also, there were messages about putting ECUs into and out of reprogramming modes, which was not something I wanted it to do. Those were associated with the failed tests. Hopefully shutting the car off cleared any of that which might have gotten through.

Techstream 12.10.019 was uninstalled, all the Denso stuff it had installed was removed too, and the driver. Then the registry was scrubbed with ccleaner and the disk was checked for files with "techstream", "toyota", and "denso". There were none of the latter files and the former two were only found in the software installers still in C:\temp (and links to it).

Reinstalled everything, and it was just as before.

I discovered by accident that when MainMenu.exe was run by itself the graphics were not truncated, and indeed, values stored that way did end up being seen when the program ran. But when it was run (implicitly) inside the program it was still truncated, Strange. ;Does anybody else see those truncated screens? Could be something strange like a Java incompatibility.

Techstream did not show the utility or configure buttons when the car was started normally OR if it was started with two presses of the "start" button with the foot off the brake.

Anyway, this is most frustrating.

 

Still no joy with v12.10.019. Uninstalled, cleaned registry, turned off avast, reinstalled. As before, no customize or utility. Set it to run in XP sp3 or Windows 7 compatibility modes - no difference. Set it to run as administrator - no difference. I think my next step will be to completely uninstall avast, on the off chance that it is breaking something, somehow, since it may be hooking some of the same DLL entry points as the modified mainmenu.exe.

There is a note in the first post in this thread:

Techstream Install Problem - MHH AUTO - Page 1

which says:

(seems to be the last version that includes the customize and utilities via MVCI for all models covered)

I noticed that the number of ECUs shown is 15 if "w smartkey" is selected, and 15 if "w/o smartkey" is instead. The extra ECU is named "entry and start". Presumably my car does not actually have that ECU, since it does not have smartkey, yet it is shown if the car is misidentified. With more recent versions of Techstream fewer ECUs were shown. The car identification screen is in the European format, but that region has to be selected for this version of techstream to work.

 

Hmm. Under msconfig on the startup tab it shows that GTSAPI_TGD.exe in C:\Program files\Toyota Diagnostics\Techstream\bin is started when the machine does. Disabled it. Restarted. It did not start. No change in the way Techstream runs though. When Techstream ran it did not start GTSAPI_TGD.exe either.

Disabled the file scan on Avast (permanently), rebooted. Still no change.

When the J2534 adapter is plugged in it shows up as COM4 with a driver by FTDI 2.8.28.0 dated 1/18/2013. Is that what everybody else with a 1.4.1 cable sees too?

 

I keep running into statements that customization requires a 2.0.4 cable and won't work with 1.4.1, for instance:

Customize Car Setting with Xhorse MINI VCI Toyota TIS Techstream | XhorseVVDI.com

However, none of these cite the source for this information and for all I know it may just be a rumor that has been bouncing around the web for a decade. Buying a 2.0.4 cable is not so easy anyway, since it would be "reliable counterfeit", if there can be such a thing.

Is "Vxdiag" a real company, or is that just another type of counterfeit?

 

I tried the Techstream downloaded from their site figuring it would recognize the XHorse. However the launcher they supplied seems to check for one of their devices and will go no further, techstream itself never really started. Using a launcher from a different source ran their version of Techstream but still no customize or utility buttons. Described in post 4 above.

The nano is a bit under $100 at present. As I recall you have some other adapter which was <$200 but I cannot find the link now. How does whatever you have compare with the XHorse 1.4.1 knock off? (Hopefully "configure" buttons appear when it is used with techstream!) I'm willing to spring for a better adapter if it is a known quantity, but the $500 mongoose is way too expensive for my limited needs.

Also, I went looking for Techstream's older than v12 but only found a bunch of dead links to mega.nz, no working downloads.