Foxwell NT301 OBDII code reader

Worked fine a year ago.

In my trunk for a year, but car is white so it doesn't get that hot,
doesn't get that cold because it's Maryland.

Now, no matter what button I push I get the One-Click I/M ReadinessKey
report.

I'd like to get DTCs, trouble codes!

Apparently a CD came with it, but I can't find that, so maybe I can DL
the software from Foxwell. Can't find it, can only find update
software.

OKay, that's good enough.

I download the NTWonder update file, but it's named
NT+Wonder+Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.pdf

It's labeled a PDF file, but it it won't display as a pdf file, or at
all, in either of two pdf readers.

So I rename it to be an .exe file. Then it won't run "on this
computer", windows 10.

Before I write to them, I wanted to see if you guys know what I am, or
they are, doing wrong. ???


Foxwell seems to be a respected company, and this device has a 4.5
rating out of 5 on over 12,000 ratings.

OTOH, one guy who gave it 1 star says "Tech support on the
manufacturer's website is a joke at best with broken links or updates."
That's what I've got, a broken update, and I also came across this page
https://www.foxwelltech.us/page-view.html that says

DEAR CUSTOMER
Thank you very much for visiting our website. Please note that we have
two websites, but you have no access to both websites with your
account** due to technical reasons.
You have to register** on one of the two websites according to the
actual situation. Should you have any issues, please feel free to
contact us

**But there is no way to register or log in!! Sound like some madman
fiddles with their website in the middle of the night.

On Thu, 01 Apr 2021 17:35:18 -0400, micky
wrote:

It's labeled a PDF file, but it it won't display as a pdf file, or at
all, in either of two pdf readers.

So I rename it to be an .exe file. Then it won't run "on this
computer", windows 10.

Put it back to PDF and try to open it in Word. Sometimes that can open
a file Adobe thinks is corrupt (not exactly a PDF)
You can open it in Notepad and see if the first 4 bytes are
"%PDF"

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 21:38:50 -0400,
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Apr 2021 17:35:18 -0400, micky
wrote:

It's labeled a PDF file, but it it won't display as a pdf file, or at
all, in either of two pdf readers.

So I rename it to be an .exe file. Then it won't run "on this
computer", windows 10.

Put it back to PDF and try to open it in Word. Sometimes that can open

I tried LibreOffice and it says the file is corrupt. (I don't have
Word.)

a file Adobe thinks is corrupt (not exactly a PDF)

I don't have Adobe either. I've been using Firefox and Chrome browsers
and they just ignored it when I tried to open the file. At last
Libreoffice gave me an error message.

You can open it in Notepad and see if the first 4 bytes are
"%PDF"

Aha. I didn't know that. But I actually did that first, after I read it
here.

And the first line is
PK
  ¢lgK
þrhMè

And the second line is:
ÿ , NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.exeìý

Almost the same as the file name,
NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.pdf .

So it supposed to be an .exe file, which is not surprising since it's
called an installer, complete with a version number, and what I guess is
a date, 20171107, and yet even when I renamed it to end in .exe, it
won't run. (And I had dl'd 2 copies of it and they show the same values
inside.)

I guess I have to write them.

By now you've read the intereting part, so if you want, skip to the
PUNCHLINE at the bottom.


Or maybe PK means it's a PK zip file? Do people still use PKZip?
Regardless, I'll try to unzip it.

Well that seemed to work, unless one can unzip any file and get the same
file! It's not quite the same file. The dl'd file is 15,262,507 and
the only result of unzipping is one file, 16,714,240. Since it's
longer, it must really have been a zip file iiuc.

I have to look for instructions on updating the software, but if I do
that and it's still broken, they'll say it's my fault. The thing is
about 2 years old and I've used it on only one car, and only about 5
times. If they believed that, they might give me a new one, or tell me
to update the software. But if they don't believe me and this doesn't
work, I'll have nothing. Maybe I should write them. And someone should
tell them they're labeling zip files as pdf files. I wonder how long
that's been the case. Is that an attempt to get past virus checkers?

You know, even though it might be obvious, there should have been
installation instructions when I unzipped it. Foxwell could be doing a
better job. This wasn't junk, it was $65. It shouldn't be giving me
so much trouble.

And yes, PKZip is still in use. They call themselves "The Gold Standard
in Data Compression".
https://www.pkware.com/products/pkzip It's free for 30 days and I
can't find out how much it costs after that. I hate that.


BTW, somewhere I have another code reader (and eraser fwiw) but this is
much more expensive, gives more info, and live data, when it's working,
and I wanted to use this. ;-(


PUNCHLINE
Well, this is pretty embarrassing. It's been working all along. It
has a big blue button in the middle called I/M and I've been regarding
it as the Enter button, but the enter button is actually in the lower
right in the same dull orange color as every other button.. I had the
same problem when I first bought the thing, but it's been 2 years and I
forgot how it really works. It's 11PM and it's 33^F, too cold now to
go outside considering it will be a lot warmer in 16 hours.

They still have their file mismarked, with no text to help. Not only
that, the date on the file they offer is 11/07/2017
but the date in my reader is 7/17/2018.

Even though my version is v2.24 and
their file seems to be v5.20.

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 23:29:47 -0400, micky
wrote:



In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 21:38:50 -0400,
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Apr 2021 17:35:18 -0400, micky
wrote:

It's labeled a PDF file, but it it won't display as a pdf file, or at
all, in either of two pdf readers.

So I rename it to be an .exe file. Then it won't run "on this
computer", windows 10.

Put it back to PDF and try to open it in Word. Sometimes that can open

I tried LibreOffice and it says the file is corrupt. (I don't have
Word.)

a file Adobe thinks is corrupt (not exactly a PDF)

I don't have Adobe either. I've been using Firefox and Chrome browsers
and they just ignored it when I tried to open the file. At last
Libreoffice gave me an error message.

You can open it in Notepad and see if the first 4 bytes are
"%PDF"

Aha. I didn't know that. But I actually did that first, after I read it
here.

And the first line is
PK
  ¢lgK
þrhMè

And the second line is:
ÿ , NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.exeìý

Almost the same as the file name,
NT Wonder Installer_NT301_V5.20_20171107.pdf .

So it supposed to be an .exe file, which is not surprising since it's
called an installer, complete with a version number, and what I guess is
a date, 20171107, and yet even when I renamed it to end in .exe, it
won't run. (And I had dl'd 2 copies of it and they show the same values
inside.)

I guess I have to write them.

By now you've read the intereting part, so if you want, skip to the
PUNCHLINE at the bottom.


Or maybe PK means it's a PK zip file? Do people still use PKZip?
Regardless, I'll try to unzip it.

Well that seemed to work, unless one can unzip any file and get the same
file! It's not quite the same file. The dl'd file is 15,262,507 and
the only result of unzipping is one file, 16,714,240. Since it's
longer, it must really have been a zip file iiuc.

Well, I finally found installation instructions at
http://www.foxwell.com.au/nt301-pc-a...-installation/

And part of what it says is:
Click on the download link to download, a zip file of the PC application

What is the download is complete locate the file and right click to extract
the file to your computer using win zip or your chosen file extractor.

So they did plan to call it a zip file.

So I ran the file but Malwarebytes called it malware and it
dissappeared. To run it again I'd have to unzip it again.

Malwarebytes is definitely too finicky, but since the date is older than
what I have, I'm going to stop now. (It complains about lots of
websites too, that AVG never complained about.)

One would think they could have written this so antimalware program
didn't complain about it.


PUNCHLINE
....
They still have their file mismarked, with no text to help. Not only
that, the date on the file they offer is 11/07/2017
but the date in my reader is 7/17/2018.

Even though my version is v2.24 and
their file seems to be v5.20.

A newer version would just have data for newer cars, anyhow, cars made
since 2018, and my car is a 2005.

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 01 Apr 2021 23:37:25 -0400, micky
wrote:


Well, I finally found installation instructions at
http://www.foxwell.com.au/nt301-pc-a...-installation/


Well on a nearby page, at this Australian website (instead of the USA
site for Foxwell) I foudn another downloadable file, this time ending in
..zip. It was also twice as long, didn't get stopped by Malbyteware, and
displayed pictures of various Foxwell code readers during installation.

It's meant to install to the PC, not to update the reader. Though one
of its functions is to update the code reader.

This gets a tiny bit at the end of the manual.

On Thu, 01 Apr 2021 23:37:25 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...


So I ran the file but Malwarebytes called it malware and it
dissappeared. To run it again I'd have to unzip it again.

Malwarebytes is definitely too finicky, but since the date is older than
what I have, I'm going to stop now. (It complains about lots of
websites too, that AVG never complained about.)

One would think they could have written this so antimalware program
didn't complain about it.


Ignore it in Malwarebytes. Try running it as an administrator.

--
Tekkie