Question re VCDS and laptops

[piper109]

I have a genuine VCDS cable KEY-USB which I have used for several years though infrequently on my Wife's NB and an earlier 2003 ALH Golf. I now have a 2012 JSW and it does not work.
I understand that I can trade this cable in along with a good size payment for a later model which will work on the JSW and I am believe it will also work on my wife's 2000 NB.
I basically use a Macbook computer all the time now and my earlier Windows laptop is getting pretty old and slow.

What VCDS cable model do I need for the 2012 JSW ?

Is there any sense in somehow modding the Macbook to use a Windows software or would I be better off upgrading my older PC laptop just so I can use a VCDS cable ??
Are there any other alternatives ?? Thanks

 

[South Coast Guy]

I expect the best source for an answer would be the vendor who sells the cables. Don't rely on answers here since a dealer in the cables is the person whose opinion matters most.

 

[JSWTDI09]

Your newer VW requires CAN bus communications while the older ones need K-Line comms. A HEX+CAN interface is necessary if you want to be able to work on both cars.

As for computers:
VCDS does not require a powerful (fast) computer, but it does require Windows (in one form or another). Many people have figured out how to run it on a MAC. You can use bootcamp to dual boot Windows, or you can use one of several Virtual Machine programs to run Windows in a VM. A search for "VCDS and MAC" will find several threads about doing this.

You are correct that Ross-Tech offers a "trade-up" program to exchange your cable for a newer one. However, you might be able to save a little money by just buying a new cable and selling your old one. You might be able to get more from selling it that Ross-Tech will give you for it.

Have Fun!

Don

 

[Soul777Toast]

So, I'm not an VCDS expert by any means, my experience with it has been limited to tweaking around a bit with my old 2006 Mk5 jetta TDI and my current 2010 JSW TDI, but I do have a fair amount of experience with computers in general (Computer Engineering degree, did tech support for quite a while, etc.), so you can take my advice with as many grains of salt as you feel necessary ;P

I'd say that your choices depend entirely on what cars you're hoping to use VCDS on, and how you intend to use it. If you're only planning on diagnosing fault codes, tweaking control module behaviors, and other light use, and this will all be only on your 2012 JSW, then you would probably be fine with the Micro-Can interface with your older laptop. If you aren't using the windows laptop for anything else, you could even do a full wipe and reinstall of windows to clean it out so it will run a bit smoother. VCDS is not a very performance intensive program, and it can run just fine on older hardware as long as there isn't a bunch of other junk on the PC slowing it down.

On the other hand, if you want to be able to do in-depth monitoring of real time performance on several vehicles both pre and post Mk5, then you'll need to shell out for the Hex-Can interface and you'll probably want to either run Windows on your MacBook using bootcamp, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion, or pick up a new notebook and dedicate it to VCDS. It wouldn't need to be anything fancy as you won't need heavy graphics processing capabilities or large amounts of storage, I'd probably recommend something like one of Lenovo's entry level Yoga notebook/tablets, you can get one with an i3 processor for around $400 and the form factor lends itself very well to this kind of use.

One other option that falls kind of in-between would be to go with the Hex-Net (wireless) interface and use VCDS mobile, which will work on any device with a wifi connection such as a smartphone, tablet, or any notebook (including your macbook!). This also allows for some interesting possibilities when it comes to real-time monitoring, as you could connect your phone and stick it in a car-mount and be able to see things as you're driving. It's a bit more expensive for the interface going this route, but you wouldn't need to buy a new notebook!

Anyway, that's just my own take on things, I'd reccomend reading through the FAQ's on Ross-Tech's website as there's tons of useful information there. Feel free to PM me if you've got any questions you think I could help with! Good luck!

 

[Abacus]

The "good sized payment" for the newer HEX-CAN is only $159 additional if you bought the cable from Ross-Tech or one of their authorized vendors and trade it in. That means they're crediting you $190 for the $249 cable, or 76% of its value (or if you have had it a long time like I did and only paid $200 for it originally, then it's an even better deal). If you can sell it for more than $190, then you'll be ahead of the game, but those rarely go for more than $200 anyway. I did this years ago and have not regretted it. I am still using my 8 year old Dell Vostro running XP and it works great. Yes, it will work on all VW's to present and down to 1996 (1990 if you have the 2x2 patch).

 

[DRbillZ]

I traded mine to them. Easy as can be. Plus they've done all this work for us, so it's only right to give them our business

 

[Corsair]

#6 x2.
I just upgraded mine recently, as well.
But / and.... My Ross-Tech cable has come in handy a number of times over the years, with my own cars and with cars of friends / relatives. There's lots you can do with it as a tool. We often lose track of the $$ being saved in our own driveway / garage, by doing some things ourselves. It's worth owning.

 

[canux]

First of all, there are timing problems with the USB port/drivers when using VCDS on a Mac with Windows in a VM. I've confirmed this with VMware, but you can do a search and find people reporting problems. If you want to use your Mac, you should use boot camp and boot natively into Windows.

Or you could just save the Windows licensing cost and buy a used HP Slate 500 from eBay for about $120. That is what I did, and it fits perfectly into the slot in your glove box where your manually normally goes. If you were really keen you could put helpful PDFs about your car on it as well and know you always had them available.

 

[Soul777Toast]

First of all, there are timing problems with the USB port/drivers when using VCDS on a Mac with Windows in a VM. I've confirmed this with VMware, but you can do a search and find people reporting problems. If you want to use your Mac, you should use boot camp and boot natively into Windows.

Or you could just save the Windows licensing cost and buy a used HP Slate 500 from eBay for about $120. That is what I did, and it fits perfectly into the slot in your glove box where your manually normally goes. If you were really keen you could put helpful PDFs about your car on it as well and know you always had them available.

I'm not at all surprised to hear that there's some lag running VCDS in a VM on a mac. Probably wouldn't be a big deal if you were using one of the higher end MB Pro's, but on a standard MacBook or any of the older Macs they can definitely bog down.

Personally (and I stress that this is just my OPINION), I wouldn't go with an HP. I worked for quite a while in PC repair and tech support, and HP never gave us anything but trouble unless you got one of their high-end professional models. When it comes to PC's, there's really only 2 brands I'll ever recommend, Lenovo (=IBM) and Asus. Sometimes Acer can be OK as well, but they tend to be a bit more hit-or-miss, while I've consistently seen Lenovo and Asus outperform all the other brands in quality, durability, and reliability for the $$. Just my .02 ;P If you look around you can also find previous gen Panasonic ToughBooks fairly cheaply as well, and those things are just tanks! I haven't gotten around to picking up my own VCDS cable, but I've got a windows 7 ToughBook ready and waiting that I got for about $80 when a family member's company upgraded and sold off all their old models.

Anyway, sorry to geek out on you all, I just can't resist lol! Carry on!

 

[Abacus]

Personally (and I stress that this is just my OPINION), I wouldn't go with an HP. I worked for quite a while in PC repair and tech support, and HP never gave us anything but trouble unless you got one of their high-end professional models.

I bought one of their Vostro business lines, without all the bloatware and crap, and before they 'upgraded' to the Windows 7 OS since I knew how solid the XP platform was. It has been rock solid and flawless for 8 years now.

My wife bought a Dell based on mine and bought an upgraded unit with faster processors, more memory and larger HD, and it was a POS from day 1. She had it back to Dell twice for repair and on the third time she just threw it in the closet (where it still sits) and got a Macbook Air, which has also been rock solid.

I have no idea what I will do when my Dell decides to crap out, but it won't be to buy another Dell based on her frustration and support, and this post just reinforces it. Thanks for which ones to recommend.

 

[Soul777Toast]

Yah, Dell is a sad sad story. Back in the days of XP Dell made some of the best machines out there, and their tech support was a beacon of good service and intelligent helpful people, noone else even came close! I guess they thought they could ride that reputation forever though, because around the time Vista came out (which was a TOTAL POS in and of itself) they started making complete crap and outsourced all their tech support to India. Now Dell makes plastic junk that falls apart if you even look at it wrong, and if you call them for help the only thing you're going to get is "Thank you drive through!" (I mean that in the nicest possible way, I am in NO WAY maligning any group of people apart from Dell support techs, I've just spent way too much time on the phone with them trying to help customers!)

One other thing I'll mention while we're all on the subject of PC's is that if you're going to use an XP machine for this, you should plan on dedicating it solely to this use. While XP was definitely an amazing OS, it has now been cut off from any support or updates and as such no PC running XP should ever (NOT EVER) be connected to the internet. As long as you keep it safely isolated from any outside communication it should be fine, but if you ever want to do anything else with it then you really need to update to Windows 7, which honestly IMHO was as good or better than XP. I won't even get started on my feelings about Windows 8 apart from saying that I actually really like it, but I've learned that it sparks some crazy strong feelings on both sides of the fence and I've probably already threadjacked enough here!

 

[Abacus]

Thanks for the heads up on Win7/8. I think my laptop, which I rarely use and have protected by two virus/malware check systems, won't support it or would be so boggy as to be useless. Thus when the time comes I'll just get something different.

 

[ksing44]

I purchased an inexpensive Netbook-like laptop to use for VCDS. It came loaded with Windows and it works fine with VCDS and it cost less than getting the software and operating system to run Windows on my Mac.

 

[npb]

Get a copy of VMware Fusion and a copy of Windows and you're set. Works perfectly; no special tricks required, no lag.

 

[canux]

Get a copy of VMware Fusion and a copy of Windows and you're set. Works perfectly; no special tricks required, no lag.

Not in my experience. 2014 Macbook Pro 15" with VMware Fusion 6 and Windows 7. I needed to do this in a pinch and had to apply special "quirks" to VMware to get the drivers to work at all. Even then, I was only able to scan one module at a time before it crapped out.

VMware KB Article

Also after you've paid for the Windows License and the VMware license, you might as well have purchased a Netbook and have a dedicated machine for the job.

 

[skinnyb]

I have used my 13 inch Macbook quite a bit and have had no issues. I am running Mavericks on a 2009 model with 8GB of RAM and am running Windows 7 Pro 32 bit allocating 4 GB of RAM. I am however using Parallels and not VM Ware. It works really well and have had no issues at all...