Problems connecting to ECU

[stefcio007]

Are you sure? I'm a pretty tech savvy guy, hell, I program chips from scratch. I'm not experienced with cars though.
I can communicate with the cable fine and all. I've tried with the car in just the power on setting (ignition power?) and also with the car running. I'm using it under Win XP (this is actually my development machine and a lot of IDEs have the most compatibility with XP so that's why it's XP in case you're wondering) with something that appears to be RossTech software. Yes, I have installed the driver for the cable and the software detects the cable.

The ONLY thing that might be causing something is when I installed the stereo I had one cable left over. I have no idea what it's for and it wasn't needed in the new stereo but it was connected to the old stereo. Could this be the source of all my problems?

[anthony--t]

I don't think the cable in the stereo would have anything to do with it. I just had an obd2 ebay cable and a free version of vcds (just means I can read and clear codes but not go into advanced modules) took me quite a while to get the driver sorted with identifying the cable but when I did it's always worked fine. (I only ever used mine with accessories on). Have used it on another mk3 before also to clear an airbag code after going from an aftermarket wheel back to factory and worked fine also. My laptop was running windows 7

I'm not great with all the technical stuff so I can only really tell you above which is how mine worked and as much as I know about it.

[stefcio007]

Maybe something is fried then? is there a fuse for that port? When I try and issue commands with the software I can here a relay in the car do some furious clicking but nothing happens.

[Bandit7]

I've got the Ross Tech Hex + Can cable and VCDS software. With my Audi I can get it to do everything. My Mk3 on the other hand does nothing at all. I just get the "not connected to car" message. Really only bought it for the Audi but it would be good to get it working with the Golf too.

Might have a play with it this arvo and see what I can figure out.

[stefcio007]

Tried some more today.
Turns out it was the software I was using. Used a different version of VCDS.
It works!
I am SUPER happy I got this working.

Using VCDS Release 409.1-US