kellyf Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 what will happen if I don't pay the renewal fee for my vcm.It says it expires with the next new release.Can i continue to use it if I don't.I do not have that kind of money ,as times are tough now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 From my experience you can continue to use it but eventually you will not be able to program modules unless you install an update and update the database. There may be more to it... if someone knows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyf Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Thanks Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 You can continue to use it and program modules from data on your hard drive, just don't upgrade your IDS software. If you do, it will lock you out. PS You're only cheating yourself if you intend to renew the software license later. You will have to pay back to the original expiration date, effectively screwing yourself out of license time. If you wait 8 months, you still pay the full fee and your expiration will be only 4 months away. If you wait 18 months you will pay twice the fee and your expiration will be 6 months away. I have 2 IDS's. BTDTGTTS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 anyone check out the recall 10s14? you need version 71.03 or higher and you can't get it unless your renewed i was at 70.07 yesterday and i couldn't force an update any higher than that. had to go into rotunda to get it btw v71 needs IE 8 too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 The man speaks truth. The last time I renewed I waited two months and when I did I only had 10 months until it expired again. Not sure how I feel about that. If I let my Better Homes And Gardens Magazine subscription run out and resubscribe six months later I am still getting 12 months of new magazines. Following Ford's logic I wouldn't be able to read the issues I already have right? "Well you still used the tool." So what. I BOUGHT the tool and I paid for the current software that is in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Am I the only one that worries about seeing "Micro$oft" logos on so much Ford stuff? For your reading pleasure.... something shamelessly stolen from another venue. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< If Microsoft Built Cars By Super Admin | Published 03/31/2005 | Jokes | Rating: If Microsoft Built Cars Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car. Occasionally your car would just die on the highway for no reason. Accept this, restart and drive on. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause the car to stop and fail to restart. You'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought "Car 95" or "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" light. People would get excited about "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for years. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and auto fluids. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt. The airbag system would say, "Are you sure?" before going off. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened. Microsoft wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The engine would be a side-valve design so you could still use Model T Ford parts on it. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM and play Microsoft cassettes. Microsoft would do well, because even though they don't own any roads, all road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars for free! If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, you could borrow your friend's and copy it. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganize the ignition a few days until it worked. You would need an upgrade to run cars on a highway next to each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshbuys Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Am I the only one that worries about seeing "Micro$oft" logos on so much Ford stuff? For your reading pleasure.... something shamelessly stolen from another venue. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< If Microsoft Built Cars By Super Admin | Published 03/31/2005 | Jokes | Rating: If Microsoft Built Cars Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car. Occasionally your car would just die on the highway for no reason. Accept this, restart and drive on. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause the car to stop and fail to restart. You'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought "Car 95" or "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" light. People would get excited about "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for years. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and auto fluids. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt. The airbag system would say, "Are you sure?" before going off. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened. Microsoft wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The engine would be a side-valve design so you could still use Model T Ford parts on it. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM and play Microsoft cassettes. Microsoft would do well, because even though they don't own any roads, all road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars for free! If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, you could borrow your friend's and copy it. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganize the ignition a few days until it worked. You would need an upgrade to run cars on a highway next to each other. Seen this one before!! ALWAYS HILARIOUS because it is so true!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbl35 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 We got about 5mos. to go before the vcm subscription expires. But for a few months now the vcm loses comunication. Sometimes it happens constantly and sometimes not every day. I notice it occurs more on gassers. I blanked out a pcm while reprogramming a v-10 after throttlebody replacement and had to go to the otherside of town to our bus shop to borrow there ids to get it going. Shortly after that i had to install a ficm and i warned my boss, he said to put it in and see what occurs, it installed successfully and did a another after that. It seems it mostly screws up on the gassers and especially escapes because i can hardly use it on escapes. Only on testdrives on the diesels it would lose comunication but you hit tic and get it back again. I put a new dlc cable on it and a new usb jumper and deleted the jumper to see if it made a difference and no difference. Innitially i thought it was the usb jumper that was causing the problem. I did not swap the inner cable from the vcm that plugs into the usb. So im not sure what it could be. Anyone else having concerns like this. Also updating the database did'nt help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 I think my shop's IDS has all kinds of problems like you mentioned. My wireless is all but useless now and Sometimes My personal IDS does weird shit. I just loaded IDS 71 Friday and it updated the VCM first thing. Not unexpected and the process completed. Later in the day I was doing a PMI on a FICM and the damn thing started to update the VCM right in the middle of it and locked up!!! WTF? I had to shut everything down, reboot and start the process over which happened without incident. Seriously, somthins up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbl35 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 You aint kidden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 With one of the recent (not the most recent, though) updates, I lost our VDR... I had two recordings I wanted to upload but IDS would recognize the VDR but it wouldn't upload... instead it went back to the opening screen. Only thing I could do was sacrifice the recordings and start a new VDR session. This was a bit of a scare since VDR isn't totally supported any more. You cannot buy a new one - you cannot get your old one fixed - you cannot buy pieces and parts - but you can still use the one you have. As far as IDS itself is concerned... I keep extra cables on hand - they are SPENDY. I like to keep at least one VCM to DLC cable, one VCM to laptop cable and a couple of the Toughbook pigtails on hand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbl35 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Yeah im waiting for a vcm to toughbook cable and thats all thats left in the process before the vcm or the laptop. I don't think it's the laptop though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 we seem to have the most problems with the vcm to usb cable getting worn out prematurely. i've seen more than a few go bad and i always try and keep 2 on hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyf Posted April 9, 2011 Author Share Posted April 9, 2011 When I bought my vcm.it clearly stated that the software updates were good for 2 years.I just looked and it still clearly states the same thing.Do I have a case here?This is the same ol'bullshit about saying how they can make corrections on the internet,because it is inexpensive.Yes there are some corrections I am glad the dumbasses don't fix,but damn.This is on the pts website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 When you first get your IDS, the price includes your first two years (or is supposed to) and after that you pay a yearly subscription. Not sure what kind of a case you are going to make out of that... Doesn't your dealer supply the IDS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyf Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 They do ,but I have my own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Maybe work out a deal where they pay the sub? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Maybe work out a deal where they pay the sub? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Clyde Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 I bought my own VCM about 6 months after they came out, knock on wood, I have never had to pay for a subscription yet ! Why, I don't know, but I am not complaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddy_M Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Really wish I would have remembered this topic about an hour ago. My personal VCM just locked up, purchased a new computer and not thinking just downloaded the newest version V75 from online, and went to hook up to my car, it updated VCM, then proceeded to tell me it couldn't proceed because the VCM sub is long expired. Does anyone know if I can unlock the VCM to continue just diagnostic functions by trying to find an old IDS cd and going way back,last version I had in my old computer was V58 IIRC. Or am I gonna be stuck paying for a subscription to unlock it and get it usable again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Probably stuck but I would TRY installing an older IDS version. Your VCM may, or may not automatically update to the older software. I personally have never tried it so this is only a guess. I realize the updates are pricey but having the newest version will bring you more vehicle compatibility and restore your ability to program modules with updates which is a necessity in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddy_M Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Got lucky and had an IDS 55 dvd still around(Yea, just a little outdated compared to V75), installed it and it did install an older version of the VCM software and allowed me to use it once again. I don't see any 6.4 or 6.7 being out of the dealership now, just mostly 6.0 and 7.3 engines. Only scan tools I have are the OTC Genisys, and the IDS software, and I usually grab the OTC first for most vehicles, and depending what is going on may grab the IDS as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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