[dpaul]

Originally Posted by torrque

you cannot change the VIN on the DME, don't fool yourself. Once you swap the DME, your MHD software is no longer working, as it's burned on the VIN. I did the same thing, and I had to speak to MHD and send them screenshots of my new vin, so they did a refund on the old vin, and I bought again MHD for the new vin.

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Not quite true. It is easy to change the VIN on the DME using WinKFP or NCSExpert. When the DME is updated by WinKFP for example, a new entry is written to the UIF which contains the VIN. You can choose to enter a different VIN if you wish (or also choose not to update the UIF at all). However, the new entry does not replace or erase the old one - it is just added to the next available free memory location, You can keep doing this until you run out of memory space in the UIF (64 entries I think).

Standard OBDII calls to related to the VIN will return the VIN written to the most recent UIF entry. However, MHD does not use a standard call and reads the first entry to the UIF in the DME, which always has the vehicle's original VIN. It is not possible to alter the first entry without fairly expensive software.

MHD recognized this was becoming a problem for users who had bricked DMEs and had installed used replacements. Thus, they altered their program to read either DME or CAS Vin entries and, presumably, you only need one of them to match their record.

[Cyrix2k]

Originally Posted by dpaul

Not quite true. It is easy to change the VIN on the DME using WinKFP or NCSExpert. When the DME is updated by WinKFP for example, a new entry is written to the UIF which contains the VIN. You can choose to enter a different VIN if you wish (or also choose not to update the UIF at all). However, the new entry does not replace or erase the old one - it is just added to the next available free memory location, You can keep doing this until you run out of memory space in the UIF (64 entries I think).

Standard OBDII calls to related to the VIN will return the VIN written to the most recent UIF entry. However, MHD does not use a standard call and reads the first entry to the UIF in the DME, which always has the vehicle's original VIN. It is not possible to alter the first entry without fairly expensive software.

MHD recognized this was becoming a problem for users who had bricked DMEs and had installed used replacements. Thus, they altered their program to read either DME or CAS Vin entries and, presumably, you only need one of them to match their record.

I just finished swapping my DME and can confirm this is correct. The car will start without the UIF being updated (and BMW tools report the chassis VIN in most cases). I verified OBD2 reads the VIN from the DME in the most recent UIF position as well. After programming with WinKFP, my VIN is reported correctly via ODB2 but MHD still reflects the VIN for the DME donor vehicle. I didn't need to contact MHD for it to flash my swapped DME - it just worked, both with and without updating the UIF VIN.

:edit: To be be clear - if you live in a pollution controlled state, be very careful who does your DME swap or the VIN will be incorrect.

:edit2: Update - MHD writes a new UIF using the donor VIN. After flashing with MHD, my VIN is now incorrectly reported over OBD2 I hope MHD is updated in the future to write the "correct" VIN into the UIF as this is a pain for us in emissions controlled areas.

[Cyrix2k]

Final update! MSD8x DMEs have two AIFs. One is written at the factory and cannot be changed to my knowledge. The second can be written to by WinKFP, Tool32 if it's blank, or MHD. After gaining security access to the DME, I tried to write a new AIF with Tool32 and it gave an error - something like "cannot be downloaded to address," which is because MHD already wrote the second AIF and no more slots are available. At this point, the best solution would be an MHD update. Failing that, it may be possible to erase and write a new AIF. I haven't tried that yet.

On to what I actually did do. I "faked" MHD out by man-in-the-middling the CAN bus and replacing the donor VIN with mine as MHD read the VIN in the initial AIF. Then I flashed the DME on the bench which completed successfully. MHD wrote that second AIF with my correct VIN and now it is reported correctly through OBDII. I haven't tried flashing another map but I suspect it may overwrite the AIF so this isn't a great solution. Another interesting note is that I had an EWS manipulation code before that has now disappeared - I have zero active codes. I'm calling this a success!

[syn909]

Originally Posted by Cyrix2k

Final update! MSD8x DMEs have two AIFs. One is written at the factory and cannot be changed to my knowledge. The second can be written to by WinKFP, Tool32 if it's blank, or MHD. After gaining security access to the DME, I tried to write a new AIF with Tool32 and it gave an error - something like "cannot be downloaded to address," which is because MHD already wrote the second AIF and no more slots are available. At this point, the best solution would be an MHD update. Failing that, it may be possible to erase and write a new AIF. I haven't tried that yet.

On to what I actually did do. I "faked" MHD out by man-in-the-middling the CAN bus and replacing the donor VIN with mine as MHD read the VIN in the initial AIF. Then I flashed the DME on the bench which completed successfully. MHD wrote that second AIF with my correct VIN and now it is reported correctly through OBDII. I haven't tried flashing another map but I suspect it may overwrite the AIF so this isn't a great solution. Another interesting note is that I had an EWS manipulation code before that has now disappeared - I have zero active codes. I'm calling this a success!

Cyrix2k I am having the exact same issue, can you DM me your email I want to CC you on an email to MHD support to get this bug sorted.

[el_fuchila]

Originally Posted by syn909

Cyrix2k I am having the exact same issue, can you DM me your email I want to CC you on an email to MHD support to get this bug sorted.

You don't need to do anything special. Just contact MHD, explain them you had your DME replaced and they will take care of it for licensing purposes.

[Cyrix2k]

Originally Posted by el_fuchila

You don't need to do anything special. Just contact MHD, explain them you had your DME replaced and they will take care of it for licensing purposes.

I haven't tried this, but I'm not sure that's correct. MHD will recognize the license as valid since the licensed VIN is still present in the CAS; it just writes back the "wrong" VIN (donor) which will cause the vehicle to fail OBD-II emissions in some states.