Electrics: The definitive VIDA & DiCE settings thread.

[A lex]

So, the Chinese knock off DiCE devices are becoming more popular. Im not going to discuss the merits of legality or otherwise, but seeing as requests for 'successful' settings are becoming a daily occurrence on the forums (mine included 3 weeks ago!) I thought it would be handy for those suffering in the future to have a resource to look at.

VIDA generally doesnt play very nicely as it was originally designed to run on a very specific set of machines given to Volvo dealers, unencumbered with the crap that infests most peoples home machines.... it is also very particular about your software setup. Here follows the specs and software setup of my machine (on which VIDA is running perfectly). Hopefully this will help someone at some point....

DiCE bought from here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=300953146597

£86 incl. delivery to the UK. Dont expect too much comms from the seller, but once a shipping label was created DHL had it from Hong Kong to my door in less than 30hrs, which is seriously impressive. I didnt receive any demands for customs payments - bonus Total time from order to delivery = 6 days.

DiCE Version is 4x different coloured LEDs (206751), this is important as there are also sellers shipping versions with 4x blue LEDs - apparently these are inferior, I couldnt tell you why.....

VIDA version: 2013A (even though advert is for 2012D)

Machine: 4Gb RAM - VIDA asks for 2.7Gb minimum, but this can be easily changed in the config file. In my opinion 2Gb is the min you need for it to run easily. I have had it working with a 1Gb machine, but you will grow to hate the eggtimer symbol!

HDD: 175Gb (30Gb min).

XP PRO SP2 (VIDA asks for SP3, however I had problems with SP3 and rolled it back).

After much fannying about I took an old machine I had lying around and an old copy of XP PRO and did a fresh install, I know this option isnt open to everyone but starting from a clean slate really helps, or unless you are lucky can even be considered essential.

There are certain software programs that VIDA needs to run, but some of these will need to be updated with a combnation of hotfixes and service packs to make VIDA happy.

So heres what I have on mine:


-Microsoft .NET 2.0SP2, 3.0SP2 & 3.5SP1 (DO NOT USE .NET 4)

-Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (core functions only), then update the with 2008 R2 update & native client

-MSXML 6

-IE8 with no service packs or updates

-No hotifixes or updates after XP SP2

-You will need to install the 'Windows Installer' HotFix

-JAVA 7 update 25 (latest available)

VIDA is extremely picky between the JAVA/SQL Server / .net combo.

If its not quite right it will most commonly not let you install VIDA at all, with the message 'VIDA NOT OK', but I once managed to install it only for the internal comms between VIDA and DiCE not to work properly (extremely frustrating!!)

XP SP3 broke everything for me.

IE6 worked, but for some reason always gave the message that the DiCE device couldnt read the car.

.NET 4 made the SQL software unhappy.

NB - If you have SKYPE installed, remove it before you begin. Skype hogs PORT:80 and blocks VIDA from working.

The list really goes on...... the above represents about 30hrs work! I should have binned the whole thing but ended up becoming determined to 'win'.

Once its working its great, but it can be a battle. I also had it working via a VM in Win7 with the above config - but VIDA became very slow and cumbersome after 10mins usage and would eventually freeze. If you have a very new high powered machine, then Win VM might well be the best solution for you, but you will still need to use the above combo of .NET etc.

Some screenshots from a working VIDA/DiCE combo:











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