Ebay WIS / EPC

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JohnnyRob

Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
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88
Location
Sunny Surrey
Car
1999 ML320
Tempted. Anyone got these? Are they worth it or should I try and get hold of a Bentley manual or similar...?
 
This is basically pirated software, but out of date so a blind eye is normally turned. It's quite fiddly to install and can suddenly stop working (there's a licence key mechanism that has to be fooled).

It's quite useful, but you can subscribe to the real thing (fully up to date) on the web now ... which may be a better bet. Hopefully someone will be along to post a link, or you can probably find it via the search tool.
 
These seem really pirated copies and outdated. If you think of the eBay option, you can find original discs too and more up-to-date copies. My understanding is that selling of these is illegal, not sure how illegal buying is.

I don't see why the real discs would be difficult to install and would stop working if you know how these are supposed to be used. After all, these have to be 100% running at workshops too.

EPC in my opinion is cheap enough as a genuine MB service from the link above, even for an individual car owner. This way it is always up-to-date too.
WIS hardly is, unless you try to download everything for your car as fast as you can. But then it becomes soon a bit outdated.

A pity that the workshop info isn't equally cheap as EPC.

Then there is TIPS too, but I believe it is only available for companies (who have a VAT account).
 
Have seen a working copy of one of the WIS dvd's from ebay, seems really useful to me.
If you want to look after your own car it will give you loads of help and lists whats covered by A and B services.
Though I appreciate comments info not up to date the info you get is still useful. Install apparently not too hard, don't know about 'suddenly stopping working'.
Obviously won't give you what a dealer/indie can but maybe worth a few quid if you don't mind bending the law a bit.
 
I suppose it depends on the dealer, I work for a MB owned dealer and we are told to direct people to the website, liability isues and stuff. I used to work for a Stratstone MB dealer, and there we used to keep some tools on the shelf as stock and regularly sold gbox dipsticks and oil filter removal wrenches. I suppose its just how strict the parts/aftersales manager is. Check the prices they charge though against the website because the dealer gets no discount at all on tools, they are a non-profit item.
 
I have an ebay WIS - works fine. Complians if I forget to run the licence manager software, but otherwise fine. Bit of a knack to finding the information you are after, but it's all there somewhere!
 
I get all my special tools straight from my dealers. Is there a restriction?
Same here, never have any problem in obtaining the tools I need.
 
I don't see why the real discs would be difficult to install and would stop working if you know how these are supposed to be used. After all, these have to be 100% running at workshops too.

The software is intended to be run on a networked workstation, not a standalone PC. When I installed my copy I had to use the Microsoft loopback adapter to get it to work. Having run fine for a couple of years it now hangs for several minutes then comes up with several errors in German then "Microsoft Visual C++ - debug assertion failed".

I haven't had the energy to try and fix it yet, I presume de-installing and re-installing would do the trick.
 
When I used to run the mini-EPC I used a VM running win2k. Basically unbreakable.
 
Running WIS in a VM under XP pro as guess on Vista Premium. Rock solid :)
 
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No idea how to run things in a VM, sounds like something I should try! Also got XP Pro.
 
Is it possible to get the email of the seller without registering with ebay? I would give it a try and report back.
 
The software is intended to be run on a networked workstation, not a standalone PC. When I installed my copy I had to use the Microsoft loopback adapter to get it to work. Having run fine for a couple of years it now hangs for several minutes then comes up with several errors in German then "Microsoft Visual C++ - debug assertion failed".

I haven't had the energy to try and fix it yet, I presume de-installing and re-installing would do the trick.

There are multiple options supported. Starting from a single computer option without any of the program manager applications (making it more stable too) to some corporation centralised systems. If your intention is not to reach the data over internet but just locally from a single computer, it makes things a lot simpler but this isn't good for a typical workshop with several users on several computers where the data needs to be up-to-date all the time.
 
I haven't had the energy to try and fix it yet, I presume de-installing and re-installing would do the trick.

It actually is pretty difficult to uninstall these to reach a clean computer. The harder it is the more complex set-up you've selected for the first installation.
 
Is it possible to get the email of the seller without registering with ebay? I would give it a try and report back.

I certainly hope not. Otherwise the email address I've used when registering to eBay would be available for all spam robots.

But what is the issue with registering to eBay? It is free and not complicated at all. Then you can send questions to the one selling the item you're interested.
 

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