Alts to Durametric for a mac user?

Its there a good alternative to Durmatric for a Mac OS household? I can't justify purchasing a windows laptop just to run the software... Problems I am troubleshooting: 1. I replaced a window regulator and tested it with the airbag still out... which caused the airbag fault. 2. I have gotten misfire codes on both banks... replaced the plugs and coils (they were cracked) about 1,000 miles ago... noticed that the slight hunting idle was still present and that occasionally taking off from a stop I'll get a short hesitation than the engine continues to rev. While researching the potential problems related to the misfire codes, it could be a big issue with the vario cams or a vacum leak. Clearly, I need to dig deeper than my $50 OBD reader will go. What are your suggestions? Anyone in Fairfield County CT would "rent" their set up for a case of beer and bucket or gratitude? Thx in advance!

Windows laptops are cheap...just buy one. Consider it another tool $180 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-1...?skuId=5669100

Download virtual box and run windows in a virtual instance in your Mac. It will work just fine and need for additional hardware running around. Virtual box is free but you will need a windows license.

Edit: Yeah, what he said! ^^^^ Or run windows in a VM. Oracle's VirtualBox is free, easy to use, and works well. VirtualBox + Win7 is what I used for years with Durametric until I dumped Apple and moved to a Linux laptop.

Parallels Desktop on a Macbook Air over here. In my opinion, this solution is better than using a Windows laptop. Parallels is an application; instead of opening a Windows laptop and waiting for it to wake (or boot), you launch the app and un-pause the VM. As long as the Macbook has juice (Durametric states in no uncertain terms that connecting the cable to your laptop AND attempting to power the laptop using the car's DC power is BAD), it works perfectly. Since it's a VM, I took a snapshot of the OS with the software and drivers installed but not running, with all OS updates turned off. After I use the Durametric, I revert to the snapshot, and the VM is in the exact same state the next time I want to use it. This isn't good practice from a security standpoint, but I don't use the VM for anything else, and disabling updates ensures that the software doesn't suddenly stop working thanks to a security "fix" from MS... My Macbook Air is getting about 10 hours of battery life (non-media-playback, of course) these days - it's a very good laptop for hauling around...and some vinyl helps prevent me from being identified as a fanboy.

Go buy a cheapo Windows laptop on CL, eBay, or Amazon. You might find you come out better than a dual boot Mac.

VBox, Parallels, VMWare are not dual-boot. Dual-boot means Boot Camp, which was a neat conference hotel bar trick 5 or 6 years ago, but... There is no machine more crappy than a cheap Windows laptop. The combination of a 5400RPM drive, a slow-*** CPU that has been stripped of cores and underclocked to use the least amount of energy possible combined make it possible to use a WOEFULLY CRAPPY battery that will play the first 30 minutes of any DVD before expiring. I am a Windows guy; I've been using Windows since before Windows was Windows. I have a serious addiction to good PC hardware; I am in therapy for being romantically interested in some gaming rigs. All this said, a slow Windows laptop is one of the worst user experiences you can pay for. What's more frustrating than being deep into a Por|\|hub session only to have the Windows Search daemon decide it's a good time to re-index 250,000,000 files on your deep storage external USB drive? NOTHING! It was rhetorical. Hope you find indeterminate progress indicators alluring, since that's the only thing you'll be watching (since firing up the Services applet with lotion all over...um...never mind). You can even cover up the glowing apple if you don't want to be immediately recognized as a Jobs fanboy. Since it's just vinyl, I can peel it off and trim up a new piece when it gets dirty or torn, and it adds essentially nothing to the thickness or weight of the PC...

That escalated quickly. ^^ I use an IBM thinkpad from 2004 just for durametric. It is really painful compared to my macbook pro, which in itself is still old (2010) but upgraded with RAM and a solid state HD. Every time I boot the thing it takes a day to get it going. I've been meaning to get a newer machine, but all of the software for early 2000s BMWs and Porsches runs best on an XP windows machine.

haha! Thanks, all. Just purchased the enthusiast's cable for the 996. The additional $ for the PRO version didn't make sense for me... only own the one P-car and according to the CSR I spoke with, the only coding that the software will do on the 996 is programming the cruise control module (which they described to me as an on/off function). See the product capabilities for 996 attached. Still researching the laptop v. Parallels option. I really don't want another computer to drag around but there are great deals out there on PC hardware. All your advice and comments are a big help and much appreciated. Screen grab from http://www.durametric.com/modelfeaturematrixv6.aspx

Did I say "dual boot"? haha Those two 4 letter words must now induce a nerd version of a bar fight.

There are "better" OBDII readers out there that will reset the airbag light. And you did not say that you are getting a CEL for the idling problem, so no codes to go on? Start simple, clean the MAF sensor and Idle Control Valve. Both are known to cause hunting idle. Clean out the Throttle Body. Durametric gives you some idea what's going on but you still have to do the work. It does help pinpoint problems if you have codes to read, but otherwise, aside from various engine activations you will still be shooting in the dark. If you do have a vacuum leak then it would throw some CEL codes. Almost any auto parts store can tell you what the codes are.

I hope you don't have a '99 996 C2, but that's pretty well covered in other threads. Here is an alternative. Would love for someone to buy this and tell us how it does!

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This is what I did. eBay windows machine that lives in the garage and has diagnostic tools for the 996, Touareg and sadly departed Vectrix. I don't mind if it gets dirty - I'd hate to take the Mac laptop into the garage and get it oily or drop a spanner on the screen or something!

Sorry for the vague prolog. Purchased my 04 996 40AE in Jan 17. I already owned a low-cost OBD reader that I read the misfire codes with when the CEL came on in around March... wet conditions, cracked coils. About early April, I replaced the plugs and coils, cleared the codes and everything seemed fine except I still have the hunting idle (being my first 996—didn't know if this was model specific) and the occasional hesitate if I start off in first from a low RPM (>1000). The car otherwise runs smoothly, doesn't consume oil (coming up to my 3k change interval next week) so at that point, I just chalked it up to the 996 model. Last night coming home from work the car started quickly but the cold idle was more rough than usual and after a drop in RPMs, the CEL came back on. These are the current codes: P0300 with misfires at cylinders 1,3,4 and 5 My cheap OBDII reader didn't even catch the Air Bag Code with the AB light on!

Previous rounds which I thought that I had fixed by replacing the plugs and coil packs: Apr 5 These were misfires at cylinders 1, 2 and 4

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Heh. Them's fightin' words.

I received my cable and set up windows on my mac using boot camp. After being a block head and re-installing the Duremetric software 3 or 4 times because it crashed every time I opened it. The patient folks at Durametric explained that the software will only run while the cable attached and ignition on. Once I realized my oversight. It worked beautifully. I did a very quick scan of the codes and there are random misfires across all the cylinders. Since I'm new to this, I thought I would do more research on the causes of misfires... and I have read it could be the cam actuators (vario timing), a stuck valve or collapsed tappet or leak in the intake. Since it appears at first glance to be evenly spread across all cylinders, I think I can rule out cylinder scoring and loss of compression (I hope), Also a stuck valve or collapsed tappet (also I don't hear any slapping in the engine). Fuel is probably too lean at idle but I don't know how to check that with the Durametric... I have the Bently Shop Manual. What is the normal work fow here... check the ECU for all fault codes and then look them up in the manual to trace the possible issues. Of course, I'll start with the lowest cost fixes first... but if anyone here has specific experience, or if there is a DIY thread that I have missed, I would appreciate your help. Thank you

If you are getting random P0301-P0306 misfires, check and clean your MAF sensor. How old are your plugs/coils? Have they been replaced recently? How about your air filter? What other codes pop up, if any?

If you already changed your spark plugs and coils and still getting misfires, just make sure that all your coils are fully seated (plugged-in). I did my coils couple of weeks ago and had real hard times to get the spark plug wires to fully connect to the coils due to the thick outside protective boots around the wire connectors. I kept getting misfires especially the 2 back, in the most rears of the engine, tight space to get a good grip on the connectors and plug them fully in. Sometimes you can hear the "click" sound but if so they are very faint. Worth checking before you do anything else as suggested by others here... Good-luck, cheers,

OK. I've run the Actuals this morning during my drive to the train station... this doesn't show the first few minutes of my start up b/c it was also my first time really using the software. I have no idea which modules to enable so this is a best-guess based on my limited knowledge of misfire troubleshooting. It is a data dump and I really don't know where to start. Should I be looking up what each value should be for each data point? Then work backward from those that are out of range to narrow possible causes of the misfies? If you have knowledge of how to read the data, I would appreciate some insight, direction or feedback OR if you know if a site that would allow me to learn what each of the data points means and how I can start to understand them. The Durametric site doesn't provide much more than how to use the tool to get the data. This is a google sheet that is public published to the web: https://docs.google.com/a/tsangseymo...53&single=true Thanks in advance!

Get a windows tablet. You can find them for under $100 No hard drive to break. 4gb RAM and 32 GB storage is fine for using with a Durametric As an added advantage, it's small and portable and easy to use in the car

Thx JayG. I'm not a windows user but I recall that the processor in the tablets does not work the Durametric software. Anyway, I have it running on my mac book pro now and it's great. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the data! I haven't found any comprehensive threads on the DME values.

Mine works fine it has an Intel ATOM Z3735G 1.33 Ghz processor Running Windows 10 I bought it at Frys on sale for around $75 including the keyboard case

Geez, are you not getting what innov8 is asking? He needs help with the resulting data, not the computer platform. Innov8, don't be discouraged, there are some very technical experts here that can help you. You've got one of the best tools to diagnose most problems. I understand your questions, I don't know the right answers but will refer a few friends to this thread. Hang in there... You'll get experienced intelligent responses soon enough.

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My solution was to subscribe to Renntech an ask the smart guys there.

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My dedicated Durametric laptop is a 1997 thinkpad, works fine!

Thanks Schnell. I'm a subscriber as well. Will try that. I think that the title of this thread is throwing off the new posters... On the Durametric: To confirm... I have Durametric software running on Windows 10 in a Boot Drive partition on my Mac Powerbook Pro using Boot Camp. It works well... I just have to log out of one to go to the other so I may try Parallels on the Mac to make the switching back and fourth easier. On the Misfires: I had gotten multiple misfires using my OBD reader... The car is new to me with 113K so I replaced the plugs and the coils (they were cracked). The plugs all looked consistent... gray and ashy not oily and not blackened with carbon. After about 5---600 miles the same misfire code came back. I upgraded my diagnostics to the Durametric and I have misfire codes across almost all of the cylinders and I have an "actual readings" excel file that pulled... not sure what to monitor so I took at guess at the parameters. The problem is I have no idea where I find information on how to interpret the data or know what the actuals readings should be to attain "actionable" data. I am sort of surprised that the Durametric site offers no more information than how to get the software running and the capture the data... I suppose that is all they sell. So in summary, I am looking for the information or resources to learn how to analyze the readings that I get from the Durametric product (which I really think is wondeful... it is easy to use once you get it going). Any pointers or links to where I can find more information on how to use the data from the durametric would be super helpful to me. Thank you in advance.

Replied to you on Renntech

Sorry to drag this up from the dead... I recently bought an Enthusiast Version of Durametric and it ran exactly once on Parallels on my MacBook Pro (with some difficulty), then never again. • Running Win 7 • Durametric Version 6.5.5.12 • Updated USB Drivers I keep getting the following errors each time I try to start the machine: I've tried reinstalling the software, its drivers, restarting Win 7, followed the cable connection procedure, all to no avail. Any things I should try next? TNX

Maybe a false alarm. I reloaded software and its drivers for the third time and it is working again.

I just got a asus mini laptop for 150 bucks. It works perfectly and makes it so i don't have to use parallels.

I need a new cheap laptop myself...

Mine works fine in parallels on a MacBook Pro.

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Mine still won't play consistently. When you shut it down and restart everything it gives me the same message. You have to relaunch it again. Silly.

I just tried to get the latest Durametric running on a Mac with a new cable I just purchased from them. Mac is on Big Sur latest OSX. I tried: VirtualBox with Windows 10 VirtualBox with Windows XP Parallels with Windows 10 For these three combinations, I got the tool installed, .NET installed, USB drivers installed, and Durametric app launching and got a few basic interactions working, but after 1 or 2 interactions it froze. Anyone solved a problem like this intermittent freezing on OSX via virtualisation? Next steps are either BootCamp or buying cheap windows laptop. I have a work one, so I could bring that home and make sure my cable and car are all good.

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whats the issues with 99 C2?

I realize this is an old thread, but this is just FYI on my experience (in 2026). Running an M3 Pro MacBook Pro with Parallels running Windows 11 - so Apple Silicon - Durametric worked fine - and that was with an Ugreen USB-C to USB-A connector. Followed the Durametric instructions and was able to view various modules, clear fault codes, etc. I did not run an exhaustive workout of the software but for my purposes it seemed fine.