I don't know Ford Europe.
I would imagine that the CDs contain several Laguages and Models.
I only use the Jaguar WDS but I have a Ford hard drive in the cabinet just in case....

you can send me a private message for more info!!

bob gauff

 

yes... very sorry but for no aparent reason i can't pm you..can you leave me a email adress on wich we can discuss please?
have a nice day

 

Contact me at

rancher_dude@yahoo.com

bob gauff

 

Hi everyone! New to this forum as well as the WDS. I purchased a used WDS and Docking station on eBay, and run into error 2217 (I think, battery problem) had it rebuilt locally and still receive same problem. Not sure if the components are faulty in the battery or if it's the mobo. I have a second ptu coming without a hdd that has a 7 day guarantee to try.

Now my main concern is if that battery error appears, does the software not allow any use? Second, what's the ghost disc used for? I have no discs and have no idea of any software version yet as the software stays on the wds screen.

Thanks for all help! I eventually want to get jaguar wds going too!

Ryan

 

The WDS Ghost Disc is what restores the PTU's Win98 operating system in preparation for the WDS software installation. Once the ghosting is done the screen shows an image instructing you to put the WDS Disc in the drive.

The final WDS CD version was CD43, which was a single disc. There was an issue with it's installation that ultimately required you to have CD42 [a 2 disc set] on hand as well. After a re-ghost, you are to install CD42 disc A, then when it asks for disc B, you install CD 43 instead. I have virtually every Jaguar WDS disc archived, if you care to, send me a PM or email with your email or contact info and I'll try to make copies available to you for a small fee. [gee, I hope I didn't just break a rule here]

I will try and see if I have anything on the error codes stuck somewhere. Chances are though, that before I find it our friend Bob Gauff will be along and fill us in. He's the guy to get with regarding hardware issues with WDS. He seems to have come up with several ideas/workarounds, etc.

Cheers,

 

iirc the electronic piece that sits on the battery maybe bad as well. I had at least 1 battery that I couldn’t fix with new battery cells. Am afraid you need a new one, but you can still get them.

 

Ill have to look into diagnosing the circuit board and sensors on the battery. I was afraid one of them are bad, and that would require replacement. Just need to find a source for them as I do not want to spend over $250 on a battery for this dinosaur.

 

Interested indeed, but can't PM quite yet. Will do soon as I am in the grace period for the spam system.



Now, one thing I am interested in doing is putting the Ford and Jaguar WDS on one drive, just by partitioning it into two sections and then using a keyboard connected to the docking station to select on bootup which one is needed. Any word on if this has been done or is possible?

 

I had the battery out for replacing the cells and when i tried 'ghosting' and loading the software, the PTU reported error 2217 and would not continue and had to be shut down.
I reassembled the battery pack with new cells and the PTU loaded the software and operated normally. The circuit board in the battery pack is very important to the WDS. If it is faulty or disconnected the PTU will not operate.

If you buy a battery pack with bad cells you can replace the cells and wire them correctly to the small circuit board in the pack as long as the circuit board is OK.

When I bought my WDS the battery pack was dead but the circuit board was OK. I bought some new NiMH cells, soldered them and used heat shrink to build a new pack.

On the subject of 2 operating systems, I have that on my laptop with Win2000 and XP but I did not try that on the WDS. The FORD barely fits on a 3.2GB disc so if you want to fit Jaguar 43 and Ford 43 you will have to get a HDD with about 8GB. I think 8GB is the biggest drive that WIN98 will recognize.

I just loaded Ford on a 3.2 and Jaguar on a 4.3 drive. It only takes a few minutes to swap drives, but if you do get the 2 systems on a single drive tell us how it works.

bob gauff

 

The battery pack that came with the first PTU i got was giving the 2217 error, and I replaced the cells and still get the same error. I imagine there is a fault in the circuit board or temp sensors. I have a second PTU coming without a HDD, so Ill give that one a try later this week.

Doing some searching, win98 had a roughly 120GB limit for hard discs, but that is primarily limted to partitions. If it is partitioned into two sections, you essentially have two hdd and two os. Now the biggest limit the PTU may have is the motherboard not recognizing HDD larger than 6-8gb. I have read a few areas where people got new ATA33 6gig drives and it worked just fine. But we are in need of roughly 10-12 gig drives to operate at a reasonable performance. If we are to partition a 12gig ATA33 2.5" drive, we should essentially be able to have both versions on one disk...... only drawback is if the docking station will allow us to select which partition to boot from. There will be a primary one that boots all the time, but if the bios will let us select which one to boot, we should be able to have it a "all-in-one" solution.....

Ill be willing to do this, but it will be some time as I have yet to get this darn thing to boot into the full WDS OS beyond the error 2217 code. Once I can confirm that will work, Ill need any and all disks that are required to load up the OS on a new drive. Ill be able to obtain a new drive, partition it, and load it up properly once I have all the discs, at least the Jaguar ones as I do not have that OS yet and would like to get that one going after I get my ford one working, incase it doesn't work at all.

Thanks again for the help and any advice. I'm in need of a few items if anyone can help me locate them:

any and all discs, both ford and Jaguar
OBD2 cable (I mistakenly didn't bid on one auction, and now regret it)

Ryan

 

The 2 cables you will NEED are B203 and A204. All others will be a nice thing to have but you will not be able to reconfigure some modules without the A204 DC battery cable. You can tell the PTU over and over that it is in the docking station and that all is right with the world but it will insist on having the DC cable plugged in, hooked to a 12V source and verified.

I would recommend partitioning the HDD with a later operating system on a laptop or adapter cable for a desktop PC. The WDS docking station and PTU motherboard will probably not recognize a drive larger than 8GB. Just for 'grins' I tried a spare 40GB ATA 100 from my Toshiba and it did not even try to boot with the 'GHOST' disc. ATA33 or NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bob gauff

 

I have the dc cable already, and just got word that the seller I bought that cable from will sell the obd cable for cheap to me!

I'll have to do some "Frankensteining" with this hdd deal once I get the jag and ford CDs

Ryan

 

Things are looking better for the old unit, as I just got done running the conditioning test for the battery. Just need to verify my second unit works. May just put jag on that one and have two units instead of all in one.

 

Alert Alert

I just tried to load a HDD in my WDS with the CD2 Ghost Disc and found it would not work because it was an IMAGE of the disc and not a working disc. I may have sent out several of these Discs. The ones I found to have an IMAGE and NOT a set of files to load the drive were CD2 GHOST and CD42A.

The CD43 are OK as I copied from a good working disc and NOT an IMAGE.

If anyone obtained a CD2 and CD42A from me and cannot load the image to a computer with a CD 'burner' and 'burn image to disc'. let me know and I will issue a replacement disc set of CD2 and CD42A.

Sorry for the inconvenience but I just discovered this fault.

Let me know!!

All the FORD disc are OK.

bob gauff

 

Ah that explains the trouble I was having motorcar man lol

 

steadicam
If the IMAGE on the CD cannot be transfered to another disc as 'usable disc' then I can send you the GHOST and 42A replacements.

Let me know.

bob gauff

 

Hi,
I come back on the forum as I managed to change the language to french on my PTU.It is a Ford Europe one and I have loads of ford CDs but need to use it on my ASTON MARTIN, I only have CD 16 from AM what else would be needed?
It starst ok but as for battery conditionning,the battery seem not to be fine as as soon as I get the PTU out of the docking station it just cuts out,can it be used on the docking station?
Where could I source a battery or cells to have it rebuilt?
Thanks for your help WDS GURUS!!!!!

 

If you use the A204 attached to the battery or leave the PTU in the docking station you don't need the battery. If the DLC cable is attached to the car, that should power it also.
I wheel the entire docking station to the car and use it like that. If I need it mobile and the battery is dead, then I shut it down and re-boot when the PTU is connected to the DLC and/or the A204 is attached.

bob gauff

 

Hi all WDS gurus.

I recently purchased a WDS PTU but there is one broken pin in the “B” socket.

I would like to open up the PTU to check if this pin is connected and generally check the unit out.

Before I do any damage, can anyone give me a guide on how to dismantle the PTU case.

Thanks.

 

The rear cover for the battery/HDD comes off with a small Torx (T8???). Remove the battery and Hard Disc Drive. Remove all the fasteners and lift the back off STRAIGHT UP. There are electrical 'pins' that connect the computer circuit board to the PTU interface board. If the halves are not pulled apart the pins might bend sideways and not line up correctly going back together.

While it is apart I would install a stick of RAM. It has a 32 soldered to the board but I added an additional 128 for a total of 160. This speeds up the PTU a little (as fast as a Pentium I 233 can go anyway).
I think 256 is MAX that it will recognize.

Good luck with the repair.

bob gauff