DIY = Tools intended for use by BMW dilettantes (e.g., <$100 OBD scanners) Aftermarket = Tools intended for use by BMW aficionados (e.g., >$500 Carsoft Ultimate Home Edition) You can't go wrong with WinXP but others are reputed to work:.

Most programs run on Windows (e.g., INPA & NCS).

Warning: Most would NOT use their everyday laptop as their diagnostic laptop simply because software installation was intended for a stand-alone application (and, as such, it modifies many emulation, registry, and root entries).

However almost all Windows PCs should work though (best with WinXP).

And, as much RAM as the PC can handle (Quick99Si had 2GB RAM in his Dell D620 laptop).

You'll want at least 40GB available hard disk space (100GB+ if you're installing Progman).

The classic BMW dealer diagnostic laptop is an IBM T30.

Tribal knowledge requested to make organized sense of recommended E39 factory/dealer diagnostic hardware & software.īased on the available diagnostic tools and in concert with the various BMW coding forums let's try to meaningfully organize the following E39-specific diagnostic-related scanning, coding, and programming tools & interfaces for the entire E39 tribe to benefit. Kudos: Many people collaborated on this BMW factory & dealer software explanation, especially Quick99Si who ran through all the installs and created a nice collective site for download (including combining & compressing the RAR files to the max!) & RDL who provided clarification on the unintuitive software intricacies.

Making sense of INPA, EDIABAS, NCSExpert, NCS Dummies, DIS/GT1, EasyDIS, & ProgmanĮDIT: PLEASE IMPROVE! We are constantly updating this first post, as new information comes in (until it won't let us update it anymore).

Inpa code reader