Reviews: GM MDI vs VCX Nano GM diagnostic cable

What's the difference among GM MDI, VCX Nano GM cable & Tech2, other than price, and what's the similarity?

@ Dcasole review:
None the MDI and the nano are just pass tru devices used to communicate with the car when using TECH II WIN

Make sure the VCX nano comes with software otherwise you will have to buy a license

I have one and use the GDS2 software for my C7 and the Tech II win for all my buddies C6 ...came with hacked software that runs in a VM machine.

Mine came on a CD, I know why they offer it on a hard drive
The software can be a challenge to load if you don't know what you are doing

Tech II win and GDS2 was built to run on a 32 bit Windows 7 machine

I was able to get TECH ll Win to run on my Windows 10 64 bit machine but it's a crapshoot, some can't get it to run on Windows 10
I never got GDS2 to run in windows 10

There are not many of those old laptops around that have enough power to run the software so they give you a copy of VM ware ( virtual machine) and a copy of Windows 7 with all the software loaded so when you start the VM session, Windows 7 starts inside this shell and then you click on GDS2 for later cars or TECH II WIN for earlier models

So not to many people know how to load and run VM ware that is why they just copied all the software to a hard drive for you and then you just make a shortcut to your windows 10 desktop
Now its still not all plug and play as you need to allow VM ware Access to your USB ports etc which is not hard to do
You also need good hardware as VM ware uses a lot of resources
I tried it on an old Core Duo laptop and it was just to slow and crashed a lot
I bought an old Dell laptop Icore 5 with 16 gig of memory running Windows 10 and it runs the VM machine great

I bought my NANO from obd2shop.co.uk figuring if I could not get it to run I would just send it back. After about a week of messing with it I now have it running both flawlessly, stick with the USB version as the wireless version is just one more thing to complicate the install. The cable is not bad to use at all
VXDIAG VCX Nano GDS2 and Tech2Win...

So for $129 for the device and another $130 for the cheap laptop ......no trips to the dealer for me or my buddies ...I love it

@ Dcasole review:
The Tech II win running with vxdiag nano is the same exact software as what is on your Tech II hand held unit.
I had a Tech II knockoff but sold it when I got my C7. I was spoiled so now I wanted a GM MDI pass thru so I could work on my C7. That's when I decided to try the VX NANO .. Works great now that I got it running and having TECH II WIN is a bonus...

There is no better tool than a TECH II or GDS for diagnosing issues or accessing modules.

@ wjnjr review:
I agree. And with the prices now you can get a Tech2 or a VCX Nano & laptop setup for the same or less $$$ than the better 3rd party scan tools which won't do as much.

To be upgrading...

http://blog.obd2shop.co.uk/reviews-on-the-difference-among-gm-mdi-vcx-nano-tech2/