fishbone Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Not sure to what extent this may or may not apply to those using VAG-COM cables on eBay in conjuction with FTDI drivers and open source tuning. http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/ The FTDI FT232 chip is found in thousands of electronic baubles, from Arduinos to test equipment, and more than a few bits of consumer electronics. It’s a simple chip, converting USB to a serial port, but very useful and probably one of the most cloned pieces of silicon on Earth. Thanks to a recent Windows update, all those fake FTDI chips are at risk of being bricked. This isn’t a case where fake FTDI chips won’t work if plugged into a machine running the newest FTDI driver; the latest driver bricks the fake chips, rendering them inoperable with any computer. Reports of problems with FTDI chips surfaced early this month, with an explanation of the behavior showing up in an EEVblog forum thread. The new driver for these chips from FTDI, delivered through a recent Windows update, reprograms the USB PID to 0, something Windows, Linux, and OS X don’t like. This renders the chip inaccessible from any OS, effectively bricking any device that happens to have one of these fake FTDI serial chips. Because the FTDI USB to UART chip is so incredibly common, the market is flooded with clones and counterfeits. it’s very hard to tell the difference between the real and fake versions by looking at the package, but a look at the silicon reveals vast differences. The new driver for the FT232 exploits these differences, reprogramming it so it won’t work with existing drivers. It’s a bold strategy to cut down on silicon counterfeiters on the part of FTDI. A reasonable company would go after the manufacturers of fake chips, not the consumers who are most likely unaware they have a fake chip. The workaround for this driver update is to download the FT232 config tool from the FTDI website on a WinXP or Linux box, change the PID of the fake chip, and never using the new driver on a modern Windows system. There will surely be an automated tool to fix these chips automatically, but until then, take a good look at what Windows Update is installing – it’s very hard to tell if your devices have a fake FTDI chip by just looking at them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 That would be horrible to happen in the middle of flashing or logging a new tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 So reading and re-reading that article, I believe this may in fact affect us VAG-COM users that don't have legit FTDI chips. They are flashable, are they not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 It will affect VAG-COM, but only those with fake chipsets. Which according to this article is nearly impossible to tell whether you are buying a legitimate one that will work or a knock off. It makes no sense to brick all these devices. Talk about a monopoly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covertrussian Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 That kind of crap should force us to boycott FTDI. I understand it's their IP and all, but they really should be going after manufactorers. If my Tactrix goes dead because the company decided to use a clone, why I pay the price? It's like US government deciding to disable all Kia's and Hyundai's when you go to fill up at the gas station, because they might have copied a design. 05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD) 12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct 00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg 22 Ascent STOCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 I have not had anything trying to push a windows update onto me and I have a vagcom cable. I checked my driver version, 3/30/2010 version 2.6.2.0. On Windows 7 x64. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 The windows update won't be pushed because of the FTDI driver. The update will pop up when your pc has an update released for it. Windows 8 is constantly updating so I assume that's what they are having issues with. Also do you have auto updates turned off on your 7 machine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Auto updates are on, but they only notify me to download them. I manually forced a check also. I've had at least 40 updates pushed into my PC and accepted over the last few months without a problem either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Maybe it has a real chip, I'm not sure yet. I haven't found enough info online. If it continues to happen I'm sure we'll know. And I agree covert. They've admitted that there is no real way to determine if your chip is real or not at the surface level. The abundance of ft232 chips in the electronic realm is massive. Hopefully major manufacturers of electronics were thorough when purchasing from suppliers. This could cause issues that are much greater than our 10 dollar cables not working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 It could be real, it could be fake. Either way, a driver was not pushed down to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covertrussian Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Looks like FTDI finally admitted to doing this on purpose via Twitter. We'll see what the backlash brings to this company. 05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD) 12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct 00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg 22 Ascent STOCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 They deserve any backlash they get. Completely the wrong approach to a counterfeit issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamguitarist Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Unfortunately it will have very little repercussion on their sales. If they have the power to do this, not jus through Windows but Linux and Apple, a bunch of negative feedback from the very small percent of the population that even knows this is happening is a drop in the bucket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spad Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I have not had anything trying to push a windows update onto me and I have a vagcom cable. I checked my driver version, 3/30/2010 version 2.6.2.0. On Windows 7 x64. is there a way to check drivers version without connecting FTDI cable? don't wanna risk to find out whether my chip is 'fake' the hard way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 go to device manager, view->show hidden devices Under Ports, look for the USB Serial Ports that correspond. Go into the properties for them and check the Driver tab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTDogg MA Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Great info here Fishbone, couple of Q's. This could only potentially brick a ECU when writing to it, correct? If I was just reading or logging, my ECU should be safe, but my PC could be at risk, correct? Anyone have a link to an older driver, like oldversion.com used to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 To clarify, when we are talking about chips, we aren't talking about the PC or the car's ECU, we are talking about the onboard FTDI chipsets used by the OBD2 dongles. The drivers in question flash the chipset's ROM and makes the dongle unusable. This can be quite problematic if it occurs while you're in the middle of something critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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