Just going to chime in on this last series of posts... Just checking to make sure that you guys have adjusted the communications (BAUD) rate in the driver's properties, it should be backed down to 4800. Also if you go into the "advanced" section of the driver properties, you can adjust the sliders that control the data transfer rate too. I always back both sliders down by one notch. That and if you are using a newer version of the RR software, check to see how you have the "enable fast polling mode" option set. Try it with and without this option selected and see if it makes any difference.
In other news. I've got the newest versions of ECUFlash and all the Romraider programs/functions working on my new laptop that is running WINDOWS 8. I just plugged in the my usb to serial cable and then chose which driver to use and then I selected the "ftdibus.inf" file from the "cdm v2.08.28 certified" driver from the ftdi webpage. Or, if you already have a driver installed, be sure to choose the device as a "usb to serial adapter" and not the "prolific device". Works great so far. I've used it to pull my rom of my OutbackXT and to do a little logging.