RESOLUTION BELOW
Just received my 'brand new' unit.
(yes I knew about the 31st Dec issue, but I only need it for older vehicles and thought I'd take advantage of the updates available)
So I boots it up and everything seemed ok, then I read through the pamphlet re the updates section.
At this point I connect it to my local Wifi and attempt an update... It commenced the update but locked up within minutes.
Nothing worked and I noticed the seconds had stopped counting on the clock! crashed.
That was around 3hrs ago and it will not load without some USB error, or storage card error, at which point the Wifi LED simply goes in to a rapid flash like its connecting to the SSID but not retrieving an IP. I managed one time to get in to the Wifi config and observed just that, no IP and showing the 'reconnect' button.
At this point I connected the RJ45 cable in an attempt to override the Wifi, which it should.. but wouldn't do.
I did do a back up of the flash card before I started and I'm just in the process of copying the backup to 'another' flash card.
I acknowledge the guy that implied it could be a windows update this, but its my understanding that the old Windows OS's required the updates be pushed manually not automatically. I'm more inclined to believe that Autel have intentionally or unintentionally corrupted the download.
On a side note, I installed the PC software (from the site as I have no cd player) it appeared to run install and run file until I ran the updates, it did about the first 5-6 updates from the top of the list when the program crashed.
Only to find on relaunce it could find some of its files on files and requested the location of the installation package!
Its all a sick joke really, thankfully I bought through Amazon so I will get my money back if I need too.
Anyway I'll let you know if I recover it.
Following Day:
Formatted a fresh SD to FAT32 and copied the original backup to it, boots up so the SD is fine, but within seconds of loading the user interface the screen locks up, clock freezes and the Wifi LED goes mental. So it sounds like the OS has been affected.
I'm going to give Autel tech support one opportunity to rectify the situation or is gets boxed up and returned to Amazon and I will never buy another product from them and like MyMechanic I will take steps too.
will update on Monday..
OK
Couldn't wait until Monday, as I suspected the problem lay with the network card or its software/drivers.
Here is how I got around it and at least now have a functioning scanner.
Take out the SD card and insert in to a PC/Laptop
\ see the three items on the root of the card
\open Scan
\locate WIFI \right click on it and rename to WIFIold
Remove and put back in the scanner and pwr up.. you will get a network error, that's expected just press OK.
Your scanner should boot into the main screen. Once you have confirmed that the scanner is back you can either leave it like that and do updates from the PC software up until the 31st Dec
OR SAVVY COMPUTER USERS CAN DO THIS...
\right click and 'rename' WLANcfg.dat to WLANcfg.old
\then right click and 'copy' it \then paste below
\right click the copied file and 'open' with note/word pad (you may have to look for it)
\remove ALL the contents of the file (its the SSID and PW data) then save and close
\right click same file and rename back to .dat from .old
go back up to folder level and rename WIFIold back to just WIFI
Place SD (lock it) back in the scanner and it should load as normal, simply don't attempt to use the WiFi again.
THIS IS A DRIVER/SOFTWARE ISSUE WITH THE NIC (network interface card)