Struggling trying to get INPA \ EDIABAS to work :(

[Scoff]

I've spent hours and hours trying with no success to get INPA and EDIABAS to work. My car is a 1994 318i M43 engine. I am having problems getting any information back from the car. I've tried connecting to car, turning ignition on, then loading INPA, and I've also tried loading INPA first, then connecting to car then turning ignition on.
INPA seems to load fine either way and status bar at the bottom is green and says 'Running'. Then I click Shift+F9 > E36 > Engine > DME 1.7 and the status bar goes yellow and says busy, thats when, on the xp machine with serial port I have, I get the IFH0010 data transmission to control unit disturbed error message followed by EDIABAS error: Error (95) SYS-0005: OBJECT FILE NOT FOUND.
On my newer laptop with windows 7, using a prolific USB to serial converter, as soon as I click on the DME 1.7 in the E36 menu, the status bar goes yeloow and says BUSY and thats when both EDIABAS server and INPA both hang and stop responding. If I click any other modules I get a message back saying could not find module, but INPA doesn't crash. It only crashes when I click the DME 1.7 for M43 engine in the E36 menu.

Have tried INPA 5.0.2 and 4.4.7.

I am really struggling to work out what might be causing the problem. Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks, Scott

[strobeyprobey]

What I have now come across is that you will probably need an adapter that has ADS capability. My 96 Z3 has that pin in the diagnostic connector. ADS was used before the ODB1 port. Seems like almost all of the diagnostic cables don't have the ADS pin. I just ordered one myself just a few minutes ago!

eBay item number 200509967468

I hope it works for me. I tried getting my Carsoft cable to work with INPA and had no luck getting it to communicate. I kept getting the failure message.