I finally got my car running today, and the main problem I have been having so far is the USB communication dropping out while tuning. The most common situation is that about 20-30 minutes after connecting, the laptop will lose connection to the MS3X and Tuner Studio will say it is offline. After this, the only way to reconnect is to restart the laptop.

Additionally, a couple times today the laptop blue screened right as I plugged the cable in or told Tuner Studio to start VE tuning.

Any ideas of what's going wrong? It seems like some driver for the port communication is dying and sometimes taking Windows with it, but I'm not sure how to find out or fix it. Window's device manager says the port is working correctly after the disconnect, but neither Windows nor Tuner Studio recognize the cable being plugged back in after it happens.

Car Info:
90 with FM turbo'ed 04 VVT engine
MS3X built by DIYAutoTune

Laptop:
decent <1 year old Windows 7 laptop
Only Tuner Studio running
USB to USB cable and driver from DIYAutoTune
Followed config instructions (COM 8, 115200 bps, low latency timer, etc.)

 

Try shielding the USB cable with some tinfoil.

 

Open the Windows Device Manager and actually check if the COM port is disappearing and reappearing in there when you lose communications.

 

The extra usb cable length was coiled underneath the laptop originally, so that may have been producing lots of noise. After the aluminum foil suggestion, I switched to coiling it in the passenger foot well and switched to using a USB on the opposite side. The past two evenings I haven't gotten any disconnects, so hopefully that fixed the problem.