Problems with Snap-On MT2500

Hi folks!

I have acquired a well used Snap-On MT2500 from my brother who got it at an auction. I have never used one before so I decided to get it out and try to hook it up to my '89 LeSabre.

I put in a fresh 9 volt battery and turned it on... and then it instantly turned off as soon as I let go of the button. Is is supposed to do that? None of the LED's lit up either :uhoh:

So I decided to try it anyway. I hooked up the power pack to my cig. lighter in the Buick, hooked the pack onto the scanner, and then connected the 12 pin OBD GM adapter to my ALDL port under the dash. I turned it on again and it won't stay on unless I hold the button down.

Ok... I just went with it. I put in my VIN information for the car, and then the display told me to hook the connector to the port and "OK TO RELEASE BUTTON" or something like that. So I was thinking the button is supposed to do that but when I release it the scanner turns off again.

Is the scanner supposed to stay on if it gets a signal from the car? Am I totally doing something wrong? Or is the scanner dead, which is very possible considering it came from a tech school?

...and if it is dead, are there any parts available to fix it with or any kind of awesome warranty?

Thanks for your thoughts :D

Do you have a power pac for the scanner ? It is the power supply for the scanner that plugs in to the top left side of the scanner. You should have an AC adapter to plug into the side of the power pac to charge it. Some of the OBD I vehicles will not supply power to the scanner through the diagnostics adapter.

If you have a Snap-On rep. in your area get ahold of him and see if he would be kind enough to give you a brief lecture on the scanner.

Good luck.

I do have a power pac. I was actually using it when I tried scanning my car a couple nights ago. I was powering it through my cig. lighter and I know it was getting power since the light was on.

From other sources, so far I've learned that the button only gives the scanner juice for putting in the vin info before hooking the car up. This can also be done after hooked into the car power.

There was a rattling sound coming from in the case the other night so I took it apart and found a loose screw for the display. I went ahead and cleaned the case while I had it apart so the scanner isn't covered in a layer of black crud anymore.

Anyway, can I use the scanner without the power pac and just power the scanner through the port on the OBD I adapter? I don't have an alligator clip cable to clip onto the battery to use to power the scanner so I'm stuck with the (sometimes unreliable) cig lighter which is going against the recommendations of another source. Any thoughts on how much of an issue this would be?

Allright, I got it to work! I went ahead and bypassed the power pac and hooked the cable directly to the scanner and the power directly into the diagnostics terminal adapter. The device beeped a couple times and came on. I drove with it on around town just to see what it would do and it froze about 4 minutes into a drive but after resetting it was fine again.

Seems to be ok. Now I'm onto fiddling with it and figuring out what to do with this new information :)