Is there a work around for this error? I have to program DME, CAS and FRM using TV. Vehicle is not onsite. Thanks

This happens when there's a problem on the VO, or if BMW changed the CAs at some point in time. I've asked support this same question earlier this week, let's see if they can come up with a solution for this.

If they can make the program load, even with a problem on the VO, but highlight what the problem is, it'll allow you to fix the issue and complete the job. Currently, with this error, you cannot use Autohex to do the job.

When FA is invalid, it may due to one (or more) of many reasons like:
- conflict with two or more items. ( example: FA has two items one for 6hp and one for 8hp).
- missing a mandatory item ( example: main language)
- invalid I-step.
- FA checksum error.
- unrecognized item ( example: PG99)
- unrecognized FA version ( 1,2 for E and 3 for F and G)
- corrupted FA or blank FA (FF FF ....)

Autohex II can digest first 5 problems, others are impossible.

Work around is ncsexpert,
fix fa with vin decoder help and autohex will work then

Autohex has all features in ncs expert and more.
The case where FA is corrupted or blank is unsolvable.

but with ncsexpert you can correct corrupted FA based on VIN decode,
As I remember you can not do it in Autohex2

Yes you can. From fa manager write a compatible cas file in the corrupted cas (year and engine type).
Then modify the rest.
I think support can help in arranging such files if they are not available.
Note that you cannot rely on these free websites that show you items of FA based on vin as there will be some missing items.

But if there's a problem with FA, Autohex doesn't open. So you can't fix it with Autohex. You have to try using NCSExpert. And in the cases I've had, where BMW changed the CAS, everything was fine in NCS Expert. Autohex just refused to open and gave this error. Maybe issue is istep. Maybe something else, I don't know.

This is another case where more descriptive error message could help. Why not tell me what's wrong? If I step is wrong, then say so. If checksum on FA is wrong, then say so. That way I can either fix the issue, or come up with a workaround of my own to resolve the issue. Currently, we have to guess at the cause of the issue.

Seriously, we've discussed this before. Get us more descriptive error messages and we will be less reliant on tech support to get us help. When we have an issue, we have an issue NOW. It looks bad if we have to tell the customer to come back the next day because tech support isn't immediately available.

Anyway, rant over 😉

Please read my post again, I mentioned only some, not all possible reasons as I don't have currently the source code to list them all. And, only last 2 possibilities Autohex will fail ( there is no way to recover anything in these cases by any software offline). I will ask developers to check if it is possible to launch FA manager from on bench even if FA is blank or corrupted.
If you have an invalid I-step only, Autohex will not complain, but you will not be able to do online programming, coding and manual coding will be ok.
If you have conflict/missing FA item, Autohex will not complain too, you cannot program and you cannot code all ecus.
If you have in FA an invalid item, will be treated as missed item.
If Checksum error, you will get only a warning.
If we will follow your advice by sorting details of every kind of error in 1000s of functions in our program, we will have more than 10000s errors in our list. For some functions we use only Boolean results, means that if the function succeed or failed, no details, we may find out the problem from log files to help customers.
As I know, no software in the world will be able to tell end user where precisly the error happened in all functions as this will be almost impossible. That's why the log files exist.