Thanks all, great thread!
Have been reading on this topic extensively as of late as I am on my second e53 X5 (love the looks of this, more of a mans X than the newer version IMO) anyway the stealership obviosly has little to no knowledge of what they can do with coding.

I now have in my hands the 1.4.0 module, came with a driver ( little mini cd). The ebay ad looked like it had some easy click the modules software.. Havent been able to confirm this because I havent owned a PC in at least a decade.

So on my to do list:
1. Obtain PC laptop
2. Obtain NCSExpert and GT1
3. Ask if there is any other software out there I should look into.

If anyone has info pertaining to #'s 2 and 3 PLEASE PM me the info!
Much appreciated, Im loving this forum!
Thanks in advance!

I bought a used Dell D620 on ebay with a 1.5 ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 80 gb hd, and Windows XP, with 1 gb ram, for about 90 bucks shipped, and also bought the software package with OBD II USB cable from Romania for 40 bucks. Everything was very self explanatory and in a few hours over the course of the day I have INPA, NCS, DIS, SSSProgman, and everything else installed. Works flawlessly.

BMW USB OBD Diagnostic Cable Inpa Ediabas Dis SSS GT1 | eBay

Similar to laptop I bought (the seller I bought from sold all of his)

Dell Latitude D620 14" Laptop Core 2 Duo T5500 1 6GH 1GB RAM 160GB DVDRW WiFi XP 890552699575 | eBay

Info on how to obtain the software and cable are well-documented HERE

RB, what version of SSSProgman do you have?

v32 I believe, and v57 of DIS the Romanian guy put on his "software suite" of dvd's, I haven't run Progman yet but I installed it since I figured I would install all the programs since the laptop will be solely for diagnostics/coding. It's really excellent though and I was impressed how easy everything was to install and configure. On Bimmerforums it literally scares the shit out of you reading all the install instructions but the dude from Romania packaged everything so it sets it all up for you, only thing you have to configure is the USB port.

Waiting on a new extended cell battery to come in the mail from ebay (currently the laptop shuts down completely if you unplug the AC adapter), when that comes in it should make things easier. I need to start reading up on using NCS and stuff so I can hopefully do some coding for locals.

I replaced my windshield wiper stalk which required removing the damn steering wheel and now have an airbag light.

I had difficulty getting Inpa installed and finally got it running with this error so updated it. After the update I have lost e53. I tried e39 since they are mechanically similar and still get this error:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...psd13c895c.jpg

I saw that meant a port issue (I told it to use USB emulation during install) I found a post on e46 fanatics that directed me to a folder with USB settings.

I changed it as directed with no change.

I missed that in the body of the post, it said com1 where the file said 5. Changed it to 1, past the com error now get: ifh-0009: no response from controlunit.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ps73024ca4.jpg

It's really odd. It reads the modules and sees what the car has:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ps8ec7dea9.jpg

It read the trans errors & said it cleared them (there were none)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ps8570fe83.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ps97e7f283.jpg

How do I get e53 back on the list?

I uninstalled & reinstalled without the update and have e53 back. It accepts commands to run the electric fan and do other things but says no response when I try to reset the airbag.

does it even read any info about the airbag? or - just no response from the module? if there is a no response, what are the chances that a pin or a wire got compromized when you did the steering wheel? the error could be related to the fact that the car expects to see the module and can't see the module...

In this section it never communicates. I found something that has it run through all the modules and it sees the airbag.