A couple questions, are you useing a good copy of software & in the past has the cable worked OK with other Vertex handhelds? That being said try this, hook the cable to the VX180 with the unit turned off, go ahead and go to download (it should say download now, type yes, then it will tell you to turn unit off then on to start programming, (you should have it off) just turn it on & see if it goes, you might try
believe it or not wetting the programming plug (I've licked a couple & they sometimes take right off) other than that. if the unit was OK in previous downloads it should be OK, if all else fails go the the software & open the VHF or UHF default file (you didn't say which the unit was) then try reprogramming the factory default file in the unit, if it takes it then upload it to your computer to be sure it actually did take the defaults, if it did then you should be able to then make changes, don't ask me why it does that but we have had several that we had to reprogram to default file then they were OK, if I can be of any help email me at
midstatecommunications@frontier.net good luck........Fred