Just tried this on an XP computer that just had Digital Camera Utility v4.11 on it. I installed RA v1.0 and it picked up the *ist DS straight away. At first it didn't work because I had a 50mm manual focus lens on it and had the slide switch set to AF and the Menus set to allow AF in remote shooting. I left it as it was and put a 50mm AF lens on.... It worked first time, even the red dot for the AF pops up on the screen.

It only seems to capture as PEF regardless of what you set on the camera. If you set Jpg in RA it switches it back to PEF when you click to take.

Exposure was set to Manual but the remote exp. lock button will take a reading and set the camera to it. The RA green button does nothing. You can set aperture and speed from RA to whatever you want and it works OK.

The CD you have is the only one that came with the camera apart from the manual which was on another CD.

There seems to be some confusion over the version of RA for the *ist D?
The website lists 1.0/1.01 The PC version seems to be just 1.0,
possibly the Mac version is 1.01.

A 10 page *istDS Brochure is still available from link

Also includes a bit about the flashgun.

I was browsing the classifieds to see what my old *ist DS would be worth when I came across this thread. You seem to be struggling so I thought I'd better point you in the right direction considering you bought the camera for tethered shooting. I've since had a K10D, K20D and now K-7 but from memory... v2.02 FW (latest I think) works fine on a PC with the *ist D software. When I first tried it I only put on the Remote Assistant and it didn't locate the camera. I then put the full package on and at first nothing. Then I searched the US Pentax Forum (which is the one I usually use) and found quite a few posts mainly saying that at first you had to persevere.... switch the camera on/off a few times... Close and open the Remote Assistant a few times until they find one another. After that it worked and they found each other and next time I used Remote Assistant it picked up the camera straight away.

When I put the K10D package on it showed up the two Remote Assistant's and gave me a choice which to use.... I don't think the K10D version picked up the *ist DS, but still worked with the Remote Assistant for the *ist D through the K10D browser.

Sorry I don't know about Mac's and I'm not a regular on here so maybe someone with a Mac can help.