NXSLT1

Can somebody PLEASE tell me if there is some sort of secret to reflashing the ecm?? It happened again tonight...........it reads fine, it logs data fine but when I try to flash a new file the damn thing loses connection right after it erases the old file. What the hell?? This is twice in a week it's happened!!

GhostZ

Could be a bad 'puter...you might want to try buying a new PCM from a vendor ie Madwolf, PCMforless, etc or finding one in a junkyard and try flashing that. Or if you have a buddy who will let you borrow his/hers, swap it over to your ride and give it a try. If it flashes fine, it's your PCM....if not you may have a bad connection anywhere from the cable, ALDL port, wiring or program.

NXSLT1

Well I have a cable from mastach.com. I would have gotten one from AKM but didn't know they existed at the time I got this one. Just wondering if anybody else has had this problem with a mastach cable?? But still it reads and logs data just fine, it just screws up when I try to flash, doesn't make sense.

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

what program you using?

There are many things that can and will cause this. It is going to get expensive real quick if you do not find it soon.

Give us a run down of events. I am guessing OBD-I?

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

What version of windows are you using? My first laptop had ME on it and it was unstable do I ended up having to flash from in DOS

NXSLT1

This is an obd1 conversion in a 96 TA. I'm using tunercat on Windows XP. I have a cable from mastach.com. I'm using an e-machine desktop right now because my laptop refuses to give me any serial ports for some reason. There are a couple tests to see if the cable is working fine, I did those and it is working fine. As I said it will read the pcm fine, it will let me log data fine with datamaster but when I start to flash it it'll start to erase the memory(it says this on the screen) then load the new file. As soon as it says it's loading the new file I get a message that says something like "wrong message sent", then it attempts to flash it again, then I get the same error message. I hear the fans come on and they stay on and I cant read nor write to it. This could get really expensive if I dont find out whats up.

NXSLT1

I also disable everything that I absolutely do not need, only the bare minimum is running on the puter.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

You do understand that as soon as the pcm is locked up by a partial reflashing that it needs repair before you can do anything with it again. The chips need to desoldered from the board and placed in a specific fixure that can reflash them, I then chose to pay a little more and have removable sockets put on the board that way if this happens again you just pop the chips out of the board and mail them out instead of the whole pcm, costs a little more to have those sockets put in but then you save money because the next time they do not have too desolder the chips you just pop them out and mail them in. http://madz28.com/repair.php

NXSLT1

Yes I know all that. I got sockets and chips from Ion off of madz28.com. I soldered them in friday night and drove the car for a few hours saturday. He put a "generic" tune on the chips and it ran fine but the fans were on way too early and it was an A4 tune and the skip shift was all screwed up because of that, it wouldn't let me in third or fifth gear. So, I was trying to put an M6 file in it when I got the partial flash. Same thing as last time, had an A4 file in it and everything was screwed up. Could it be possible that I just have an ecm that doesn't take to flashing very well? I'm almost tempted to buy one from Ion, that way I know it can be flashed, and if it happens with that ecm then I know it's my computer setup.

Rob 94Hawk 319

iTrader: (7)

I haven't played with Tunercat, but are the files VIN dependant? Are you trying to upload a file from a different VIN than the PCM you're uploading it to?

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

TC does not care about the VIN that is one of the benifits of it. You got new chips from Ion so I don't think that is the problem. I really do not know what too say other than send Ion a good tune for your car that he can put in one set of chips and don't mess with those just reflash the other set. Any chance there is someone close by that has a cable you could try?

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Well at this point it might be easier to get a pocket programmer and flash the chips off board.

Food for thought!

NXSLT1

Pocket programmer, explain? You mean something to let me flash the chips myself instead of sending them off to Ion? How much would one of those cost? I might get a cable from AKM and try it and use the other puter I built(the one I use everyday) Have yall ever heard of an ecm just not being able to be flashed?? First thing is I've got to get some more chips and then go from there.

NXSLT1

Here's what I'm gonna do, Ion only charges $10 plus shipping to fix corrupted chips, $5 more for an additional set, so I'm gonna send him my chips, get an AKM cable, because he said it could possibly be the mastach cable I'm using, and try it one more time. The pocket programmer is not a feasible option since it costs $220. I'll post the results as soon as I get the cable and chips just in case somebody has this trouble in the future.

lt1dave

iTrader: (7)

your battery is probably low/bad. When the flash begins, the fans kick on for a couple seconds. A bad battery or connection will drop voltage and the pcm will loose communication. unplug your fan relays or hook up a charger to verify this without killing another pcm