You cant....Quote:
Originally Posted by cholmes729
Isnt it still in your laptop?
Printable View
You cant....Quote:
Originally Posted by cholmes729
Isnt it still in your laptop?
I do have the original tune(stock), but I cannot communicate to the PCM now(through the car). I am pretty sure my cables are fine, when it tried to connect, it says PCM not found.
Then maybe you really did kill the computer. Do you have the ability to borrow another one, just to see if the car will start?Quote:
Originally Posted by cholmes729
I got another ecm, car tried to start but would not run. I could smell raw fuel like the injectors are pumping fuel. I tried to flash it using my stock 94 tune, this was a 95 PCM, now the fans come on low again, check engine light is not flashing this time, and now when I tried to flash it, the progress bar gets about 50 percent then says Error: Cannot communicate with PCM. Disconnected the batteries for an hour, reconnected, batteries are fully charged, engine cranks with plenty of RPM. This is ECM number 2. This is pissing me off.
What was the original problem? Was it running fine before you tried tuning it?
It was running, driveable, just needed tuned.Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird_1995
Send one out to get repaired and have a stock tune flashed to it. Do not try to reflash it. There is more than likely an issue with the laptop causing the flashing errors with the ecms. I had an old dell that burned up an ecm during flash. They cannot be harmed while downloading the tune from them and its recommended you do that several times before trying to flash.
When you say it needed a "tune" is this because of recent upgrades?
Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird_1995
I was going to say.. is there any chance your Lap top is corrupted.
I had a tuner once who would always fry my computers. He always blamed the old LT1 computer. He would say there was a power surge or whatever, till I started looking over his shoulder.
WHile flashing the car.. all of the sudden he would get virus pop ups....
I bought a used computer.... and I took it off line so it could not go wifi... cleared the entire thing off (no antivir) no nothing... and installed the LT1 edit.
never had a tuning issue of burning up my shit anymore.
THAT REMINDS ME... I HAVE LT1 EDIT!!!!
I'm with Popo on this one......I have a tuning Lappy with nothing but windows updates and LT1 Edit, and scanner software. No other program can popup and run or it can toast the ECM computer.
What it does is interupes the tuning process and the interuption is what causes the software to stop talking to the ECM. It really doesnt fry the computer, but it is locked inbetween two programs is actually
what has happened.
Also having computer plugged in and a batt charger on can do a surge through the ground I think it is that I read.
I recommend to anyone who is gonna do tuning to send in the ECM and have it socketed and order a couple extra sets of chips on hand for just incase. And as they mention Madtuner (Ion is his name I think) is a good person to goto.
In that case, the PCM is most likely fried.Quote:
Originally Posted by cholmes729
There are two flash chips within your PCM: a "T" side and an "E" side. My understanding is that the first 50% of the upload process erases the chips, and then the second 50% uploads the new bin file. Thus, if the programming fails at 50%, then the chips are left empty/blank. They will not communicate again, because there is literally nothing on them -- not even the basic code for i/o communication. Only way to get the chips communicating again is to get them on an external chip burner, which is where "socketing the PCM" comes into play -- you desolder the chips from the board, solder in a plcc socket in their place, and then the flash chips can be easily reprogrammed and replaced -- they simply pop in and out of the socket. I've done this to one of my old PCMs (click for big):
1http://i.imgur.com/xiVdenbs.jpg 2 http://i.imgur.com/lDjAiegs.jpg 3 http://i.imgur.com/WmY4q5Ns.jpg 4 http://i.imgur.com/9U2xRa0s.jpg
5http://i.imgur.com/Dh5mRHBs.jpg6 http://i.imgur.com/2aRKHbms.jpg 7 http://i.imgur.com/63fuT3Is.jpg 8 http://i.imgur.com/8nX5ZdSs.jpg
(Getting the old chips out is the difficult part -- gotta be extremely careful not to lift the traces off the board. New parts were purchased from Ion/Madtuner).
At any rate, your problem is caused by your programming hardware, not the car. I fried my stock PCM because I was using an unreliable USB-to-DB9 serial adapter, which was really buggy when operating at the PCMs unusual baud rate. Since I switched to a PCMCIA adapter (arguably the most reliable adapter, albeit the most expensive), I haven't had a single programming failure in nearly 100 uploads. Reliable hardware is absolutely vital. You may also have to go into Device Manager and fiddle with the port settings. And as already stated by popo/bigtoyz et.al., disable all screen savers and energy-saving shutdown settings, disable wifi, disable anti-virus, disable windows update, exit all other programs, etc. I created a seperate startup mode on my tuning laptop that has everything disabled but the bare essentials.
Above all else, heed firebird_1995's advice. Always, always, always "read"/download the PCM file immediately before uploading a new tune. Always. Make it a habit, each and every single time you upload a new file. If there's a problem with your hardware, then you'll experience the same form of communication error, but it wont fry your PCM during a read-only operation. Once the file has been successfully read from the PCM, then you are usually safe to select and upload a new tune immediately after. Alternatively, I think I also have a program called ALDL Test, which checks whether the cable is communicating properly without having to wait 5 minutes.
To reiterate, your options now are to either find a replacement PCM, or have your current one repaired.