Help! Lost ECM during reflash

[Olympic Fox]

A couple of months ago, the truck seemed to have died during a reading of the ECM. OK, that's not supposed to be possible but . . . it did restart but only after sitting for a few hours.

Erik (ScarabEpic22) came over last Friday and flashed it with a tow tune from SoCal Diesel along with an economy tune and the OEM stock tune. When we roadtested it, the truck flew on tow tune but the transmission coughed up a P0735 code at WOT during the 4 > 5 shift.

So, I reflashed to the OEM tune the following day in preparation to take it to the dealer, but then we couldn't get the transmission to act up. So today, I reflashed back to the tow/combo and took it for a spin pulling our 5th wheel. The transmission spit out P0735 again while we were pulling a moderate grade at 1600 in 5th.

So we came back home to flash it back to OEM, but during that flash the EFILive hung on a blocking shortly after clearing the ECM. It repeated the attempts to unblock about 30 times before I told it to stop.

Started over again. Same thing.

Stated over again, but now it says it can't communicate with the ECM. http://forum.efilive.com/images/smilies/new/bad.gif

What now??????

[GMPX]

Try the same thing, pull battery power for 30 seconds (it's safe on the LLY) then retry the flash.
But, the bigger issue is there must be something on your truck causing this to happen all the time (iPod adaptor, XM radio adaptor?).
When Erik was over did you have any problems programming it then?

Cheers,
Ross

[Olympic Fox]

Try the same thing, pull battery power for 30 seconds (it's safe on the LLY) then retry the flash.
But, the bigger issue is there must be something on your truck causing this to happen all the time (iPod adaptor, XM radio adaptor?).
When Erik was over did you have any problems programming it then?

Cheers,
Ross

Erik didn't have any problems programming it last Friday. The truck came with an OEM XM radio, so pulled the radio, radio amp & SEQ B! fuses. We did not pull the power to my Pioneer hardwired GPS or Parrot Bluetooth phone, however.

OTOH, we did have a problem starting afterwards because the batteries were flat (or a weak connection). So we charged the batteries for about 10 minutes & it started.

I left the batteries on the charger Saturday night and most of Sunday.

More about the batteries today. My first reflash today (OEM to Tow Tune) was on a cold engine, but I'd started it and run it for about 5 minutes before shutting down and flashing. No problems.

After driving it about 30 miles, I attempted the Tow Tune to OEM reflash this afternoon. After several failed attempts, I noticed the truck's voltmeter read about 9V. I checked at the right battery and found 0 volts at the cables. I removed the cables on the RH battery and found 12.57V at the battery. Reconnected the cables and put it on a charger again.

That's where we are right now - sitting in the middle of our circular driveway with the 5th wheel hitched and 99.9% blocking the garage. :badidea: We're about to go try to get the wife's Land Crusher out of the garage and put it in the barn. Wish me luck on that or I'm going to be in even deeper doo-doo.

Any suggestions?

Is there a log I can pull out of the software and post?

Steve

[ScarabEpic22]

Hmmm Steve, not sure why this happened? When we full flashed it we didnt have any issues even with the low battery voltage. IIRC we only pulled the radio fuse and just left everything off.. And Ross not sure if it makes a difference but he's full flashing the truck everytime right now to go from the GM OS to the DSP5. Id try pulling the battery Steve for a minute or so. Maybe leave the charger (set to like 12A trickle not the 50A starting one we used) on it while flashing to ensure the voltage doesnt drop.

[Olympic Fox]

UpPdate: After a couple of hours on the charger & disconnecting a couple more devices, I attempted to flash the ECM again.

Didn't work. FYI: I unchecked the highspeed data transfer.
It went like this . . .

Warning
EFILive has detected that this ECM may not have a valid calibration. EFILive can still read the damaged calibration, or reflash a new one.
OR
Make sure you have loaded the correct *.tun file for the attached controller

V

Bootloader rejected.
Reason: no response from ECM

V

Error
Data Transfer was interrupted. Please wait 15 seconds before retrying operation.

==========================================

I'll go disconnect the batteries for a few minutes and retry per Erik's suggestion.

And yes, I'm doing a full reflash so the truck appears stock for the trip to the dealer to repair the transmission on extended warranty.

[Olympic Fox]

OK, I disconnected both batteries for a few minutes. Reconnected them. Put the charger on 2A (trickle), reconnected the netbook . . .

Error
EFILive cannot communicate with the ECM. Disconnect the Scan Tool if it is connected. Please turn off the ignition, check all cables, then turn the key back on and try again.

Did that and got the same results.

[ScarabEpic22]

OK, Ive had this happen a few times before. Sucks, but unplug everything and reboot the PC. Plug the V1 into the truck first, key the truck to the ON position (not ACC), then into the netbook, then open up the tune file to flash. Then full flash it (remember use the BIG red arrow).

[Olympic Fox]

OK, Ive had this happen a few times before. Sucks, but unplug everything and reboot the PC. Plug the V1 into the truck first, key the truck to the ON position (not ACC), then into the netbook, then open up the tune file to flash. Then full flash it (remember use the BIG red arrow).

TADA!! :fluffy:

That did it, Erik. Whew! Thanks.

Steve

[ScarabEpic22]

No problem Steve, it can be finicky sometimes. It once took me a solid 30mins of sitting on the side of the road trying to reflash my friends P10 (4.2L I6) before I got the tune in. He has so many aftermarket electronics though its a royal PITA to deal with, so he only gets the latest tune updates if its something MAJOR haha!

[Olympic Fox]

I thought about putting some more gadgets in my 2500HD, but I ran out of GVWR! Not to mention dashboard real estate.

BTW, CJ was VERY impressed by how quickly the truck accelerated this afternoon pulling the 5th wheel. Really too bad the transmission can't handle it. It wasn't the max power at shift point, but max torque at 1600 pulling a steady grade in 5th.

I think it's been weak for a while 'cause the Banks SpeedBrake kept dropping out complaining that the trans was slipping in 2nd without the trailer.

Thanks again.

Steve

[GMPX]

Erik, thanks for assisting Steve.
Steve, glad you are up and running. Lucky for you the LLY is 99.9% of the time recoverable after a failed reflash (cal or full).
It would be nice if you could go through and just isolate whatever is causing your truck to have issues programming.
Of interest we wrote to a few of the companies that make these iPod adaptors that plug in to the communications wires and told them of the trouble customers were having with them, we even told them what their product was doing wrong.......the response was they didn't care and weren't going to fix it.

Cheers,
Ross

[ScarabEpic22]

Ross, thats good information to know that the LLYs are almost always recoverable. I assume you couldnt get the good ol' P10 to that high of a success rate so thats why full flashing was never implemented. :( Bummer. I cant believe they just blew you off like that, I guess they figured such a small percentage of people would have this issue that is wasnt worth their time and effort. A shame, but Im happy my PAC Aux adapter in the SS doesnt cause any issues (at least I cant see any so far, but only 3 flashes on it). Steve, it definitely made a noticeable difference when we switched from the tow tune to the econ tune then back to stock, that tow tune has got some punch to it! And with the 5th wheel on there, even better! Now to just get that Alli beefed up a little, then we could really turn the boost up a bit and get some serious power! CJ might not like that too much though...hmmm. No idea but the forum's not letting me format my reply in here, sorry its all mushed together.

[Olympic Fox]

Yes, it's very good to know that the LLY ECM are 99.9% recoverable. OTOH, that infers that the LBZ ECM is not. Just thinking ahead since we're talking about getting another truck with an 8' bed for the 5th wheel.

As for the full flashing . . . is there an alternative for those times when I need to take the truck to the dealer for warranty work?

Ross, I have another question. I was reading your page on 'Problems Reading Or Flashing' & it recommends deleting *.blx files regularly. Historically, I've kept process log files for several iterations back so I could see if there was evidence of previous abnormalities that the system managed to get past before and may offer insight into a current issue. Does that make sense? What's the reasoning for deleting the *.blx files?

As for turning up the boost & getting more power vs. the Allison. When we installed the Banks SpeedBrake, the SpeedBrake would drop out on a local 12% grade when using 2nd gear to hold back the truck empty. Since we knew we would be driving over the 12% Atigun Pass with 21,000# combination weight, we had BD Diesel upgrade our Allison valve body (http://www.dieselperformance.com/index.php/product/index/106P) to increase hydraulic pressure on the clutches. It seemed to work fine on the trip, although we had to use 2nd gear in low range to hold our speed down to 13 MPH on the Atigun Pass. Higher gears just wouldn't control our speed. But, a few weeks ago the Allison started spitting out codes in normal driving, suggesting that it's tired.

[ScarabEpic22]

Bummer, I had a whole page thread lined up then FireFox quit on me. Basically a new LLY ECM will run you anywhere from $150-250 depending on location, it should come flashed with the latest GM OS and your VIN. Just undo the 3 connectors and swap them out. I dont know how to remove the LLY ECM, I got the connectors off (so doing it again would be easier) but didnt look how to remove it. I read the specs on that valve body, seems like a good upgrade so Id casually mention to the service guys you want them to reuse your original one.