Major DSP Problem!!

[jeremybaumgardner]

I bought the efilive software only a couple weeks ago from nick at duramaxtuner.com and installed the dsp5 switch about a week later. Everything worked fine at first, no problems whatsoever. I decided I wanted to change a couple of the tunes on the switch, I went to reflash and it fried my ecm with 3 seconds left on the clock. I talked to nick and he sent me out another one very quickly, thanks nick, I put it in and tried a full reflash and it did it again. This time there was 4 seconds left on the clock. As of right now I am very disappointed with efilive because they have been known to be the best in the industry for tuning truck. Nick is trying to get me, once again, another ecm but this is starting to get pretty expensive...its really getting out of hand. Hopefully efilive will be willing to help me figure out this problem very soon. Anybody else out there have any problems of this sort?

[GMPX]

Jeremy, EFILive has been used for tuning LLY's for at least 4 or 5 years now, do you really think we would be the number one PC tuner for the Duramax if flash failures like your one were happening all the time? I don't understand why you would post on this board such negative comments towards EFILive and then ask for help from them.
First thing, LLY ECM's, 99% of the time these can always be recovered if something goes wrong with the flash.
If there is now two non responsive ECM's you need to question more than EFILive as the issue.

[GMC-2002-Dmax]

I have never had a LLY ECM go bad, maybe you should have asked Nick to bench flash one for you and maybe you should have asked Nick to try and bench flash the two that you are having problems with.

I suspect it is something in your truck causing the issues because I have flashed hundreds of ECM's over the last 5 years and have never had any issues.

Any aftermarket items installed in your truck ? I-Pod Adapters, Navigation Unit, Non-Factory Stereo's ?? Alarm systems ?? Things that make noise on the data bus during a flash ?? Weak Laptop battery, Weak Truck Batteries ?

Those are just some of the issues that EFI-Live has ZERO CONTROL over, to come here and start complaining without facts is not a smart thing to in IMHO.

I hope you and Nick figure out what is wrong with the process but I would bet the bank it's not EFI-LIVE !

[jeremybaumgardner]

I know I may have sounded a little harsh, but these ecms aren't cheap as you probably already know...I did it the same as before and I had no issues that time. I can't afford to keep going through all this over and over. I do not have any aftermarket accessories at all on the truck, my laptop battery was at 100% and the truck batteries are in good shape. I don't know what could have caused it because I had my dsp5 working fine for a few days, but wanted to change a couple of the tunes. Nothing I changed was very drastic at all. Everything seemed to be going fine until the very end both times.

GMPX you said that the ecm can be recovered most of the time if something goes wrong with the flash, I think I have tried pretty much everything without any progress...what other options do I have, if any? Sorry if I offended you or anybody and I also edited my first post and made it a little more appropriate. It has just been a very frustrating last few days...

[Ira]

So try these in order:

1. Scan for trouble code
2. Read out the current tune
3. Flash in the stock tune

Ira

[GMC-2002-Dmax]

If you would like to send me the two non-responsive ecm's I will put them on my bench harness and see if they can be full flashed back to life.

I have a workshop cable, all you are out is postage if they are bricks I will send them back to you or to Nick.

Let me know.

Tony

[Cougar281]

If EFILive can't recover them, is there any chance a Tech2 could?

[GMPX]

Nope, TechII has no hope.

The only time I've seen bricked LLY ECM's was from a handheld tuner, I think DURAtotheMAX sent them to me years ago, do you remember what happened to them?

[wilsonck]

I thought I bricked my ecm about a month ago trying to do a full flash for a dsp5 tune too. But, I undid the batteries for 5-10 min, then read the ecm and it worked fine. I did not have the onstar fuse pulled, but I always pull the radio and info fuses, so this may have been my problem.

Try this with one of your "bricked" ecms.

[Cougar281]

I thought I bricked my ecm about a month ago trying to do a full flash for a dsp5 tune too. But, I undid the batteries for 5-10 min, then read the ecm and it worked fine. I did not have the onstar fuse pulled, but I always pull the radio and info fuses, so this may have been my problem.

Try this with one of your "bricked" ecms.

FWIW, I've never pulled any fuses in my 04, and have never had any problems with reading or flashing while it had the LLY ECM & TCM.

[bballer182]

I thought I bricked my ecm about a month ago trying to do a full flash for a dsp5 tune too. But, I undid the batteries for 5-10 min, then read the ecm and it worked fine. I did not have the onstar fuse pulled, but I always pull the radio and info fuses, so this may have been my problem.

Try this with one of your "bricked" ecms.

I had a buddy who was full flashing a DSP5 one night on the side of the road and he thought that he had bricked his ECM too but i told him that he should do as you did and everything went just fine after that. He now pulls his fuses and hasn't had a problem since.


FWIW, I've never pulled any fuses in my 04, and have never had any problems with reading or flashing while it had the LLY ECM & TCM.

I have read sooo many times that some need to and some don't. I haven't started a database and tried to correlate the problem or the need to pull fuses, to a specific or a group of specific reasons why some people need to pull fuses and some don't. But what i would guess is that there is some combination of factory accessories / non-factory accessories and/or software updates or the lack thereof on those accessories that is causing the problems with flashing on the Delphi ECM's.

[jeremybaumgardner]

I ended up getting my original one to work. The same day that I thought I fried it, I tried disconnecting the batteries for 30 min then tried reflashing again and it didn't work. Thats when I got ahold of Nick and he sent me another the next day, I tried it and it did the same thing so after reading and searching to see if anybody else out there has had this problem I came across someone who did and their fix was to leave the ecm unplugged for a full day...I tried putting the stock tune back on and it worked. Not quite sure why it worked but it did. When I tried flashing the ecm from Nick I had to buy another license and since it didn't work I was wondering if there was any way I could get that money refunded?

So if anybody else has a ecm problem and may think it is fried, try unplugging it for a full day and starting over...it should work.

Thanks for all the help everybody.

[bballer182]

another quicker solution would be to disconnect the batteries (both) and wait 5 minutes and then touch the positive cable to the negative cable or ground to drain and capacitors that may be retaining any voltage. the operation is called "brain deading"

[killerbee]

I have frequently been able to restore life to "dead" ecm's. Some keystrokes work better than others.

[DURAtotheMAX]

Nope, TechII has no hope.

The only time I've seen bricked LLY ECM's was from a handheld tuner, I think DURAtotheMAX sent them to me years ago, do you remember what happened to them?

Im the only one whos bricked an LLY ECM?? Im pretty proud of/impressed with myself. :hihi:

That was definitely an odd failure. It would still start and run the engine, but it had literally shut off all communications to the outside world. Nothing could communicate with it, not a tech 2, not efilive, not the instrument cluster, NOTHING. Yet it would still start/run the engine...I have no idea how thats even possible, but I managed to prove it is possible...... Its like it was brain dead, but still had a heartbeat.