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View Full Version : Battery Died While Flashing/ PCM Wont Unlock!!!


baileydirt27
February 23rd, 2013, 07:03 PM
While doing a reflash on my 2002 Trans Am with an LS3 engine (still using LS1 PCM) the battery died in the car. Which caused the flash to fail which at the time I figured was no good, I just didnt know how bad it was going to be! I did the PCM recovery to get the PCM working again but now for some reason everytime I try to reflash It fails to unlock the PCM. I can use alt keys and it might unlock it every couple of cycles that it tries but it will imediately re-arm and cause the bootloader to fail. Is there anything I can do or have I fried my PCM?

Thanks,

Patrick
ddnspider
February 24th, 2013, 04:05 AM
I had the same issue on a car I tuned. I had to keep trying and disconnect and reconnect the battery a few times and it finally went through. Something else that helped was to uncheck the high speed mode when you're flashing it.
baileydirt27
February 24th, 2013, 06:38 AM
Thanks, I will give that a try.
baileydirt27
March 3rd, 2013, 09:14 AM
I have tried to unhook the battery a number of times but have had no luck, is there anything else I can do or should I just get a new PCM?
ddnspider
March 3rd, 2013, 12:47 PM
I have tried to unhook the battery a number of times but have had no luck, is there anything else I can do or should I just get a new PCM?

Did you try turning off the high speed data transfer like I suggested?
baileydirt27
March 3rd, 2013, 08:17 PM
Did you try turning off the high speed data transfer like I suggested?

Yes I did.

Seems like it is in some type of protective mode that re-arms the PCM everytime EFI-Live is about to launch the bootloader. It will unlock it after 2 or 3 attempts, then re-arm. Then it will try 2-3 more times and when it unlocks and rearms the second time it says bootloader cannot be launched because PCM has returned to normal operating mode, then displays the error report telling me to cut the key off and try the flash again.
ddnspider
March 4th, 2013, 12:28 AM
Yes I did.

Seems like it is in some type of protective mode that re-arms the PCM everytime EFI-Live is about to launch the bootloader. It will unlock it after 2 or 3 attempts, then re-arm. Then it will try 2-3 more times and when it unlocks and rearms the second time it says bootloader cannot be launched because PCM has returned to normal operating mode, then displays the error report telling me to cut the key off and try the flash again.

Thats not a good sign. Other options are to try and do a read instead of a flash or also try a full flash. Keep the high speed turned off as that is what I had best luck with trying to save the PCM.
baileydirt27
March 4th, 2013, 03:27 PM
Thats not a good sign. Other options are to try and do a read instead of a flash or also try a full flash. Keep the high speed turned off as that is what I had best luck with trying to save the PCM.

I hadnt thought of doing a read, I will give that a try.