Full Flash of Gen III 1MB PCM

The vehicle is a 2004 GTO with a 5.3. I have attempted in the past to read the PCM but it appeared to be locked. Since that time, the owner has fabricated and installed a turbo kit and he's asked me to tune it.

Last night I tried doing a Full Flash of COS3 (04110003) thinking that I wouldn't have a problem with the PCM being locked since I was overwriting everything. The bootloader was rejected repeatedly. I tried every combination of high/low speed and ALT Keys, connect/disconnect, and ignition cycles.

One footnote, I typically don't license the PCM until I know it will actually read and write properly so that a license isn't wasted. I will normally start the flash process and wait for the message to appear asking me to license the PCM. In this case I never saw that message.

Details:

PCM Service #: 12586243

V7.5.6 (Build 133)

Bootblock: 2.06.03

FW: 2.06.41



As you can imagine the owner is quite anxious to hear the car run for the first time. Hopefully someone can help me make that happen for him :cheers:

Thanks,
Brad

so you selected the correct controller ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vxchev8

so you selected the correct controller ?

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Gen III LS1 99-08 PCM

If it's locked, you won't be able to flash it.

Joe is quite correct. A locked controller cannot be read or flashed without knowing the key used to lock the controller. If the customer doesn't know this code your best and quickest option is going to be getting a replacement PCM.

Whoa first upgrade your software and firmware, that is really old now.

If it is locked either by a previous tuner with a custom key then you either need that key or to have them unlock it. Or if it is a HPT COS you'll have to have someone with HPT reflash it back to a stock OS so you can tune it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScarabEpic22

Whoa first upgrade your software and firmware, that is really old now.

If it is locked either by a previous tuner with a custom key then you either need that key or to have them unlock it. Or if it is a HPT COS you'll have to have someone with HPT reflash it back to a stock OS so you can tune it.

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Care to point me to the new FW? The control panel tells me I'm ok with 2.06.41. Doesn't the control panel keep track of new FW updates?

Somewhere I got the idea that a locked PCM could be overwritten with a Full OS Flash. Learn something new everyday I guess :doh2:

Thanks guys.

-Brad

Brad,

V7.5.6.157 and V8.2.1.151 are software versions: see here.

Brad, my bad the link Joe posted is to the main EFILive Downloads section which is the latest software, firmware, and bootblock for your V2. You need both EFILive V7.5 and V8.

And no, if the PCM is locked that means EFILive cannot load its own bootloader to overwrite the OS/cal. If its locked, you cant brute force a full flash unless you pull the chip off the board and bench flash the chip that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DPS

Care to point me to the new FW? The control panel tells me I'm ok with 2.06.41. Doesn't the control panel keep track of new FW updates?
-Brad

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Hi Brad,

The control panel can only inform you of new firmware updates if you have downloaded and installed the latest software.

You can periodically check the web site links that Joe posted, or you can periodically check for new software updates by selecting the EFILive Start menu options:
Start->All Programs->EFILive->V7.5->Tools->Check for New Update
and
Start->All Programs->EFILive->V8->Tools->Check for New Update
The V8 software contains the firmware, so you must download and install V8 to get the firmware updates.

The software used to do that automatically once per week, however (due to unacceptable overheads) the automatic checking was removed.
It is now up to the user to check for new updates on a regular basis.

Regards
Paul

It wasn't until I updated the software last night that I realized that the FW was bundled with V8. I'm all up to date now.

The owner is shopping a new PCM now.

Thanks everyone :cheers: