URGENT: Stuck in Limp Mode 536 miles from home!

We are currently stuck in limp mode in Raton, NM. I think either my memcal or my chip are bad, or both.

This morning I made some changes to my .bin; VE table, spark advance, and deceleration enleanment. Burned the bin to my chip, verified it, and put it back in the PCM. Immediately upon starting I had a check engine light. I tried connecting the apu1 to read the error code, but it wouldn't connect. I have all the ports and setting and files correct. I tried switching to my spare PCM, no connection. I tried doiong a jumper wire in the obd1 port to read error codes, no connection, CEL solid on. I swapped out my memcal for one I have from the spare computer, and was able to connect using the jumper and using the apu1, got a code 12. I have tried every combination of memcal, PCM, and chip. I can only connect when it has just the memcal from the 4l60e vehicle. If I put the G1 adaptor with the good memcal, I can't connect the apu1 and it never goes into closed loop. I can run the known good memcal and it goes into closed loop but it won't shift into 2nd since that memcal is from a 4l60e.

Another thing that happened was during troubleshooting, I took the chip and put it in the apu1 and tried to verify the file. It said not verified a few times. I then noticed that the chip was getting hot, quite hot! Everything was plugged in correctly. I disconnected and restarted everything and was able to get the chip to burn again and verify, but I strill have no connectivity.

We are in sort of a bad way here. We are attempting a family vacation to Colorado and are stuck 536 miles from home. We have a small tow vehicle that I can drive to get parts, and we can drive this van in limp mode, but it runs very rich and I'm afraid of damaging something.

What should I do? Is it probably a bad memcal, or a bad chip, or both? Why did this happen? How screwed are we?

I went back to the bin I was running before making any changes this morning and it doesn't make any difference.

This is no good!

If you're in limp mode then the pcm will not give codes. Several things could kill the chip. If somehow APU1's program or read voltage is too high, or if APU1 is configured for wrong chip, or if static electricity discharges through the chip, or if the chip was installed backward, then it's done. You could program 4L80E calibration into 4L60E memcal but make darn sure "everything" is correct first.

Find someone with a wrecking yard, or a repair shop, and see if they will take pity and locate an ecm / memcal for the 4L80E.

How would I program the memcal for the 4L80?

Are you just using the APU1 to burn your chip and then inserting it into the G1 adaptor, have you tried with the APU1 connected directly to the G1 adaptor via the ribbon cable?

Don't have the cable right now. Moates is shipping a cable and a chip to Colorado springs, arriving Monday.

I just don't understand why the memcal would go bad. How could a bad chip hurt the memcal?

Is there a local electronics store where you are at the moment that you could buy a blank chip from?

some times the legs on the chips get oxidies and you can very easy scrape it off with a pocket knife then it will work.when this happens my programmer picks the chip up as a sst 040 instead of sst 512.

I wound up driving in our tow vehicle 5 hours round trip to get another PCM. It came out of a Ryder truck, and actually shifted better than the original memcal / prom. I'm working on pulling the bin off the chip now (I'm still unsure of the terminology here). The PCM box says BCC BNKN but the memcal says BXSK. I've got another chip now so we are doing alright.