Tunercat bricked my LT1 PCM

[sorepunk]

Yup, Tunercat bricked my PCM this morning, I should have used Flashhack. I heard the fans come on, then an error message popped up and it crashed, I tried flashhack and it says the kernel can't be loaded. Tunercat has been a little wonky lately, I really should have known better than to use it to write. It's a '95 PCM that I've flashed half a dozen times before without any problems, and this was going to be the last time I would have had to do it, I guess it's repair or replace the PCM?

[steveo]

unfortunately with tunercat (or a lot of other tools like that) if it makes to to the 'erase' stage, it has to then finish the whole reflash or the ECM will crash when booting. if it didn't make it to the 'erase' stage it might just be badly crashed, you could try cutting power to the ECM for a bit and trying again.

the guy that writes tunercat has a service that repairs them, might want to send it off if he still does that. he is a good guy. they say 'you get what you pay for', and services and support like that are definitely what you pay for with commercial stuff

wouldn't hurt to get a spare from a wreckers if you can find one in the mean time, although these are becoming antiques, they can be a bit harder to find these days in great condition...

I should have used Flashhack.

you know i usually wouldn't recommend my hacky drunken ameture experimental software over a well known commercial solution, but this time i can't argue with you. the amount of time me and kur4o put into disaster avoidance in that tool is extreme. it totally obsoletes all other lt1 flash tools by a huge functional margin, both speed and reliability.

[LeMarky Dissod]

Were I in your place, first thing I'd do is let TunerCAT know about it, in as much detail as possible.
He deserves a chance to learn from, and do something about this.

[sorepunk]

I disconnected the PCM, I'll try again in a couple of hours. Someone also told me that tunercat doesn't play nicely with Windows 10, which is what I'm using.

[sorepunk]

Waited a couple of hours and tried again, still won't communicate but when I turn the key on the fans run continuously. It almost starts, but stalls immediately.

[LeMarky Dissod]

Someone also told me that tunercat doesn't play nicely with Windows 10, which is what I'm using.

I've personally witnessed TunerCAT OBD2 brick 10x more OBD2 LT1 pcms in Windows 7 than TunerCAT OBD1 in Windows 7.
That said, no experience using TunerCAT OBD1 LT1 with Windows 10 or 11, because I'm not willing to try it - I see no reason.
TunerCAT OBD1 LT1 works just fine in Windows 7.

Again, I think you should give TunerCAT a chance to fix your pcm.
On a related but separate note, there are still quite a few junkyard OBD1LT1 pcms from car-part.com for $80 shipped or less.

[sorepunk]

I sent TC an email, we'll see what he says, and I have a PCM coming from Custom ECM, so progress is being made.

[NomakeWan]

Hopefully TC can sort you out with your original PCM. When you get the new one (or get your old one fixed), definitely give Flashhack a shot! It's pretty darn nice. Speedier than TunerCat (especially after the first time you read or write) and way more reliable in all respects, even on a modern OS like 10. If TunerCats fails partway through you're SOL. Flashhack can recover from anything other than a very small window right at the start.

Best of luck either way!

[sorepunk]

I nearly used flashhack instead this morning, I sure wish I had, I also have had good results with it.

[sorepunk]

Just shipped off my PCM to Tunercat, you guys were right, they have a very reasonable repair program. So I'll have another PCM on Thursday and this one when TC is done with it.