I just got my EFI Live from Mcrat the other day and I finally had some time to play with it today. I removed my Predator from the truck and made a couple attempts at reading my stock ECM and it would get about 1/4 the way done reading it then it would stop. I let it sit and try to start reading it again, but after almost 20 min. it was still stuck. The laptop wasn't locked up either, because everything else on it was working fine. I ended up just hitting the cancel button and loading my stock program back in with the predator so I could drive the truck. Has anyone else had this problem? I had and still use HP Tuners on my old truck, so custom tuning isn't new to me. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

Do you have an aftermarket radio or DVD? If so, pull the fuse.

Also, are you running the latest version of EFIlive and have it set to LLY? (sounds simple but better ask anyway).;)

If you have multiple USB ports, try a different port. My laptop has 4 ports on the back and two on the side. The two on the side seem to work better than the 4 in the back.

If that doesn't work, go to http://store.efilive.com/download.aspx
and download the V3 USB driver.

Yeah, if you have aftermarket stereo equip, pull radio fuse(s).

Make sure ign is in RUN.
Try different USB ports.
Close app, unplug cable, plug cable back in, and try again.

Yes it can sometimes be a PITA, and I'm sorry, but so far everyone has gotten the software to run.

Just reading the ECM shouldn't hurt the ECM tune even if something goes wrong. Why did you have to reload the stock tume from the Predator? Was the ECM corrupted?

I didn't get a chance to try it again since I have been busy all day, but the radio is all stock, latest version of EFI, and its set to LLY. I have 2 USB ports, I'm gunna try the other one.

As far as hurting the ECM, I wouldn't have thought reading it would have hurt it either, thats why I hit the stop button, but then the truck wouldn't start. I reloaded the Predator on 85 and its been running fine since.

I hope to get time later today to try it again.

I didn't get a chance to try it again since I have been busy all day, but the radio is all stock, latest version of EFI, and its set to LLY. I have 2 USB ports, I'm gunna try the other one.

As far as hurting the ECM, I wouldn't have thought reading it would have hurt it either, thats why I hit the stop button, but then the truck wouldn't start. I reloaded the Predator on 85 and its been running fine since.

I hope to get time later today to try it again.

Aftermarket security systems and some remote starts have been known to cause these issues too. Pulling fuses helps. Did you try disabling high speed? You can send a *.blx file to Ross from EFI so he can tell what is happening.

Normally if it stops reading at the very start (Like 4K - 16K) then something else on the communications bus is interrupting the process. However, you are getting much further than that. The problem you describe I have seen on my desktop PC, it has a bunch of USB ports, like 6 or 8 (I can't remember) and on just one of them it will freeze when trying to read an ECM, I have no idea why, 1 of all those ports!.
I have never been able to fix the problem, however, one day I was messing around and I had a powered USB extention cable plugged in to that port that was running another device in another room, I just happened to try hooking up the flashscan adaptor via the USB extention lead and it actually cured the problem. So then, I got a small 1to4 USB hub and tried that, again, problem fixed. But once I went direct, it would fail.
So, what does this all mean?, well, I measured the voltages at the USB plug, with the USB hub plugged in it was actually lower than going direct :eek: so I don't even think it is a voltage drop issue.
Unfortunately I don't have a solid answer to the problem, apart from try the other USB port, try plugging in a USB hub and going via that (not an ideal solution, but more to prove the point). BTW, you can pick those up on Ebay for less than $10.

Now, the other issue of the truck not starting, that is quite weird. Once the PC terminates comms with the ECM, the ECM detects this and 'should' reset itself. One thing, you will need to turn the key off first, this way the ECM will reboot correctly when you try to run the engine again.

Cheers,
Ross

wow bobo sounds like deja vu all over again

Hmm. Mine just stopped at 5k. So I stopped it, thought I better go pull the radio fuses. Truck won't start. Let it sit a minute with the key off, still wouldn't start. Tried again to read it with efi and it just says ecm may not have a valid calibration. Crap.

And then if I try to make it do it anyway, it says bootloader rejected, no response from ecm.

I thought just reading the ecm wouldn't cause any changes to it?

It says I can still overwrite it with a different tune, maybe I should just do that?

I also noticed I hadn't put the register stuff in it yet, but it hadn't said anything about that when I tried to read the ecm... It finally just said it after I was sitting here reading for a while. Told me that it was now set to demo, even though it was plugged into the truck and had tried to read already.

And I restart the program and make changes to a tune file I downloaded and save them no problem without that popping up... Odd...

It is very odd that the truck won't start after a read because you are correct, nothing is changed.
The non license thing won't cause comms issues. I noticed in your sig you have some aftermarket stereo gear, any chance these are wired into the data bus?

Cheers,
Ross

I have the adapter that plugs it into it. I hadn't pulled the fuse the first time I tried it. Stupid of me... :nono:
After it stopped I pulled the fuses for the radio that I pulled when installing the predator. Truck already would not start then. Tried again to pull the ecm calibrations and it said invalid ecm cal.

Might be worth mentioning this is a new ecm, I took it in to the dealer a couple weeks ago to have them put the newest flash in it because it idled rough, and they killed the ecm. So this one was just put in a couple weeks ago.

I wonder if it is worth waiting to see if anything works later or if I should just install a stock tune I downloaded off here just to make it run.

Truck starts now after letting it sit a while with the key off, about 30 min.

Odd.

Well it drove and seemed ok. Time to pass out, I'll mess with it tomorrow maybe. I'd bet it was my own stupidity in not pulling the radio fuse even though I knew I should. :banghead: Always getting in a hurry.... :nono:

I am having the same problem as nar....my truck is stranded in my driveway. I attempted to read the ecm again and it got alot farther this time before it stopped, but after it stopped the truck won't start. I attempted to reload another tune and it says the ecm isn't calibrated, no response from ecm. EFI live is not set to demo and stereo is stock.

HELP!!!!!!! Any suggestions???? Why is my EFI live screwing up my computer when its only supposed to be "reading" the ecm???

I believe you are having a security system issue. Something is communicating on the data bus while EFI is doing the read. This interruption causes the read to fail. Do you have an aftermarket remote start or security system? Aftermarket stereo equipment can do it too (ie: XM, Sirus, etc) Stackedup had this problem and it was a matter of pulling fuses to get the ECM to read. He pulled the Radio 15A, the Info 15A directly below it, the Radio Amp 30A to the right of the Info fuse, and the SEO IGN 10A above the IPC/DIC fuse. He also shut the breaker for his stereo system off. Have you guys sent *.blx files to Ross? PM him for details. Try to eliminate as much of your aftermarket electronic equipment as possible first. Also, make sure you have the latest version of EFI downloaded and installed.

I am having the same problem as nar....my truck is stranded in my driveway. I attempted to read the ecm again and it got alot farther this time before it stopped, but after it stopped the truck won't start. I attempted to reload another tune and it says the ecm isn't calibrated, no response from ecm. EFI live is not set to demo and stereo is stock.

HELP!!!!!!! Any suggestions???? Why is my EFI live screwing up my computer when its only supposed to be "reading" the ecm???

Call me 661-775-5620 and I'll walk through some trouble shooting.

bobo, I do have an alarm/remote start, but it came with the truck when I bought it and hasn't ever worked. I will go try pulling the fuses the you suggested and try again. What should I attempt to do, read the ecm or reflash another tune on to it? Since it says corrupted ecm, wouldn't that mean that I have to reflash it?? Thanks for the help by the way...I really appreciate it!!

Get the truck started first( you might need to let it sit, undisturbed, for an hour to get it to start). After it starts, turn the ignition off and pull the fuses I listed and any other fuses/breakers that are associated with aftermarket accessories. Finally, try to read your tune. Once you get the tune to read, save the tune. Having your stock tune is the most important part. Once you get that, you can try to figure out why it wouldn't read to begin with. The ECM should be able to be flashed after you have done a successful read, with the same procedure for removing fuses...etc. You should try to isolate the fuse pulled that is enabling the ECM to be read. You can do this by reading the ecm, then putting one fuse back in and reading it again...keep going until the fuse you install stops the reading process. Once you figure it out, install all fuses minus the fuse that stopped the read and try to read it....if it works, you found the problem. If it don't you have more than one circuit causing your problem. Try to isolate the other circuit causing the problem.

00sierra, I am quite puzzled as to why your truck will not restart after the failed read. Out of interest, pull the USB cable when it freezes, turn the IGN off, wait 20seconds and see if it will restart.

I suspect the message you are seeing about the corrupted ECM is because EFILive is trying to initiate the communications with the ECM again but there is no response, hence, it assumes the ECM must be corrupted. Trust me, it won't alter anything in the flash when reading.

As Bobo suggested, pull one fuse at a time and retry, normally this would not be required, but, there is something causing EFILive some grief, this is really the only way to isolate it.

Cheers,
Ross

Well, after talking to Trippin I think I got it narrowed done to the USB driver on my laptop. The truck ended up starting after I let it sit about 20 min. so I am happy about that. Pulling the fuses helped, it got alot farther along then it was before.

Guy, I am working on downloading the newer driver from EFI Lives website, but I was having some computer troubles this evening and didn't get to it till now. I really appreciate the help. I also plan on getting ahold of another laptop to try and see if that works. I'm prolly just going to end up buying a newer/better laptop soon anyway.

Thanks again for the help everybody. I will be sure to let you know how I made out with the other laptop/usb driver.

Ross, you want me to pull the cable as soon as it freezes, instead of hitting the stop button or waiting the 15 seconds it tells me to?

With regards to the drivers we unfortunately have no control over them, they are supplied as is from FTDI (who make the USB chip). They did release what they call version3 drivers that seem to work better for some. These are available from our website to download.

The reason I suggested pulling the USB cable was to ensure the PC <> ECM communications line was broken, once that occurs the ECM should reset itself within 10 - 20 seconds if the IGN is off.
When you hit the stop button (if) the PC <> ECM link is still active it should instantly force the ECM to reset, if the link is broken (like the USB driver is off in space) then the ECM will not see that command.

Please keep us updated on how things progress.

Cheers,
Ross

Censored
It got to 31k this time. I pulled all those fuses but the seo ign one, guess I'll pull that one too here in a bit. Waiting for the truck to decide to start again first.... :banghead:

Ok got truck restarted, then pulled the seo ign fuse too. Unclicked the high speed setting, and now it pulled the stock file... Woo!

nar, how long did it take you to download unclicking the high speed button? When I was talking to Trippen about it he said that it would take damn near forever to read it if I did that.

The normal buss speed is 10.4K and the high speed mode is 41.6K so in low speed it should take 4 times as long as high speed.

00sierra-Around 20 minutes I think. I forget exactly what it said.

Well, the low speed option was only included as a last resort, it was put there to accommodate for some aftermarket equipment that does not switch into high speed mode :eek: , 'if' you are having issues and it is not something on the vehicle then you will probably be no better off in low speed mode.

Paul tells me that FTDI have a new USB driver coming very soon, hopefully this might cure some problems for you guys.

As a last resort, grab yourself a USB hub (1to4, 1to8) it really does not matter and try it through there. The advantage of doing that is the Hub driver will then handle the comms at the PC end. It might help, it did cure a stubborn port on my desktop PC!.

Cheers,
Ross

Mine loaded a tune fine on high speed, not sure I really needed low speed to download the stock tune I just thought if it was less error prone then I'd try it.

For sure sounds like a USB buffer issue then as the data blocks we use for reading are much larger than programming.
In the Scantool you can alter some USB buffer settings (it affects both Tune and Scan). Go to Edit >> Properties >> Advanced.
Play around with these and see if that helps the read process.

Cheers,
Ross

Mine is set for 64 bytes and 1ms. :eek:

Mine is set for 64 bytes and 1ms. :eek:

Mine too.