slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

I've hit a little snag with my pocket programmer. I did a blank check which came up okay, then I hit program. The program says device is programmed then it starts to verify to buffer. It stops and says device did not verify. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I read throught he help files but I didn't really find any info about problems using the programmer. I bought this used so I don't know what if any written instructions came with it. I really need help as I erased the old chip and now I get stuck.

Grumpy

Sounds like you might have some program running in the background using the same memory area as PP. So it corrupts the .bin.

PLANT PROTECTION

iTrader: (6)

It sounds like the same type of problem I had with my epromer5. I had very high resistance at a solder joint which eventually broke conpletely. Your problem could not only be bad connections, but dirty contacts. Try cleaning the zif socket and chip pins. I am down to one chip also and I always to a read/verify before I burn to make sure I'm not left hanging.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well I did have some programs running and I shut them down but I can't seem to use control alt del to bring up the task manager to see what else may be running. I know that sounds dumb but my laptop is windows me and I don't have a lot of experiance with it. I cleaned the chip pins with a bit of electric contact cleaner but It still ding the same thing. I wish I had thought of using an extra chip but I let my lack of patience get the better of me

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

also everytime it tries to verify it says expected oo found ff. This last time it expected two digit numbers found ff.

Mangus

could be winme (wouldn't surprise me - the OS is crap in my educated opinion), but more likely its a bad chip.

how far into the verify is it failing?

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

well the last line it shows is 020b expected 02 found ff. Do you think I should just put this on my desktop pc with xp and try it?

Mangus

sure. worth a shot, right?

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well I loaded the program onto my desktop and closed all open programs and still get the same problem. Theres got to be something I'm missing but I just don't know.

Mangus

bad chip.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

It was running until yesterday. Not well because of the mods but it did run. Man I just wish I had gotten an extra chip because now I'm screwed. Could I have done something to screw it up?

Mangus

you should always have spare chips.

yes, you could have zapped it with static. it happens.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

The thing is I read it and was able to modify it with tunercat. All I did was disable the egr(lt1 intake) and changed the injector constant to 24#. Well if I'm out of luck I guess I'm going to order some new chips tonight. I meant to anyway. Man nothing seems to be going my way

Grumpy

For anyone just dropping in,

You Always, Always carry a spare Memcal, and perferably a spare ecm/pcm.

Static Happens.

And be sure the ecm has quit reading the eprom before you extract it. After key off, give it 5-10 secs for the IAC reset to take place.

Mangus

This is very true, and typically not noticed by people who are new to this stuff.

My 165 actually takes about 15 seconds to power down after key-off.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

The car had been sitting for a week so I doubt that was the case but it's good to know for future reference. Is there any test that I can do to see if it's bad? I just ordered new eproms but I probably won't get them until thursday or friday. I'm not in a rush because I have my truck to drive but the weather is starting to get better and I'm really looking forward to trying out the car after the mods. Mangus you mentioned me was crap, do any of you guys run your aldl scanning software with this os? I'm going to be using tts with mine and would like to know if there is anything to watch for.

Mangus

seems to me you already did all the testing you need to to determine if your chip is bad. Usually programming capability goes first.

ME is not the greatest, but technically it should work fine. I haven't used it for data logging and/or ECM programming. I've only used XP and Win98/Win98SE.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

I had 98se on the laptop but my buddy sean swore me was better oh well live and learn.

SMasterson

I recently went through this with my PP2. It's a little over two years old and suddenly it wouldn't verify, as it shouldn't have since the data was corrupt. I updated to the latest software from Xtronics with no help. I tried running it straight off a 12v battery since the wall warts have cause others problems, no luck. Then, I looked closely at the circuit board inside and noticed a small black film around the bottom of the capacitor near the power supply connector. I changed that cap and all has been well for over a month now. It's a 47uf 35 volt cap and it cost 37 cents to repair it.

I was almost ready to send it in for repair and desperate enough to buy a new one.

BTW, I almost always have it plugged in and have burned several hundred chips with it without any problems so when the errors started I was sure it was the programmer since I tried a dozen different chips.


HTH

Mangus

Well, if you ever find yourself wanting a new programmer, take note that Craig Moates now offers a $75 chip burner that will write 29C256, 29F040, and 27SF512, as well as read all of those plus the 27 series chips.

Not bad, plus its USB (and fits in your shirt pocket)! =)

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

I'll try SMastersons suggestion first. before I'd buy another programmer I'll get a prominator. I've been pretty interested in it for a while but it wasn't ready when I bought the programmer. Plus my laptop may have been state of the art in 95 so there's no usb port .

ben73

I had similar trouble initially, turned out to be my bios settings for the parallel port. It had to be set to 'enhanced', not std, or epp, or ecp or whatever! It would read eproms in any mode, but would only write correctly when set to 'enhanced'.
Ben.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the suggestion ben73. I'm going to take my laptop to work with me tomorrow and let my boss change it for me and try again. Also I bought 4 new chips from jdr that should be here in a few days so if the chip is bad I'll be okay.

ben73

Let us know how you get on?

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well I'm going to try your suggestion tomorrow and if that doesn't work I should know something when the new chips arrive.

Grumpy

Do you have an idiot's guide on how to check/change that?. ie, stroke by stroke.

ben73

This is justa generic desc, as all computers/bios are different.
When your computer is booting up, watch closely for text saying 'Hit delete to enter Setup' or similar. Some computers us the del key, my old laptop usee F2, so there is some variation.
You have to do it at the right time, I just keep hitting it till the setup screen pops up.. If you get to the 'Windows Loading' screen, its too late...
Once in setup usually you use the cursor keys to move across the menus at the top, you want 'Peripherals' or I/O or similar.. Its basically where you have the options to configure your serial and parallel ports.
On the right hand side of the sceen is usually a list of keystroke instruction to help navigate the screens and make changes, no mouse here!
One you find the parallel port, it can normally be configured as EPP, ECP, Enhanced, Std, Unidirectional etc etc.... I found mine will read from the programmer in most settings, but will only write when in 'Enhanced'.
When finished, cursor across to 'exit' or 'save' or just press escape and you will be given the option to 'exit saving changes' or if you thing you have screwed up, 'exit discarding changes'.
Hope that helps.
Ben.

jeepguy553

I use Windows ME on my laptop (IBM ThinkPad) with the USB AutoPROM and it seems to be working pretty well. I am no fan of Win ME, but it seems to be alright here.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Jeepguy, I've got the same laptop and I've never had any real problems out of me, I just liked 98se better. By the way what kind of jeep do you have? I'm looking at a 88 cherokee this weekend with a 4 popper that's just begging to have a 355 tpi dropped in it. Ben73, I tried your suggestion but I didn't have the option. I just saw spp, epp, ecp.
I also couldn't find it on me either, but me was way different than xp. On me I hit f2 as it loaded and it came with a blue screen that said test. My new chips should be here thursday so I hope that I just fried my old chip. regardless I'll let you guys know when I find out.

jeepguy553

My Jeep is a 1980 Jeep CJ7. It has a punched out AMC 360, ported/polished heads, 272/288 cam, and GM TBI from a 1990 Caprice cop car. The Cherokee (XJ) would be great with a TPI 355 in it.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well I got my new chips and still get the same thing I was able to try grumpys suggestion and shut down everything except windows and the pp2 and still nothing. I also took the back off of the programmer to see if it had any damage, but it was fine. At this point I don't know what else to do

SMasterson

I re-read your post again but explain 'and still nothing'.

The damaged Cap was barely noticable. After two years of no problems and all of a sudden it wouldn't verify I figured it had to be the PP2, and I was correct, (only after trying everything else I could think of.)

Where you at in KY?

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well, it says device is blank. I hit program. then it says device is programmed, then it verifys to buffer. Only it says expected a two digit number 02, 89 whatever, found ff. As I said I looked at the inside of the programmer very carefully but I found nothing abnormal. At this point I just don't know whatelse to do.

SMasterson

Ok, I was in the exact same situation with a PP2 that worked prefect for two years. I had two options;

1. Send it to Xtronics with $65.00 and they would fix it and send the upgrade software.

2. Fix it myself for 37cents.

Since I had already upgraded the software I just fixed it myself. You can't always SEE a bad capacitor. Just went there, done that, exact same symptoms. You bought it used... probably a reason someone sold it to you.

So, send it in, get if fixed and enjoy DIY programming. Obviously no one has a magic cure for your programmer, (except for Xtronics and maybe my first suggestion.)

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

I'll try your suggestion first since you gave me the cap number. Hell if it doesn't work I'm no worse off. I just wish I had used an extra chip. I'll try to get the cap tomorrow at radio shack. With my luck I'll solder it in wrong and blow up my house . By the way I'm in ashland ky.

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

Well I put in a new cap and nothing. It's still doing the same thing.
I guess I'll be sending it off after all.

Stevie

I cant remember the details for sure but I had a similar problem with my PP2 when programming a 27SF512 chip. If I simply pressed the "program device" button it acted like it was working fine but would not verify. But if I pressed the "erase device" button first and then the "program device" button it worked fine. Might be worth a shot if you haven't already tried it

Steve

slayer2000

iTrader: (1)

I didn't see any button for erase device, I did that with a datarase uv eraser. I did a blank check though and it said the chip was blank. I guess I'll send it in to be checked and fixed

polygaryd

ok guys maybe you can help me further.. i have read this post and i have the newest version of the pp2 software 2.25 for win xp pro i am using 29c256 chips for my 730 ecm. i used ot be able to rpogram fine and now i cant i have no idea why i have tried different chips of the same model and have tried all different settings in my bios. my choices for lpt ports are std epp and ecp. the bruner wont even recognise on ecp so i left it on epp. i have reserved the irq 7 that the port uses for use with only that port so windows xp cant share it like windows likes to do. i have tried it with this option off also still doesn't work. i have taken the pp2 apart and found nothing also. when i am in the pp2 software i can hit progran compaire and somtimes it will come back saying the device is able to be rpogrammed and sometimes it cant if i load anything inot the buffer whether it is FF or 00 or a bin file it will not program at all. so what do you guys think is next for this pp2 anythign else i can do. oh yeah and the pp2 software will move the device intot he buffer meaning it reads it fine. these chips still work in my car too. any ideas or sugestions please let me know