P1639 after flashing PCM

[Cougar281]

After I flashing my PCM with a base calibration that'll run the car using BE, I have now been getting a P1639. I flashed the tune to a chip using TunerProRT, read it with BE using the '4Bank' strategy that was modified enough to include enough for it to read and flash, then using the same strategy, flashed the calibration read to the PCM using BE and my MDI2. This is something I've never seen before, and it's present with or without the QH, so I'm ASSUMING that the VID block on the actual PCM is what's used, chip or no chip, not something on the QH or chip when they're installed. So I'm assuming that something with flashing the PCM using the blank strategy is what borked the VID block. Any suggestions on fixing the 'situation'?

[decipha]

what is code 1639 ?

[Cougar281]

P1639 is 'Vehicle ID Block Corrupted, Not Programmed'

[decipha]

ah yeah thats another reason why i stopped using BE as well I remember it doing the same thing way back when

prob best to upgrade to pcmflash so u can put a vid block back in it

[Cougar281]

Yeah, I'm working on that... Didn't really want to buy another product, but that does seem the cleanest solution overall... As far as I can tell, it just reads/writes based on the PCM, no strategies or anything to worry about. My only complaint with them is the shipping. $60 for slow boat that might be there in 5 weeks is nuts... you can buy stuff from China shipped free via 'speedpak' that has roughly the same delivery time. I ordered something from Germany a bit back that weighed considerably more than a USB dongle that only cost like $40 via UPS. But it is what it is. Once I get the dongle, I'll have multiple options, although PCMFlash will probably be the best. I might have to talk to a former co-worker about writing a program to convert bins from one format to another though, since it seems PCMFlash uses some different format from BE or TP. The changing of structure seems a bit tedious and prone to human error.

[Cougar281]

I got the PCMFlash dongle and have it all activated, and I'm trying to get the PCM back to a 'stock' form with all of the VID block info to flash with PCMFlash, but I'm not having luck. I have a stock BIN that was in the 'Bins_FBFG2_256k' zip that is or was around here somewhere, as well as a 256K BIN from TunerPro - when I compare the two, limiting to defined values, there are VID block differences, with the one I've used in the past having a VIN and other valid values, and the one from the zip having 'FF' for a number of the VID related values. I tried copying the values from the 'old' file to the base one, but it seems like at least some values don't get saved by TunerPro. The PATS code blocks (Not that they really matter too much), VID Block Enabled, and VID RT_Axle seem to revert back to 'FF' after copying them and saving the file. So I'm guessing the only way to possibly restore the VID Block will be with a HEX editor. Assuming a 256K file that is TunerPro compatible, what would be the address range I'd need to copy into the 'blank' BIN?

[decipha]

you have to go to settings and select recovery mode in pcmflash to write the vid block

file needs to be 224k

[Cougar281]

Interesting... So I guess BE borked the VID block because it doesn't have protections in place? I'm assuming that tune is the FBGI0 based one from my other thread? If so, can I flash that one in recovery mode, and then after that's flashed, flash the FBFG2 based on I'm currently using not in recovery mode, and it should all be back in good shape?

The thing about what I was trying is I wasn't even getting to writing it to the PCM with PCMFlash - When I copied the values from one bin to the 'base' one, TunerPro wasn't saving them. Is that a 'Read Only' portion as far as TP is concerned?

[decipha]

yep

no such thing as read only with tunerpro

[Cougar281]

Ok, so I managed to 'recover' my original VID block with Tunerpro after some tinkering. I don't know why initially, it didn't seem to be taking and saving the changes to the VID block items to the bin, but after a few tries, it did, and then I went through the writeup here (http://www.efidynotuning.com/dis.htm#pcmflash_bin) and adjusted the file for PCMFlash, flashed it to the PCM on the bench, and after a few power cycles and checking for DTCs with PCMFlash, there was only a P1000 and a few others that were expected. No VID Block related DTCs, and I was able to flash my 'encrypted tokenized' tune to my Quarterhorse using BE - so it seems it's back in perfect health.

The problem is I then took that base tune that was bone stock, which would not run the car, wrote it to my QH, made the few changes to it that are required for the car to run (PATS, fuel pump) plus a few DTCs so it would run without a CEL, saved it, then modified a copy for PCMFlash using Hex Workshop and wrote that file to the PCM with PCMFlash. Afterwards, the car basically won't run. I got a IAC related DTC (P0511, I believe) and if I hold the throttle open a bit, it'll run, but die when I let off. I wrote the 'pre-adjust' 256k file to a Moates chip (with TunerPro/Moates utility) and that runs the car just fine. I must have screwed something up in modifying the file, yet the VID block was apparently perfect. I used the 'from 256k [0-1-8-9] QH' portion to make the 224k file. I've attached the two file - any advice? What did I screw up?

Edit: Welp, never mind, I think. I decided to 're-mod' the 256k TunerPro file, and after saving it as a new file, I ran a SHA-1 CRC hash on both the new 224k file and the one that I flashed that didn't run the car right. They matched. So I flashed the new one with PCMFlash, and this time it runs the car fine. Must have been a few bits/bytes that didn't transfer right during the flash.

There has got to be a better way to adjust these files for the different formats. No one with the smarts to do so has written a 'simple' application to do this? Why can't everyone use the same format? lol On that subject.... Are the bin files a simple as 'this range is bank 0', 'this range is bank 1', etc, and outside of the bank 0, 1, 8, 9 ranges, everything else is filler/fluff that doesn't matter? If all that really matters is those four bank ranges and everything else outside of those ranges is just filler/fluff, then it shouldn't be TOO hard to write a small program to convert files.... I might have to talk to a friend.