Interrupted ECU reflash - What now? - Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community

bdohazelnuts · 06-11-2013, 02:39 AM

I have an ECUTEK and license from FA20club, and was reflashing my ECU, and had a driver issue mid-reflash, resulting in a partial flash.

I got the drivers working again (temporarily) by doing a system restore, and tried to reflash, but says I need a new license. Is my ECU ok? What now?

PoWn3d_0704 · 06-11-2013, 02:41 AM

No experience here, but from what I've read, call your tuner (FA20Club) and tell them what happened. They can sort you out, if I'm not mistaken.

bdohazelnuts · 06-11-2013, 10:22 AM

Has anyone had any experience with an interrupted ECU flash? Does it damage the ECU at all?

Lee358 · 06-11-2013, 10:28 AM

i had it happen it was fixed by my tuner and ecutek

TemeCal · 06-11-2013, 10:39 AM

You're perfectly fine. This happened to me as well. Give Tony a call, and he'll walk you through it. He'll provide you with another license, then you can reflash your car and be back to normal. He'll ask for your ProECU log file (in the installation directory), so it can be provided to ECUTek.

Foobar · 06-11-2013, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdohazelnuts

Has anyone had any experience with an interrupted ECU flash? Does it damage the ECU at all?

Call your tuner. This is an easy fix for them.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

brillo · 06-11-2013, 12:03 PM

happened to me last week with my Perrin tune. FA20club will refresh your license and you can install the tune again. It doesn't mess up the ECU.

Mr.Jay · 06-11-2013, 05:03 PM

had this issue myself. laptop bluescreen at 98%.

you need a "master" tuner to reflash your car for you.

I ended up sleeping at work for a day when it happened to me haha

jamesm · 06-11-2013, 10:27 PM

This seems pretty common. How hard would it be to implement error handling and allow another flash without burning the license? I know, and the answer is not hard at all, in fact that should be considered a hotfix issue.

Xero-Limit · 06-11-2013, 10:44 PM

It is not very common...about 0.01% of flashes in my experience. But it should not be taken lightly. Unlike some of the commonly done ECUs in the past, when a flash is interrupted it leaves an empty or partially programmed ROM. Other avenues of flashing (i.e. open source) will leave a brick of an ECU. With EcuTek, you can do "autorecover" which is able to go into boot mode via the ODB2 line. We had to solder to pins on the ECU to do this in the past. But you'll need a license back on the dongle to reflash, so contact your tuner to do so. Why I always recommend folks flash as few times as necessary, because this stuff can happen....and why you should try to flash when you are in a safe place with internet, and preferably during business hours, and don't move the laptop or do anything else with it while it is cooking.

For us any messages or calls with this issue get answered usually at all sorts of hours. I'm pretty sure your tuner does the same so give him a holler if you haven't.

jamesm · 06-11-2013, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moto-mike

It is not very common...about 0.01% of flashes in my experience. But it should not be taken lightly. Unlike some of the commonly done ECUs in the past, when a flash is interrupted it leaves an empty or partially programmed ROM. Other avenues of flashing (i.e. open source) will leave a brick of an ECU. With EcuTek, you can do "autorecover" which is able to go into boot mode via the ODB2 line. We had to solder to pins on the ECU to do this in the past. But you'll need a license back on the dongle to reflash, so contact your tuner to do so. Why I always recommend folks flash as few times as necessary, because this stuff can happen....and why you should try to flash when you are in a safe place with internet, and preferably during business hours, and don't move the laptop or do anything else with it while it is cooking.

For us any messages or calls with this issue get answered usually at all sorts of hours. I'm pretty sure your tuner does the same so give him a holler if you haven't.

No offense, but based to the extremely small sample pool on this forum, and the number of incidents reported above, I think .01% is extremely optimistic. Just a guess... but not a hard one to make.

Xero-Limit · 06-12-2013, 02:27 AM

No offense taken, and if you read only posts here I would assume the same. Here's my data, see attached file (I had to merge the folders so I could count in one screen shot). Out of these we have had 2 failures with EcuTek, all due to laptop issues and both successfully recovered via ODB2. About 12 or so with the former platform that required ECU sendouts. So we are at 14/2000 or so (some are duplicates since some have switched platforms, a few logs mixed in). This encompasses more than the BRZ but the same exact things apply. Lots of folks just don't know what flashing a ROM is and that it isn't a thumb drive, so they surf the web, get in and out of the car while it is happening, run the stereo, have a clunky laptop...that covers 13/14 above. The 1/14 being a bad pin on an ECU that we were able to get working once we found it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesm

No offense, but based to the extremely small sample pool on this forum, and the number of incidents reported above, I think .01% is extremely optimistic. Just a guess... but not a hard one to make.

Lee358 · 06-12-2013, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moto-mike

No offense taken, and if you read only posts here I would assume the same. Here's my data, see attached file (I had to merge the folders so I could count in one screen shot). Out of these we have had 2 failures with EcuTek, all due to laptop issues and both successfully recovered via ODB2. About 12 or so with the former platform that required ECU sendouts. So we are at 14/2000 or so (some are duplicates since some have switched platforms, a few logs mixed in). This encompasses more than the BRZ but the same exact things apply. Lots of folks just don't know what flashing a ROM is and that it isn't a thumb drive, so they surf the web, get in and out of the car while it is happening, run the stereo, have a clunky laptop...that covers 13/14 above. The 1/14 being a bad pin on an ECU that we were able to get working once we found it.

I will say the only reason mine went bad was i had a pos laptop where the battery read full but then died in 5 min.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

gdrider77 · 12-27-2013, 09:52 PM

sub'd....having same issue. dead car. ddad ecu.

06-11-2013, 02:39 AM	#1
bdohazelnuts Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Drives: Asphalt Grey FR-S (soon) Location: Sierra Vista, AZ Posts: 42 Thanks: 15 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	Interrupted ECU reflash - What now? I have an ECUTEK and license from FA20club, and was reflashing my ECU, and had a driver issue mid-reflash, resulting in a partial flash. I got the drivers working again (temporarily) by doing a system restore, and tried to reflash, but says I need a new license. Is my ECU ok? What now?

06-11-2013, 12:03 PM	#7
brillo Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Drives: 2013 Firestorm FR-S Location: Houston Posts: 506 Thanks: 18 Thanked 77 Times in 64 Posts Mentioned: 10 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	happened to me last week with my Perrin tune. FA20club will refresh your license and you can install the tune again. It doesn't mess up the ECU. __________________ 2013 Firestorm FR-S, MTX, build date 1/13.

06-11-2013, 05:03 PM	#8
Mr.Jay Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Drives: FRS :D Location: Vancouver BC Posts: 2,985 Thanks: 545 Thanked 699 Times in 438 Posts Mentioned: 18 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	had this issue myself. laptop bluescreen at 98%. you need a "master" tuner to reflash your car for you. I ended up sleeping at work for a day when it happened to me haha __________________ Out of the FRS game

12-27-2013, 09:52 PM	#14
gdrider77 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Drives: Subaru BRZ Limited Location: Denver, CO Posts: 623 Thanks: 243 Thanked 263 Times in 157 Posts Mentioned: 19 Post(s) Tagged: 2 Thread(s)	sub'd....having same issue. dead car. ddad ecu. __________________

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06-11-2013, 10:22 AM	#3
bdohazelnuts Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Drives: Asphalt Grey FR-S (soon) Location: Sierra Vista, AZ Posts: 42 Thanks: 15 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	Has anyone had any experience with an interrupted ECU flash? Does it damage the ECU at all?

06-11-2013, 10:28 AM	#4
Lee358 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Drives: nissan frontier, DGM MT BRZ Location: North nj Posts: 1,576 Thanks: 404 Thanked 419 Times in 254 Posts Mentioned: 7 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	i had it happen it was fixed by my tuner and ecutek

06-11-2013, 10:39 AM	#5
TemeCal Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Drives: 86 Location: US Posts: 686 Thanks: 377 Thanked 303 Times in 181 Posts Mentioned: 27 Post(s) Tagged: 1 Thread(s)	You're perfectly fine. This happened to me as well. Give Tony a call, and he'll walk you through it. He'll provide you with another license, then you can reflash your car and be back to normal. He'll ask for your ProECU log file (in the installation directory), so it can be provided to ECUTek.

06-11-2013, 10:27 PM	#9
jamesm Banned Join Date: Mar 2013 Drives: 2013 FR-S Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 2,929 Thanks: 1,166 Thanked 2,293 Times in 1,180 Posts Mentioned: 313 Post(s) Tagged: 4 Thread(s)	This seems pretty common. How hard would it be to implement error handling and allow another flash without burning the license? I know, and the answer is not hard at all, in fact that should be considered a hotfix issue.

06-11-2013, 10:44 PM	#10
Xero-Limit Join Date: Nov 2012 Drives: JDL Turbo FRS, 335SC BRZ (ret) Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 938 Thanks: 368 Thanked 1,550 Times in 527 Posts Mentioned: 380 Post(s) Tagged: 6 Thread(s)	It is not very common...about 0.01% of flashes in my experience. But it should not be taken lightly. Unlike some of the commonly done ECUs in the past, when a flash is interrupted it leaves an empty or partially programmed ROM. Other avenues of flashing (i.e. open source) will leave a brick of an ECU. With EcuTek, you can do "autorecover" which is able to go into boot mode via the ODB2 line. We had to solder to pins on the ECU to do this in the past. But you'll need a license back on the dongle to reflash, so contact your tuner to do so. Why I always recommend folks flash as few times as necessary, because this stuff can happen....and why you should try to flash when you are in a safe place with internet, and preferably during business hours, and don't move the laptop or do anything else with it while it is cooking. For us any messages or calls with this issue get answered usually at all sorts of hours. I'm pretty sure your tuner does the same so give him a holler if you haven't.

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