Flashing issues 03-04 ECMs

I haven't found a thread on this, and have seen lots of posts. I'm a long time HPT user tuning gm gas and diesel, Ford diesel, and Mopar gas stuff. Just bought an 03 dodge, and started learning the tables, and found some odd flashing issues that I think has some people believing they have a bricked ECM. DO NOT ASSUME JUST YET

I have had this issue multiple times not only with HPT but also with the bulldog GT that was on the truck when I bought it. These ECMs seem to be a bit touchy during the flash process. I don't work for HPT, and got almost zero help from them in dealing with the issue. I'm putting this out there as I guide for those of us with these trucks to allow flashing with "limited" worry of problems.

First off the usual flashing procedures apply. Make sure your battery is charged up good, and make sure your laptop is charged. Eliminate any draw you can on the batteries like the fan, or lights. These ECMs I know from my experience as a diesel mechanic are very voltage sensitive. Clean battery connections can save you a lot of headaches and I'm sure don't hurt the flashing process.

Now the important part. You will likely encounter a controller, or baud rate timeout at some point that will leave you with a crank no start condition. The ECM will not read in the scanner, and your guage cluster won't read much more than mileage. Your ECM is likely not bricked at this point.

Unhook the negative battery cables. In these trucks you will have to unhook both batteries. I have left the truck sit for anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes, and sometimes had to do it more than once, but when you hook the cables back up try flashing again. It usually goes through the first time after that. If not try unhooking the cables again. I've done this multiple times on the same truck with success, and unless my truck is worse than all the rest I'm sure this has happened to many of you.

Hope this helps someone not freak out when their truck won't start after a failed flash