Problem, after 10 minutes, with AEM 30-4110 and/or HPTuners (bad sensor already???)

I finally hooked up my AEM 30-4110 wideband to my HPTuners "dongle", via INPUT #1, using the pre-configured, built-in HPTuners capability.

My car is a 2000 Trans Am, turbocharged, with a 2002 Silverado ECU, Speed Density 3 bar tune w/RTT enabled.

Unleaded fuel, and sensor mounted about 18" from cylinder head, and maybe 14" after the exhaust manifold ports merge on the STOCK exhaust manifold.

ZERO exhaust leaks...

Started the car, and let it run a few minutes, AEM gauge was showing low 11:1 AFR, as was the HPTuners scanner.

Using the Real Time Tuning, I subtracted 10% fuel (VE) in the area it was running in the VE table.
Saw an immediate change in AFR, again, both on the gauge and the scanner...

Got it to about 13.6:1 and that's where it seemed to want to idle, as that was smoothest, and with most vacuum (16-17" @ 750rpm). Any leaner and it sounded like it was misfiring, so I settled on mid 13:1, which is way better than 10.8-11.2:1 where I started.

I then hand smoothed the areas in the VE table nearby, and prepared to take a drive and see where it was at light throttle, no boost, cruising rpm's...

BUT, when I looked up at laptop screen, the wideband reading was frozen at 11.10 and then when I looked at gauge, it was pegged lean...

Neither reading would move, even if I revved engine

Tried disconnecting the plug from side of dongle, and even tried re-adding fuel (a lot), to see if wideband came back online...it didn't.

Turning KEY ON shows the wideband at 14.6 or whatever, then as soon as it's done it's warm up cycle, immediately goes full lean...

Is it possible I simply got a POS sensor, out of the box? It literally was working perfectly, for about 10-15 minutes, and then went, and stayed, full lean, and wouldn't change on the scanner either.... :banghead:

I've seen the videos, showing them putting the wideband sensor into a gas soaked rag, as a diagnostic, but haven't done that yet...(lifts are all tied up)

I had the same exact wideband setup on 2 previous vehicles, and never ever needed a new sensor...not even on the one that used leaded race gas weekly at the strip...kinda flustered