I fixed the issue....wow, I guess that's what happens when you don't use it often enough and missed upgrades but here what happened (for the sake of closure):
the reader window would show two ECM (don't ask me why it did I have no clue), and would read both, but the second one is the one that was giving me that error. I selected "don't read" on that one, and the error went away, it asked me to save the file as usual, and now I'm able to flash the car. Go figure, I have no idea why it sees two ecm's...maybe someone in the know can tell me why?
hpt reader.jpg