Those cheap cables do often work fine, but as I discovered in time, they have an awful failure rate out of the box. I had to eat my words after recommending them to the members here. Hope this turns out better for you, but let us know if it still doesn't.

 

So I got the new cable, but it still doesn't seem to be working. I'm not getting any errors anymore, but when I plug the cable into the OBD2 port and click connect, I get the spinning wheel loading cursor and nothing happens. After a while, the "Disconnected" turns green and says "Connected", but I still have the loading cursor and no data showing up. I checked the drivers and they're what they're supposed to be (Windows automatically did them correctly for this cable). I can't imagine it's just my laptop being slow, it's a Dell XPS 15 that's only about a year old. I've left it in for probably a good 5 minutes without anything coming up so not sure where to go from here.

 

1. Are you absolutely sure this is a 96 and not a 95? A 95 takes a very different scan tool but the connector is identical to a 96. Some owners have swapped a 94/95 pcm into a later model car in order to get easier tuning.

2. The ignition switch is on, right?

3.The wiring to the pcm is now suspect. I don't think this has anything to do with your pc.

 

I am 100% sure it is a 96 with an obd2 pcm. I live in New York so the car has to (and does) pass obd2 plug in emissions. The ignition switch is on when I try to connect the software. I also have a handheld obd2 code reader that works perfectly fine, and allows me to read live data. Unless I'm missing something, that pretty much rules out the car as the issue. Within the next few days I'm going to try to borrow a friend's laptop to download the program and try, to see if something is up with my computer.

Just to make sure, all I should need for the program to work is whatever is included in the GSscan.zip file in your mediafire link, right?

 

You also need the Microsoft .NET Framework that was described in the instructions, but if you don't have that, there should be a message to that effect.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=17851

 

Member “WhiteWS6” has had good luck w/ GDScan. I've reviewed his datalogs. I have asked if he could take a look at this thread and offer any suggestions based on his experience.

 

I've had the same issue as you on multiple occasions, but through a few different methods I can get the program to work correctly. As you are describing, when you plug the ELM cable into the laptop and 'connect' to the car the key must be in the 'BULB CHECK' position (Position just before the 'RUN') BEFORE hitting 'Connect'. I have had bad luck getting the program to work correctly without doing so. In some instances, even doing this will not work and I will get the same error as you have above. I'll post a list of the exact method that works best to get the program working correctly for me.

List of what I do, follow exactly in order
-Unlock car and get in without putting the key in the lock cylinder AT ALL, close the door
-Start up your laptop and go to the GDScan folder, open the GM Enhanced scanner without connecting or pressing anything else
-If you have not already, go to Setup in the bottom left corner and make sure 'Get PID list at connect time' is selected and has a check mark next to it
-Plug the ELM Scanner into your OBD-2 Port but NOT your laptop
-Insert the key in the lock cylinder and turn it to the 'BULB CHECK' position
-Swiftly Connect the USB end of the ELM Scanner to your laptop and select 'Connect'
-Your car should connect successfully and the program should make a 'click' like sound

If this method does not work, remove the key from the ignition cylinder entirely and restart the laptop. Trying this about 2-3 times has always successfully worked for me, I cannot explain why at all. I never start the car until the program is successfully connected. I would go out to my car and try to repeat the process for you, but I live in Montana and there's currently a four-foot drift in front of my storage unit so that option is off the table. I've never tried using the program on Windows 10, I always do so on Windows 7 since that's what is already on my laptop.

If you cannot get this method to work after a few tries, reply or private message me and I'll try and come up with what I can.

Best of luck, Grant

 

It looks like we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work on this mystery.

Do this:
Setup as normal with the cable connected and the ignition on.
Click on the Console tab, second from right. Check the box labeled Enable Display. Click on Connect.
Wait several seconds and if anything appears in the display box, click on Save to File and post the file here.
If I had to guess at what is happening, I think the program is receiving data back that is far from what is expected (too long a line or too short a line of numbers). This happens at the very start of requests sent to the pcm.
Another thing to try is to run the program in Administrator mode.

 

I made sure to check if I had the .NET Framework and when I tried downloading it, the setup wizard said it was already installed.

Thanks for the suggestions! I tried using your method but I couldn't follow your order because if I plug in the cable after I have already opened the program, the com port does not show up on the dropdown selection box. It says "NO PORTS" when I open the program and plugging in the cable doesn't add an option to the dropdown.

Ok I was able to kind of do this. Unfortunately, I could not get click "Save to File" because once I click Connect, the program freezes up and doesn't let me click anything. I was getting an error in the console, though, and I got screenshots of it. The first couple lines come very fast so I may have missed one or two, but it seems like I was able to capture the issue. Once the [CAN ERROR] started coming, it was just repeatedly coming every second or so. I left it on for a while and it didn't seem like anything else was happening.

 

CAN ERROR ???? WTF ! Uh oh! We should not be getting CAN operation, which is only for cars starting about 2008. I don't know why the cable is selecting CAN for communication. Perhaps the 96/97 LT1 causes the cable's automatic format search to fail and it reverts to CAN format. This is news to me but then this app doesn't have a lot of users. I see you are using a cable with a different revision than mine but that should not matter in theory.

I will take a look at this tomorrow to see if there is something I can do to stop it from selecting or defaulting to CAN format. Stand by.

Update: Download this file and put it into the same folder as the GDscan files. Then try running it: http://www.mediafire.com/file/dda9bu...can2a.exe/file
It forces the app to use the right protocol.

 

That did the trick! With that new .exe it seems to work perfectly. It connects right away and I can start scanning to see live data. On the GM enhanced tab when I click scan I get an error once it gets to IAC position (98-02), but I just deleted that line and scanned again and the error didn't come up and all the rest of the data appeared, so I assume that just isn't supported. Thanks so much for getting that working for me!

 

Good for you, thanks for the feedback. Normally the cable's microprocessor does a test to see what protocol is being used but apparently that failed. I wanted the app to be able to be used on other non-GM cars but that is not really necessary I guess. So from now on, its GM only.

@WhiteWS6 you may want to download it also and it may fix the intermittent issues you had.

And to answer about the failed Enhanced test, those are particular to certain models and engines, so they may not work. You can delete them or even add some, but changes are not saved for next time.

 

Sounds good, glad he was able to figure it out. It's a great tool to have for these cars.

Thanks, Grant

 

Gary and Grant - THANK YOU for solving this mystery ! ! !