I tried using my desktop today with a serial port. It did the exact same thing as it did on my laptop. I even went into BIOS and changed a few serial port settings and it still does the same thing.

When I try to read the PCM program with PCMread, it gets to where it says "verifying safe voltage, RPM, and MPH" and then it says lost communication with PCM. After this happened I ran ALDLtest and it passed all the quick tests, and also the extended test.

So what I have come up with is that it doesn't matter what computer I'm using (desktop with serial port, or laptop with USB-serial adapter), or which program I try to read the program with (PCMread, or Tunercat). Battery voltage reads 12.5VDC and my grounds all appear to be good (I rechecked the battery and PCM ground yesterday and the connection is tight and not corroded).

What else can I try here?

 

I would serisouly try one more computer with a built in serial port, preferably WinXP... or maybe try re-installing WinXP without any updates at least on an old hard drive on a computer with a serial port.

 

I believe you might of fried one of the sockets in the PCM, I had a similar problem a few months back where the PCM wasn't even communicating with the laptop, come to find out one of the sockets was fried. My solution was Ion of Madtuner.com, he re-socketed my PCM for $109.00, I opted for a new socket set in case it happens again, I even sent him an updated .bin program from another tuner and he burned that updated program into the extra socket set which I purchased from him. My problem was almost the same, the fans would come on first and the engine would just turn over w/ no start. Log onto Madtuners website and look at all the options you can choose from, heck, down time was only a week. Good luck. I was definitely satisified with Ion's work.