how many flashes?

[smelt240]

Just curious,on average-how many flashes will a 04 WRX ECU take before it gives up and dies? I read on the romraider site that it could happen. Does it happen very often or are they simply covering themselves,just in case? Im a little new to this kind of tuning. My car currently has a stage 2 XPT tune,Im going to be doing a TGV delete very soon,and possibly a little more for now. thanks for any info...

 

[Pedro]

The number is theoretically in the hundreds. I haven't heard a confirmed case of it failing to read/write without user error.

 

[Stein]

I believe the ECU uses standard flash memory (which makes sense since it clears with the battery unplugged). Standard flash memory (USB thumb drives, solid state storage drives, etc) can take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of writes in each sector before they start going bad.

 

[Chris]

The ECU uses EEPROM to store the tune.

With flash it could become corrupt, EEPROM is the only way to go for things like a car computer.

Nate, your reasoning on flash doesn't make sense, does your flash drive lose it's contents when you unplug it from the computer? no.

Most EEPROM chips have a write limit somewhere in the high thousands, I wouldn't be worried about it.

 

[Stein]

Nate, your reasoning on flash doesn't make sense, does your flash drive lose it's contents when you unplug it from the computer? no.

Yeah, good catch. I was thinking like cache memory chips and the like. I was just remembering a flash drive I researched a while ago that had a built in battery for writing the cache to drive after power loss.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, good catch. I was thinking like cache memory chips and the like. I was just remembering a flash drive I researched a while ago that had a built in battery for writing the cache to drive after power loss.

I have a RAID card with 2GB of SDRAM and a battery for that same reason, but this has nothing to do with this thread

 

[boxer3main]

I learned it with a 1990s motherboard.

the eeprom is meant to be a harder keeper, no errors...many reads, and not easily erasable. sensitive enough to crack if you force a stack not right...

today is supposedly better, but if cars are playing with 16bit and injections gadgets that have been limited to 38mpg for the last 20 years?

yeah. Doubt the jap buggy and be as paranoid as a bios flasher of the 1980s. It seems when large scale product goes useless you can find it in a japanese car hanging on for another decade.

no offense to subes, it is my tell off for all of them.

I am into evolution more than my perfect carb doesn't let on. Wanna know what I am waiting for?

 

[Matt]

 

[IBratmanI]

 

[BG @ BrenTuning]

When completed correctly - many of us have 500+ flashes on one Subaru. BMW's are another story.........