ok i have heard from this site and have read in that repair manual about jumping out the computer to get the codes stored in the computer by just jumping the a and b terminals.... then i was told that by doing that i would short out the computer the only real way to get the codes is with that push in thing... so i let them check it for me.... they tell me whats was worng i fix it and the car ran good.... "she old **** brakes and needs replacing" so i had to check it my self by jumping it out and now it gives me an error code saying the computer may be bad.... is this true about jumping it out??

 

I've never heard of that happening, but there's a good chance that the computer was bad to begin with, and the error code was already there. You probably wouldn't get a result from the diagnostic that fast that the computer was bad if it just went bad. If that was the case, you'd see smoke coming out of the computer. However, I would recomend that you use a fused jumper the next time you do any sort of jumping, that way, you'd have a blown fuse instead of a blown component.

 

ok i was think of upgrading my computer does this mean that the computer is bad and cant be upgraded? "need to be replaced?" or can i have it fix before upgrading?

 

Replace it. Shouldn't cost more than $100 or so, anyway. They really can't be repaired by any conventional means, and most technicians don't even know how they work or how they're made.

 

You did not mention the year and model of your car, but if it is 1993 or earlier, the computer comes with a removeable MEMCAL chip. The upgrade is done by getting a new chip from GM that comes programmed with all the latest upgrades. If you replace the whole computer, you still need to get the MEMCAL chip because it is not included. The MEMCAL is different for each application of the same basic computer.

 

Unless he's got another car, it'd be a 1990, which means the memcal might be the only thing he needs.

Ignore what I said before this was edited, I was thinking the memcal was 1993 and later for about 10 seconds, and then realized that was entirely wrong.

 

The haynes and chilton manuals tell you to do this so it is very unlikely that it hurt the computer, but they do just go bad. The fused wire is a good idea.

 

thanks guys....

 

I have done this to my 1991 camaro and all seems well as a matter of fact I need to do it again obviously because Check Engine light is on again after I fixed the problem that it had and dumped the codes by disconnecting the negative terminal from the battery.

hope this helped

Chris