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  #1  
Old 06-05-2019, 08:34 PM
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I’m thinking DME Ram Backup...

Ok, after weeks of troubleshooting a rough / surging idle in my 05 4.4i after completing the valve stem seals, I had all but resolved to let my Indy give it a go and then I found a thread on performing a DME Ram Backup to “reset” everything and resolve a persistent exhaust vanos issue that has been haunting me on bank 2 (2A89 dme exhaust vanos 2).

I have INPA connected and tools32 running but cannot for the life of me locate the d_motor.grp file to pull up my dme to locate that option. Seems I have only .prg files available?

What am I missing?
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  #2  
Old 06-06-2019, 12:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Purplefade View Post
Ok, after weeks of troubleshooting a rough / surging idle in my 05 4.4i after completing the valve stem seals, I had all but resolved to let my Indy give it a go and then I found a thread on performing a DME Ram Backup to “reset” everything and resolve a persistent exhaust vanos issue that has been haunting me on bank 2 (2A89 dme exhaust vanos 2).

I have INPA connected and tools32 running but cannot for the life of me locate the d_motor.grp file to pull up my dme to locate that option. Seems I have only .prg files available?

What am I missing?
I’ve used it before. Let me look up my system to find it. It didn’t resolve the issue I had since it was a physical mix of sensors, but it’s always worth a shot before delving into tearing things down.
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Old 06-06-2019, 12:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by X5only View Post
I’ve used it before. Let me look up my system to find it. It didn’t resolve the issue I had since it was a physical mix of sensors, but it’s always worth a shot before delving into tearing things down.


Sounds good! I noticed your post way back when when you went through nearly the same thing. Between that and my Indy’s thought that a DME Ram Backup May actually work, I thought I would give it a try before “giving up” and towing it to the shop.

I’ve had INPA running forever now, but when I hooked up to the car I got the black bubbles for battery and ignition but no options for selecting the car. Even stranger, Tools 32 loads but I don’t seem to have access to any of the .grp files to get me in to the DME...

Not sure what I’m missing, any help would define appreciated
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Old 06-06-2019, 12:48 PM
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I see the D_MOTOR GRP file in C:\EDIABAS\ECU folder. You should be able to see E53 by pressing SHIFT key in INPA.
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Old 06-06-2019, 01:55 PM
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I would reinstall tools32/INPA with updated one. Lots of free downloads on the web.
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Old 06-06-2019, 03:58 PM
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Awesome thanks X5only! I must be missing files, I looked in ediabas\ecu directly and was unable to find the d_motor.grp file, not sure what’s up but a reinstall may definitely fix it!

Looks like I know what I’m doing tonight! Will keep you posted

Thanks!


Oh, crazy question, not sure how large the .grp file is, would you be able to email me just that file to drop in my ecu folder? May try that before reinstalling with as much fun as the setup is and getting the cable to reconnect... I’ll pm you.
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Old 06-06-2019, 05:26 PM
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For anyone who can explain what "DME Ram" is, etc. I'm curious to learn more about what that means.

Back in the olden days when I would work on control systems etc., it would be common to have stuff that never changed stored in ROM. Truly fixed. Never changed. Then you'd have higher level stuff, like your control program, stored in EEPROM, for example. Then you'd have a processor that would boot using the ROM, load the EEPROM contents into its RAM, and run, using the rest of the available RAM while it's running.

The EEPROM was static unless there was an algorithm update (programming change). The RAM was volatile / dynamic / lost whenever powering down.

Do these DME systems work similarly?

Is the DME RAM really nonvolatile? And if it's volatile, is this like formatting vs. programming?

Is this DME RAM Backup actually a "reset" / "restore" or some similar word, vs. being a backup?

Is there really just one version of the DME firmware, e.g., that comes with the INPA programming software, vs. having each car having a different program based on year/month, options, etc.?

Personally, I would be very cautious about touching the firmware if that's what this is doing.

The DME in my 1985 911 has never been touched and is running fine (simpler days).

I recently, for the first time, did a very minor EEPROM programming to fix the temperature gauge in my 2001 3.0i, and was extremely cautious before making those changes. Maybe it was paranoia, but I did not want to brick my car. One particular thing that concerned me while doing that was that the 3 different examples I found all had different interstitial values between the ones that actually mattered. Never got an answer to that other than to leave them untouched, which worked.

https://xoutpost.com/1163366-post50.html

Trying to find answers to my questions above prior to posting this, I came across a guy whose eventual solution following a DME Ram reset was to strip his car for parts. Seriously.

Last summer, when I had my engine all apart, taking my sweet time with the battery disconnected for about 2 months, I had no problems at all when re-starting. I'd be more concerned about a voltage spike during the reconnection (battery spark) vs. concern for memory corruption over a period of weeks or months.
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Old 06-06-2019, 06:20 PM
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Yeah, these tools are low level accessing factory/manufacturing configurations and not consumer configurations. So if one does not know what he is doing, trashing things is easy. I’ve done ram backups so many times with no issue.
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Old 06-06-2019, 06:22 PM
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Hey oldskewel, I agree, more concern with the reconnect spike vs the sitting powered down. My Indy said it’s more like the longer it’s powered down the more likely it is to “wake up foggy” he called it. If it sits too long it can freeze, like the cmos in a pc freaks out and loses the time & date when that little battery goes dead, and you have to boot, power off and reboot to jump start the cmos, he said the dme ram backup is like that. More of writing a backup to the dme ram per say than backing up what is in the dme. My LIMITED understanding is the wording is backwards to what it actually does, again my limited understanding, is that it is really applying a backup copy of the dme “code” back to the dme so it refreshes it and it “wakes up fully”.

This shouldn’t mess with the firmware per say, this should be more of a “boot sector repair” to allow the dme to reach out to and verify all the other modules in the car and recalibrate.

All that said - I am sure someone with significantly more brain capacity than I will jump in and clear that up

I really don’t want to mess with my firmware, just jump start the dme.
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Old 06-06-2019, 08:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Purplefade View Post
Hey oldskewel, I agree, more concern with the reconnect spike vs the sitting powered down. My Indy said it’s more like the longer it’s powered down the more likely it is to “wake up foggy” he called it. If it sits too long it can freeze, like the cmos in a pc freaks out and loses the time & date when that little battery goes dead, and you have to boot, power off and reboot to jump start the cmos, he said the dme ram backup is like that. More of writing a backup to the dme ram per say than backing up what is in the dme. My LIMITED understanding is the wording is backwards to what it actually does, again my limited understanding, is that it is really applying a backup copy of the dme “code” back to the dme so it refreshes it and it “wakes up fully”.

This shouldn’t mess with the firmware per say, this should be more of a “boot sector repair” to allow the dme to reach out to and verify all the other modules in the car and recalibrate.

All that said - I am sure someone with significantly more brain capacity than I will jump in and clear that up

I really don’t want to mess with my firmware, just jump start the dme.
Yeah, the danger lurking here is applying the wrong backup to your dme. The software being factory level does not offer much protection to the user in making mistakes.
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