Need help. Laptop requirements to run tunercats?

[KLaBZ28]

I've got a 1995 Camaro Z/28 A4 with the 2.73 posi rear. Its basically 100% stock only mods are a Lingenfelter CAI and Magnaflow catback. When I take the car out this spring I want to put in LPP longtube race headers ORY and install the 3.42 ratio posi rear end that I picked up. I want to remove the AIR system and EGR shit because with the race headers they serve no purpose. So I need to somehow tune the PCM so that a check engine light doesn't come on from removing all that stuff and having no cat, basically no emissions system anymore. I also have to tune it so the speedo is correct when changing from 2.73's to 3.42's. This is all I want to do, calibrate speedo and delete the codes.

Now, I have a friend who has the tunercats software that he is going to sell me, and I'm going to buy the cable for my car. Thing is he told me that my laptop could be too slow to tune the PCM? What are the system/hardware requirements for my laptop to tune my car with this tunercats software? I really don't want to spend $600+ on a new laptop just to make a couple tweaks.

My laptop is a Dell Latitude C400 Model # PP03L
Right click "My Computer" --> "Properties"
System: Windows XP

Computer: Intel Pentium 3
Mobile CPU 1200MHz
526 MHz, 256 MB of RAM

I am super noob with computers and tuning but the thing can be sluggish at times but I only have Limewire, AIM, and Adobe Reader on it. I never use it... Any help for me?

[ScottKnight]

You own the laptop already, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out. If you have the cable and TunerCat, just hook up and do a few reads. Maybe a lot of reads. If they all work successfully, you have a useful system. If you get errors and corrupt downloaded files, you need to do something else.

TunerCat doesn't take much in the way of hardware: My laptop until just a few months ago was a Dell Inspiron 8000, 1GHz P3, 512Mb of ram and it never had an issue. Ever. TunerCat, DataMaster, HP Tuners, LT1_Edit, etc. I recently replaced it with a ToughBook CF-73 that I am totally in love with. It's light, durable, has a handle, touchscreen, built in wireless...$329 shipped from fleaBay.

[KLaBZ28]

Thanks for the response. Thats what I was hoping to hear. I'm afraid that if the laptop isnt fast enough though it can mess up the cars PCM?

[ScottKnight]

Yes, if you are getting comm errors, you will trash the PCM. That is why you test by doing reads. The worst that can happen with a failed read is you have to pull the power for a while to reset the PCM. Even after all these years and hundreds of successful program loads, I still do a test read at the beginning of every tuning session and a "Check VIN" before I upload a new calibration. Even with all that, I still trashed a PCM a couple months ago.

Oh yeah, get a spare PCM and copy your current calibration to it BEFORE you try any programming on your daily driver :D

The only thing I see that could possibly be an issue with your laptop is that it is kind of light on RAM, so turn everything off that doesn't absolutely have to be running. I can easily strip Windows XP down to less than 90Mb of RAM used.

[proace4]

also if need be to test it... maybe park near a power source? if its slow that might help you alittle bit but like he said make sure dont have anything else running!

[KLaBZ28]

I really don't know much about tuning I'm sort of going in here with a blindfold on. I should get a spare 95 LT1 A4 PCM then eh? Can you take the old one out and if you fuck it up just put the old one back in and be fine?

[Chris]

A 20 dollar ram chip for your laptop will do wonders! I had an older one like yours and I upgraded the memeory after 5 years and the thing ziped.

on your current set up yes if you plugged in a stock pcm your car will fire up. Assuming its from a a4 car.

Ive used ls1edit and you can back up your current tune. Make sure your car battery has a full charge ( Do not use a battery chargery) and that your laptop is plugged in. And do not touch the cables while loading the tune.

If something happesn you have a spare pcm you can send it out to be fixed.

[Pro-jection Eng]

you guys are digging too deep into this, i'm using like an 7 year old dell that has a 10 inch screen and one of those "mouse" buttons in the center of the keyboard. it has windows 98, like 300mhz and probably 50 mg of ram. works like a charm. Even has a real serial port and 1 usb port which was probably cutting edge at the time. I like that it has a serial port instead of having to use an adapter... adapters are what cause problems in my experience with trying to use newer laptops...

[KLaBZ28]

Well thats good to hear... Hopefully the laptop I have will work. I think I'm gonna get a spare PCM so if I screw up I can put my stock one back in. I'll have to just get used to using the program. I just figured out that my usb port isn't working on it though...