3800 Charles, I need some help (i messed up)

GTPquickRB

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Sep 11, 2008
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Not thinking, I increased the coolant fan shutoff time from 2 minutes to 2.5 minutes. didnt seem like a huge change, but its putting a huge burden on my battery. Had to get jumped satruday night and today. would such an increase honestly cause my battery to crap out like that? nothing different has changed. did seem like i wracked my started tho tryin to start it up earlier tho.

Battery came with the car, looks like its in great shape, no signs of corrosion, 7 year extended life battery. car is a 98. no prior problems, although i did run it all the way down once while i listening to music for 3 hours without the car running.

I would change it back to 2 minutes (actually would disable it for the winter) if only my computer still worked....darn it. The old laptop (with the powertunr software) was recently broken by my brother, and i wont be getting it fixed for the next couple days. The current laptop (which im on) has a 15 pin female serial port. Will a 9 to 15 male-male adapter work? Radioshack didn't have any such adapters, so where would i buy one? Best Buy? it's just annoying as hell.

I learned something tho....don't mess with perfection, cause more than likely im gonna mess it up

-Bryce
 

beyerch

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Jan 20, 2009
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its possible definitely.

if the temp turn on is low enough and the timeout is long enough and you do a lot of short trips, you could easily kill off the battery ,especially if it sucks anyway.

Be sure that you get the battery charged/replaced before getting creative flashing it, lol.
 

horist

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Nov 10, 2008
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Battery came with the car, looks like its in great shape, no signs of corrosion, 7 year extended life battery. car is a 98

wait ... so this is the stock battery? 7 year old battery? if so definetly time to change it...

If it goes dead after having the fans on for 2.5 minutes... I don't think I'd trust that battery... what if you leave the dome light on while at work... come out and dead... especially with winter coming up... i wouldn't want that battery in my car

also you don't want a parallel port adapter... i'm not sure if the cable is usb or serial... but if you don't have a serial port (a small one 9-pin then I doubt you have a serial port at all on it... most newer laptops don't come with one)

If you need a serial port look into an USB to serial adapter... but from personnal experience i'd stay far away from radioshack adapters and belkin adapters...
 

chipmonk212121

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May 28, 2007
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Originally posted by chipmonk212121@Sep 26 2005, 09:12 PM
15 pin is not for serial its for VGA so that wont work... do you have a 25-pin parrallel port? you can get an adapter at radioshack for that......in fact im lookin at one right now since i work for em :D
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...ya hes right....use the usb-serial adapter......... but ive never had a customer have a problem out of our radioshack adapters........ its about 42$
 

beyerch

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Jan 20, 2009
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agree 100% with horist on both counts

#1 - parallel adapter, screw that.

#2 - Radioshack ANYTIME stay FAR AWAY from. The radioshack USB to Serial adapter for instance, does not have true XP compliant drivers. If you use that thing on an XP system, its a time bomb waiting to happen. The radio shack instructions specifically show that if you get the XP warning to just bypass it ... wtf.

#3 - Belkin... works better than Rat Shack, but not by much.

#4 - Stock battery, same boat here, bought a 98 pace car with original battery. I'm amazed the car still functions. That is a timebomb as well....


Going back to USB adapters, I test with 5 different adapters and by far the most stable adapter I can find is the Keyspan US-19HS adapter. Its ~35 bucks at compusa, best buy, etc. Its also MAC compatible if that sways your decision at all. I'm strongly recommend getting one of these anyday over a radioshack unit.
 

GTPquickRB

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Sep 11, 2008
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well i put in a new battery, actually its one year old from my new car. let it sit for about 9 months, still juiced, so i think it should be ok. so what is the VGA for? and i saw the serial to USB....that would work? only thing is the fact that it's 42. and if i dont get it from radioshack who do i get it from? i want to get rid of the fans come winter. ill just get the old laptop fixed, i think its my only option thats reasonable right now. im not gonna drop 42 and redownload all the pt stuff just to switch fan time right now. hopefully the new battery will work, and i have a trickle charger i can leave on it each night until i get the fans fixed. hopefully tho it was just a battery. thanks

-Bryce
 

Sinister Drag Designs

SinisterDragDesigns.com
Aug 3, 2007
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Chicago, IL
Originally posted by beyerch@Sep 26 2005, 09:02 PM
its possible definitely.

if the temp turn on is low enough and the timeout is long enough and you do a lot of short trips, you could easily kill off the battery ,especially if it sucks anyway.

Be sure that you get the battery charged/replaced before getting creative flashing it, lol.
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i leave my fans on for half hour to hour at a tim i forget to turn it off,its the zzp one
and car starts right up, my voltage gauge is at 13.1when i do thisand after driving for 10 mins its at 14.3 so really 30 sec, is not going to do this unless ur battery is fucked beyond fucked, ive done this with two batterys now ,stock one i did it to about 20 times ene till it was dead, and i had to get jumped, and still voltage went right back up, and i changed to a optima for looks and weight, and only for 20 bucks, and my voltage went to 14.4 14.5 and ive left the fans on for a whil on that one, its .1 volts at idle when i turn it on14.4 drops to a 14.3 14.2and the alt only really charges after 1700 rpms im pretty sure, well effectivly charging anyways,

basicly dont sweat 30 sec, if its that bad buy a battery and alt to be sure
 

Fish

From the quiet street
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Aug 3, 2007
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Originally posted by beyerch@Sep 26 2005, 09:48 PM
agree 100% with horist on both counts

#1 - parallel adapter, screw that.

#2 - Radioshack ANYTIME stay FAR AWAY from.  The radioshack USB to Serial adapter for instance, does not have true XP compliant drivers.  If you use that thing on an XP system, its a time bomb waiting to happen.  The radio shack instructions specifically show that if you get the XP warning to just bypass it ... wtf. 

#3 - Belkin... works better than Rat Shack, but not by much.

#4 - Stock battery, same boat here, bought a 98 pace car with original battery.  I'm amazed the car still functions.  That is a timebomb as well....


Going back to USB adapters, I test with 5 different adapters and by far the most stable adapter I can find is the Keyspan US-19HS adapter.  Its ~35 bucks at compusa, best buy, etc.  Its also MAC compatible if that sways your decision at all.  I'm strongly recommend getting one of these anyday over a radioshack unit.
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WOOT. I made a good purchase off the bat. I have a keyspan adapter that I use for my atap. We have them advertised for 30.84 at CDW.
 
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