This is not good.

So is the "blue screen of death" during programming the #1 cause of this problem? I haven't had any problems with mine; I'm using a new Dell netbook on Windows XP, and it's pretty stable.

We should have a sticky just for "bricked ECUs" listing what will cause an ECU to brick, and also what steps/options there are for un-bricking it.

 

Yes, having your laptop crashing DURING a Flash is bad. So is unplugging your USB cable by accident. That is BAD as well.

 

I use my dedicated "carputer" (Acerone Netbook) for flashing the ECU. It's a clean XP install with no additional stuff running on the background (ie. Antivirus, etc.) Only software installed is ECUFlash, Evoscan, Excel (for opening logs), and VLC media player. All cables are permanently attached.