OK i was thinking that i needed to connect the meter to a cable from the ecm... then i found out about the data port on the driver's side... the meter i bought works just fine now... i was just being a little lazy earlier, sorry about that..

anyway, it threw one code...... P1298 Electric Load Detector (ELD) Circuit High Voltage.... i read somewhere else that this is probably due to a bad ground/short. if i find a bad wire/connection, i'll fix it... and then check for a bad fuse.