Yesterday I went out to our off-site storage place, van starts fine.  Come out of storage and nothing - won't even turn over.  Then the gauges start going beserk, the lights and horn start flashing and sounding off, really wierd stuff.  I never got any MIL indicators or anything, it just went balls-up on me.  Had it towed to the Dodge dealer, and waited for the phone to ring today.

They tell me the battery is dead (no surprise), and that the fix was to replace the battery and then reprogram the engine computer.  Huh, reprogram the PC?  Never heard of having to do this, and I've certainly changed a few car batteries in my time.  Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks,
Dave

p.s. - I did think to jump it, but was in the back lot of my storage place and didn't see a soul until the tow showed up.

Edited for dumbass spelling errors.

no biggie, low voltage probably threw some error codes that needed to be cleared after installing the new battery.

It was in alarm mode .

Next time charge the battery , then lock and unlock the drivers
door with the regular key from the outside . ( Works On Jeeps Also )

On a rare occasion I run into a vehicle that doesn't have
the factory alarm option activated , but still exhibits the
symptoms after a dead battery . When that happens you
do need to reflash the controller to correct it .

ETA

There are several new vehicles that can lose their programming
in a 0v condition . It's mostly Euros but any vehicle that uses an
EE PROM  chip can corrupt the program .

So if you own an 01 or newer  Mercedes , Volvo , VW , Audi etc .....
Don't remove the battery without a backup feeding the VCM .
Or you will need to tow it to the dealer .