Well no. If you have trouble with the chip it can immobilise your car so, it's better to flash it out.

No 71,97 are VPWR pins so that means the EEC has been powered up but if the smart shield bits have not been switched the EEC will be waiting for the code from the body module before it will enable injector drive and ignition drive. It was just a way to determine that the chip was ok or that possibly your J3 port is disabled.

I had a look at the ECM I was given with the engine and I can see 9/2000 v8 falcon written on the casing faintly in pen! Now I'm thinking this is actually a series 2 ECM would this be correct??

I don't know the cut off point from S1 to S2 but I know the data locations of the smartshield bits are not always in the same place no matter what series EEC it is.