Originally Posted by BigBuckORamma

Are you sure you have the cable plugged in correctly? It can be installed reversed, which would act exactly how you say it does.

I personally use a Servo Cable with the color coded wires on them, so I can check the polarity and orientation between the ESC and Programming Card.

Once I have it plugged in, and confirmed in the correct orientation, I connect my battery, and then power on the ESC. So far i have had no issues with any of my HW ESC's using this method.