The late-90's GM Passlock system (e.g. 1997 Malibu, Regal, Impala, etc.) has a part around the ignition tumbler that goes bad and no longer reliably detects the valid key. In that situation, the "Theft System" light will slowly flash and the carburetor is cut off so the engine won't start. The time-out on the system is 10 minutes - you don't have to do anything, you don't have to disconnect the battery, the key can be out of the ignition -- it's just a time delay. After 10 minutes, the light goes out and you can try again (but if the key is again not detected, the light will start flashing again and you have to wait another 10 minutes)
Someone else, who had this problem, told me to remove all other keys from my keyring. The weight of the other keys pulls on the ignition key causing the key to be unreadable. It has been 7 weeks since I have been doing this and have not had a problem
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