OBD I not working?

1994 Firebird, 3.4L V6. I tried using the paperclip to jumper A) Ground and B) TEST terminal at the ALDL. Turn the key to the on position, but instead of getting at least the 12 code, the SES light is on solid, as if it wasn't jumpered. This car is new to my nephew, but the proceedure should be the same as my '95 Suburban which I have read the codes on too many times. This car does have a manual trans. Is there a trick that I don't know about and is not in the Haynes manual. The car didn't quite pass the emissions test and my nephew mentioned that the SES light had come on for a short period of time once or twice, but had gone off by itself. Just looking for any stored codes when I ran across this problem, which seems like the whole ALDL connector is flakey. Also, is this an indication that something more serious might be wrong or going wrong? Thanks

Only info that i can contribute is that my car does a similar thing.. It is a 95 lt1 with a obd II connector but only the dealership's code reader can understand it..
My neighbor said it may be an OBDI computer behind the OBDII connector? something wierd..
All i know is that jumping the pins didn't work on mine neither , and neither did my little handheld OBDII reader

*shrug?*

Yeh, I've heard of the OBDII connector with OBDI computer on the '95s, but this '94 should be OBDI all the way. The connector has 12 pins, 6 on the top row, 6 on bottom. My newest GM is the '95 Burb, so all I know about OBDII is to take it to Advance or AutoZone for a free reading. My nephew is taking the Firebird to one of them today to see if they can get anything out of it.
Thanks for the reply.