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Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

USB Blaster shown as "Unknown Device"

Hi there,

We have a few labs that run Quartus 9.1 SP2 and students can connect up DE2 boards and other USB Blaster devices. All machines are running Windows XP with SP3.

Lately I noted that when people connect their DE2, DE0 or Terasic USB Blaster, which will install the device, but a warning message appears at sys-tray saying that "USB Device not Recognized". When I look into Device Manager, it says it is an "Unknown Device", instead of "Altera USB Blaster", which was what it said when I installed the driver.

I tried uninstalling the device and reconnecting the board, each time it will say USB device ready to use, but in Device Manager appears as Unknown Device and obviously Quartus can't see it from the Programmer dialog.

Anyone come across this please?

Thanks,

Edmond.

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Guess this could be related to a number of problems.

    1: Have you tried reinstalling the USB Blaster driver device driver software on the affected machines?

    2: Have any recent system policies been implemented on the network preventing USB plug n play and/or disabling custom device drivers?

    3: How many machines are affected? Very unlikely, but could be a general Windows USB driver problem or issue with the hardware USB controller on the PC motherboards. However very unlikely if multiple machines are affected, and most likely a software-related issue!
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    In the Unknown Device Tab, have you tried adding the driver manually there? The USB-Blaster Driver Files can be found in the Quartus installation directory, so just try to add them again. And you will have to make sure, that everytime the same USB-Port is used, while using the Blaster without administrator rights. So you might only use the Blaster with the port it was connected to, while you installed it on the machine, that is what experience I made. Good luck.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Thanks for the replies guys.

    1. I did uninstall the device from Device Manager and rebooted machine but problem still exist.

    2. I also tried deleting the files usbblstr32.dll, usbblstrlang.dll and usbblstrui.dll in the c:\windows\system32 folder. Same result.

    3. Also tried installing or updating the driver for the Unknown Device via the driver at the folder C:\altera\91\quartus\drivers\usb-blaster. Add Hardware Wizard would say it can't find a suitable driver for it.

    4. Problem is happening to like 60+ out of 100 machines.

    5. I am now re-imaging some machines to see if I can regenerate the problem. Although don't really know how it happened.

    6. I also noted that while in Device Manager I checked the driver detail of the Unknown Device and Windows said no drive files are available.

    I am now wonder if perhaps Windows no longer see the USB Balster or DE2/0 board as such, so it will just install it as an unknown device.

    In normal situation, a USB Blaster will appear as "Altera USB Blaster".
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Just a bit further testing.

    I found the problem seems to affect a certain type of computers, namely Dell Precision 390. I also have Dell Precision 370 and Optilex 980 machines and they are all okay.

    I suspect perhaps it is something to do with the chipset driver affect the USB Subsystem.

    One thing I also suspect is that on a initially good Dell 390, as soon as I hooked up a DE0 board it will be loaded as an Unknown Device and after that other USB Blaster will be seen as Unknow Device as well.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Hi,

    I begin to work with a de0-nano, but when I connect the usb blaster, I've got the message: "usb device not recognized". I'm working on windows xp SP3.

    Quartus 10.1 is installed and i tried to install manually the driver by specifying the file directory but it doesn't work...

    It seems to be the same problem as here. Any news about how to solve it?

    thanks
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Hi groy,

    For my case, at the end (after spending heaps of time testing), we found a batch of our Dell machines having issues with the front USB ports. The back USB ports were all fine. We had to have Dell to replace quite a few front panels and that fixed the problem.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Hi all,

    I have the solution to my problem.

    I bought the DE1 board with the usb blaster

    the first time it was recognised as usb<->serial

    what i did:

    download FTprog form FTDI, whit this you can configuer the FTDI chip, also if it dousnt work in quartus.

    next you have to check that the vendor ID and Product id are the same as in the USBblaster .inf driver. this values were wrong.

    right settings:

    costum VID/PID : Costum VID/PID (not FTDI Default)

    Vendor ID : 09FB (not 0403)

    Product ID : 6001

    USB version nummer USB 2.0

    Bus Powered

    100mAmps

    USB remote Wake Up :off

    Pull Down :On

    Manufacturer : Altera (not FTDI)

    Product Description: USB-Blaster

    Serial number enabled: checked

    Auto Generate Serial No. Uncheched

    Serial Number 91d28401

    or Prefix : 91

    this worked for me (v91sp2)

    FIRST SAVE THE OLD CONTENT TO A XML FILE SO YOU CAN RESTORE THE SETTINGS

    i use Win7 x64

    I HOPE YOU GET IT UP