Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorWhen you are a complete 'noob', as you put it, there is no way to learn properly except reading documentation; you can't escape it, so I suggest you do so.
What you are experiencing is the Nios SYSID Peripheral. It is a means to ensure that the hardware image downloaded into the FPGA matches the nios PTF File so they aren't out of sync; so for example, what musth ave happened in your case is that you modified the NIOS System somehow in SOPC Builder, and then you didn't regenerate the SOF File by recompiling your project; or you regenerated it, but you didn't download it to the board. Everytime you change the SOPC Project, the SYSID Peripheral creates a new random 'system ID'. Everytmie you download software then, it compares the SYSID downloaded to the FPGA, to the SYSID in the SOPC PTF File. IF they are the same, you are using the correct hardware image (SOF File). If not, you need to regenerate the SOF File and download it to the board. The error message you reported says this in plain English; "Please download the correct SOF or recompile." By unclicking the box, you skipped the part that actually checks the SYSID on board and the SYSID stored in the PTF File. And please don't be so quick to criticize altera support; they are great, but I can understand why they would be slow to respond when you are asking questions that are clearly answered in user manuals. I don't ask questions to Altera support unless it's a question that hasn't been answered previously in Altera manuals. Don't take this as an offence, just some advice so you don't end up wasting your time...
