Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
14 years ago

USB Blaster disappears

The USB Blaster disappears from the various programmers after one or two uses. The JTAG server is running, no complaint "82" from software, the Altera USB Blaster is in the Device Manager, but no hardware is found by Flash programmer, Quartus II programmer, nios2-flashprogrammer.exe, etc..

Cmd line utils get: "There are no JTAG cables which match the values specified", but not always. Sometimes it works. the '--cable=...' is the same as in the nios flash GUI.

Only thing that fixes it is a reboot. Plug-unplug of the device doesn't work. Have downloaded standalone Quartus programmer, Quartus II Nios EDA, latest drivers, etc...

Windows 7, x64 Intel i7, Quartus 11.0 build 157, Nios Flash pgmr 9.1

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    i've posted a couple times that i had problems with the 11.0 USB Blaster driver on Windows XP. the Blaster showed up in Device Manager but not in QII Programmer

    i solved the problem by installing the 10.1sp1 Stand Alone Programmer, uninstalling the USB Blaster driver, then installing again using the 10.1sp1 driver
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    You may have run into a known issue with the driver in the 11.0 standalone programmer.

    Search altera.com for rd05262011_206
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Tried 10.1sp1 driver download. Doesn't help.

    I can run Quartus II Programmer from Nios EDS and download a sof. Sometimes I can do it a second time. It will hang sometime during the download by the third time I try. If I disconnect the blaster and reconnect, Quartus comes back alive and says it failed.

    nios2-flash-programmer _always_ fails at some point during checksumming, erasing, or programming. When it does, it hangs if running from the GUI, or if running from a command line it just fails one of the operations.

    Once the failure occurs, the USB-Blaster is no longer listed in the Quartus programmer or flash programmer GUIs and from the command line, nios2-flash-programmer says there is no such device 'USB Blaster on local host'.

    So GUIs hang, command line fails, then the blaster is gone from the list, although it is still there under Device Manager. I suspect the JTAG server has the device locked up and unavailable. If I unplug/replug the blaster, it is available again. This is different than I have reported before, I was mistaken.

    This all worked just fine on my old machine running Windows XP with Quartus 10.1sp1. I've verified there is no appreciable noise on the JTAG, I have blown $$$ on a new Blaster, I have run from within virtual XP mode, I have nothing else to try.

    Has anyone else used the flash programmer with a dual NIOS? Could there be some new conflict in the software on Windows 7 with a dual NIOS design?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Solution:

    I was going through a USB 1.0 Hub. Replaced with a 2.0 and it works. That shouldn't be a problem if any Altera programmers are listening, but it's not likely to be an issue for most.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    I almost posted yesterday to say this sounds like noise on the USB, but I didn't really believe it (usb bulk transfers are supposed to be reliable). If changing the hub fixes the problem then maybe it really was USB noise.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    I don't think it is noise on the USB since it works with a slower computer running XP. That it was not a USB 2.0 hub is more likely.

    Cheers