byteblaster not showing up in hardware

[Altera_Forum]

Hi,  

I need help with my maxII eval board. When I go to program and verify, the byteblaster does not show up. I have a pci-parallel card in my dell computer and I have added that hardware to my machine as well as the byteblaster. Still I do not see it. Has anyone seen this problem before? Can someone help? Thanks, Elliot

[Altera_Forum]

I regret to tell that based on my experience I was not able to resolve the problem You described either. 

Indeed, I have tried to install the BYTE-Blaster on Parallel Port installed on a PCI card (since my motherboard LPT1 was used by a software dongle) and I could not get it to work. Since I did not have time to spent on troubleshooting this problem, the only solution that I found was to purchase a USB Blaster: I know that this is quite of an amount of money to be spent if You are not going to use it frequently, but the USB-Blaster has several advantages compare to the BYTE-Blaster. I hope that someone will be able to provide You with the possible solution.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I also had problems with the Downloadcables. I solved the problem by installing the jtagserver manually.  In the quartus bin directory there is located a executable named "jtagserver.exe". You can try calling this executable with "jtagserver --status". There should be displayed Server is running.  If the jtagserver isn't running, you need administrator rights to install the jtagserver. For this you have to log in as administrator and type "jtagserver --install". Make sure, that the executable isn't called from a network or substituded drive. Only local harddisks are allowed because when the jtagserver starts no mounts are connected at this time.  I hope this solves the problem.

[Altera_Forum]

Usb blaster works fine on xp, 

but not on win 2000, this is maybe your case.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks all for the replys, 

ecm, I checked the jtagserver --status and it said server is running, and it's from my local c drive. I might have to go the usb route. unless u have more suggestions?  Thanks again, Elliot

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Elliot, 

 maybe a other driver is in conflict with the ByteBlaster driver. Try to check the non PnP drivers in your installation.  I don't know the exact names of an english windows installation, because I have a german windows. But I try to explain how you can look at the non pnp-Devices.  You have to open the computer management console where you can see all devices which are installed on your computer. You have to open the device manager and then you have to view the hidden/suppresed/out faded/non PnP devices (in the menubar where you can choose "file / action / view / window / ?" (Hope this are the english names) in the view menue) The you can see "non PnP driver" which are installed onto your computer. there should be the Altera ByteBlaster. If there are more then one Altera driver, try to remove then and reinstall only the needed driver.  Hope this helps.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi ecm, 

I finally got it working, thanks for the advice. When I went into the device manager window, my pci parallel card was on LPT3 and I changed that to LPT1. Then the byteblaster showed up in the hardware list, but it said something about a missing kernel, so then I added the byteblaster driver again and also a .dll file that it needed and then opened up quartus again and finally I could add it and use it to program the device. Thanks, Elliot

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Hi ecm,  I finally got it working, thanks for the advice. When I went into the device manager window, my pci parallel card was on LPT3 and I changed that to LPT1. Then the byteblaster showed up in the hardware list, but it said something about a missing kernel, so then I added the byteblaster driver again and also a .dll file that it needed and then opened up quartus again and finally I could add it and use it to program the device. Thanks, Elliot  --- Quote End ---     Hi, I know this is not a new thread, but I have the same problem,  I already changed LPT3 to LPT1, and reinstall the drivers but it's still not working, keep giving the same kernel error,   what else could be??  by the way which *.dll file is missing?

[Altera_Forum]

You should tell the exact error message, I think the error is rather rare. (I've been using Byteblaster at a lot of computers, also my customers, but I never saw this error).  

 If no forum member can help, you should send a service request to Altera support, cause only Altera software devlopers can know for sure, what the error message means respectively under which circumstances it may occur at all.

[Altera_Forum]

Same problem using Quartus II (V 8.0); I tried to install the BYTE-Blaster on Parallel Port installed on a PCI card (EX-41011) as my motherboard does not have any LPT port. 

 As mentioned in post# 7 &# 8, I changed defult LPT3 setting to LPT1, doing so, the byteblaster showed up in the hardware list, but with the message "kernel mode driver not installed".  As mentioned in post# 7, I also tried to add the byteblaster driver without any real changes. As post# 8, the only point I cannot figure out is which .dll had elliotmercer (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/member.php?u=1978) added? Is this the only missing point? If yes, is it possible to get this xxx.dll somewhere?  Finally I read a lot of post on other websites and it seems to me that the point is that the programmer seems to look on legacy parallel port only (on "default" 0378 - 037F I/O range). If this is really the case, and as I cannot change the I/O range of my parallel pci card, will it be possible to tell the programmer to search the parallel port on other I/O range?

[Altera_Forum]

I want to contradict some of the considerations. I'm generally using USB-Blaster, but I also have several ByteBlaster MV and ByteBlaster II in use. On a desktop computer, they are using a PCI printer interface (with Netmos chip) and a non-legacy address. 

 The ByteBlaster specific drivers are pgdhdlc.sys (V4.0) and pgdhdlc.dll (V3.51), as shipped with Quartus V5.1 (at least) to V7.2.

[Altera_Forum]

I once had a problem similar to this. I installed the quartus, installed the usbblaster from it's driver directory and some times later installed another version(8.0), so I removed the old version and usb blaster didn't work anymore. 

it turned out that by removing a driver's directory for usbblaster, it didn't work any longer. ( though the driver program always should copy it files to windows directory.) by installing the usbblaster drivers from the latest version, the problem dissapeared.  I hope this works for you.

[Altera_Forum]

hello, 

can it be possible to connect a ByteBlaster MV Cable through a parallel-serial/usb adapter to a serial/usb port of the computer?  i have this cable, but i don't want to use it on the parallel port of the computer, the main idea is to use it on a laptop, and laptops usually don't have parallel ports.  that's why i'm wondering if the adapter might be a solution to connect the ByteBlaster MV Cable to a serial/usb port  Does anyone have a sugeston or an idea?  Thank you very much

[Altera_Forum]

The Byte Blaster driver is depending on low level pin control of the LPT port. This functionality isn't provided by any available USB-to LPT bridge, as far as I know. Some USB bridge chips have a low level control option, but no respective driver exists apparently. There are some internet projects of DIY USB-to-LPT adapters, that are said to handle also low-level IO, e.g. http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/rund%20um%20den%20pc/usb2lpt/index.html.en 

 PCCard LPT interfaces are an option to supplement a true LPT port for a notebook computer. Terasic USB Blaster is still the best option, I think.

[Altera_Forum]

thank you for the fast reply. 

i'm starting to have the full picture now. i wanted to explore the adapter possibility before buying a PCCard LPT interface or an usb blaster. thanks again

[Altera_Forum]

I had the same problems with ByteblaserMV and WinXPSP3 with parallel prot on a PCI-Card. 

 First the ByteblasterMV was not showing up in hardware. --> change port to LPT1 (including activating an option for lecay-support on the PCI-card.)  Then the problem showed up with "Kernel mode driver not installed".  --> I installed the driver for the byteblaster before .. so i installed it again.  http://www.altera.com/support/software/drivers/dri-bb-xp.html  This solved the problem for me.

[Altera_Forum]

This is an old problem with a lot of folklore and few answers. I have faced it again with a new computer (and my subscription has run out so I can't call support!). 

 Quatech PCMCIA parallel port works, but StarTech CB1PECP PCMCIA adapter using Oxford OX16PCI95x chip does not. Dell D400 in docking station works. Sunix PCI card parallel port in desktop machine does not work. All motherboard parallel ports seem to work and no USB attached parallel adapters that I know of will work.   Those that work are set to LPT1, to Never us an interrupt, and Enable legacy PnP detection not required.   What seems to be common in ones that work is the I/O address is the old default starting at 0378. The add-on parallel ports either don't show their I/O address in device manager (e.g. Sunix PCI card) or it is not configurable and not standard (e.g. StarTech/Oxford starts at FFD8).   Does any one know - is it simply that the ByteBlaster xx driver needs to see the device at the legacy I/O address? Then instead of wasting money on trying different parallel adapters we could know which ones will work. And if so would it not be a small fix to make the Altera driver support different parallel port cards? Other folks devices do (e.g. Texas Instruments MSP430 programmer/emulator works happly on add-on parallel ports I have tried, and a few other parallel programmers do, too).

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  This is an old problem with a lot of folklore and few answers.  --- Quote End ---     --- Quote Start ---  Does any one know - is it simply that the ByteBlaster xx driver needs to see the device at the legacy I/O address?  --- Quote End ---   Among the few answers, I did at least answer this particular question. Yes if seen it working with a non-legay address (0x8400../0x8800..) and a Netmos PCI adapter.  Regarding wasting money -why not using a cheap Terasic USB Blaster?

[Altera_Forum]

That's interesting, so I wonder what the answer is - why some don't work. And why the Byteblaster driver is so picky. 

 Re Terasic - I didn't know it existed, until I turned to this forum. Sounds great. I am awaiting another import clone USB Blaster that I found on ebay, and interested to see if it works. With all the good reports of the Terasic USB Blaster I would have chosen it instead, and may still need to!

[Altera_Forum]

Because my adapter was operating, I didn't think yet about possible differences. But it may be the case, that the drivers differ in the available extent of low level services for direct pin control.

[Altera_Forum]

Can anyone confirm if it is possible to use Bytebaster2 with a PCI parallel port adapter with base address at no-standard lpt address. 

 I have a Byteblaster2 and a Moschip chipset pci parallel port card that I have used with others   "parallel jtag/programmers" but quartus_pgm get me the message "kernel mode driver not installed"