Cannot program cyclone IV with USB blaster

[Jacek159]

Hello,

I have an Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE6E22C8N board which supports programming via JTAG USB, and so I have a USB blaster revision C and connected it to the JTAG port and installed the drivers for it through the Quartus Prime installer, but unfortunately every time I try to use the programmer with it plugged in, it hangs for a while then prints an error saying "Attempted to access JTAG server -- internal error code 82 occurred", running jtagconfig also says: "Error when scanning hardware - Server error", device manager also shows only USB blaster when as far as I know it should also be showing additional entries such as JTAG interface?

I tried different drivers but to the same effect, reinstalling quartus prime and all the drivers, no luck. I also tried running a windows 7 VM and installing quartus prime and the programmer drivers on there in case it was a compatibility issue, but the same happens, server says "server error" and the programmer hangs.

I looked in event viewer and the driver appears to be outputting errors:

I have also tried to install the drivers manually through the quartus prime 23 install directory.

I'm really not sure what to do anymore, hoping someone with more experience can help.

Thank you!

I am running Windows 11, X86 of course.

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

Hi,

Please try to uninstall Quartus and USB blaster driver, and then reinstall while logged into an administrator account.

Regards,

Aiman

[Jacek159]

Hey Aiman,

Thank you for your reply.

I did try this, on a new machine even on an administrator account, and even ran the Quartus installer and programmer as administrator, but I'm getting the same behaviour.

Could this be an issue with the USB blaster perhaps? I'm getting the same thing even with the FPGA JTAG unplugged,

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

Hi,

-Do you have another USB Blaster that you can try with the same board and PC?

-or Can you try using the current USB Blaster on another PC and another working board?

Regards,

Aiman

[Jacek159]

I don't have another USB blaster on hand so I've gone ahead and ordered another one to see if this one is defective perhaps.

I also don't have another FPGA board on hand but if I run out of options I could get another prototype, I could also manually interface the JTAG, although I doubt the issue is with the FPGA board since the blaster has the same issues regardless of whether the board is connected or not. 

From that and also trying another machine, I'm fairly sure either the blaster is incompatible or defective, or there's something wrong with the driver/JTAG server, although I'm also having issues getting it working with Linux as well.

I'll get back to you once I receive it!

[Jacek159 · Accepted solution]

Hello, yes!

It turns out the USB blaster I ordered was defective, trying it with a replacement it worked no problem.

Additionally, for future reference, the defective one did not have a constant shining "ACT" light, and Windows event viewer reported status code 0 as problem starting.

Thanks!

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

I’m glad that your question has been addressed, I now transition this thread to community support. If you have a new question, feel free to open a new thread to get the support from Intel experts. Otherwise, the community users will continue to help you on this thread. Thank you.