Quartus 20.4 Cannot Configure FPGA to .jic files

[Jeremy_S]

Greetings,

We have a PC that used to be able to load .jics on our FPGAs (Stratix 10), but now it keeps failing some time during load with the error "jtag chain broken". I have tried a different USB blaster/different cable but the only thing that makes it work is a different PC. What could be going on here?

Thank you.

[Fakhrul]

Hello Jeremy_S,

Perhaps you could examine the PC's environment. Are the software versions and required software the same on both PCs?

[Jeremy_S]

Hi Fakhrul,

Thank you for the response. Both PCs are using Windows 10, Quartus 20.4, using the same .jic files on the same FPGAs, same USB blasters and related cables.

Is there something specific I should be looking for with the PC that could be causing this issue?

Thank you

[FvM]

Hi,
some download cables (e.g. Arrow Blaster, I think also USB Blaster Ii) are storing JTAG frequency settings on the computer. Also some global Quartus programmer options may affect operation.

[Jeremy_S]

Hi,

Yes, both have the frequency set to 16 MHz and the global options are the same. (Assuming that's the menu where you hit tools/options in the programmer)

Thank you.

[Fakhrul]

Hi Jeremy_S,

I apologize for missing your comment earlier. Is it consistently failing on the first PC but consistently successful on the second PC? If that's the case, there might be an issue with the first PC. Alternatively, you could attempt to update the USB Blaster driver. You might find this Knowledge Database (KDB) article helpful: "Why does the Intel® FPGA Download Cable II driver installation fail on Windows* operating system?"

Best regards,

Fakhrul

[Fakhrul]

Since we haven't heard back from you about our previous message, we'll now move this discussion to community support. Feel free to start a new thread for any new questions or issues you have – our Intel experts will be there to help. But if you don't have more questions, the community users can still assist you here. Thanks for your understanding.