USB TAP BDM has encountered a problem. Failed to resume target process. Bad arguments passed to function.

[josephclifton]

We had a student group get the following error when trying to program the MC56F8037 eval board:  "Lab7_MC56F8037_Internal_PFlash_SDM_Freescale USB TAP BDM has encountered a problem.  Failed to resume target process.  Bad arguments passed to function."   After that error, the eval board became unusable.  We tried programming after that on different PCs, barebones program, etc. and with different USB Taps.  It would not accept any program and always gives the same error.  We had this happen on 3 boards.  I have been giving this same lab for 4 or 5 years and haven't seen anything like this.  I read the post where someone had a similar issue ( https://community.freescale.com/thread/302492), but the "fix" was to restart the PC.  We did that and also tried different PCs and different programs and different USB Taps. So it appears as if downloading their program onto a board rendered the board unusable.  I should note that we had the Motor Control board attached.  The Motor Control board still works fine.  The fact that this happened for 3 different MC56F8037 eval boards when trying to program seems strange. Was wondering if the ever came up before.  We are running Windows 7.   I was hoping that somehow they put the microcontroller in some mode that we could do something to recover from, but I know that is a long shot.  Has anyone had something similar to this happen (other than the link shown)?

[johnlwinters]

Zip cannot handle path names beyond a certain size . I hit this problem years ago.

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

Actually, I used 7-zip to unzip.

[josephclifton]

Which “unzipper” are you using? The newer ones can. I Zipped in Windows 7. It unzips on windows 7 okay. What OS are you using?

[johnlwinters]

Windows 7 32 bit. win zip .

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

If you extract at the root (or say at a directory like 1), it only saves 9 characters, which is the relative folder name: Lab7_old and the backslash. The .metadata file names are just too long and deep. There isn’t anything I can do about those. I can make a folder with a smaller name, like 1 if you think it is missing the limit by just 7 or 8 characters.

[johnlwinters]

At this point I suggest we get our technical information center involved. They will contact you.

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

Okay, Thanks John. My email is [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

[josephclifton]

An update:  I got an older computer, installed an earlier version of CodeWarrior.  Tried what was recommended in section 7.2 of the MC56F8037 data sheet to attempt to unlock the flash.  It said it succeeded in unlocking the flash, but I am sure it didn't.  I am pretty sure the memory in not locked.  I looked over their CodeWarrior project multiple times and can't find anything that looks suspicious.  There doesn't appear to be any connection between the board and the JTAG USB tap, so perhaps the JTAG pins could be reprogrammed, but I don't see anything in the project that does that.  The power LED is lit on the MC56F8037 eval board.  However, the reset button doesn't appear to do anything.   It as if the board is fried, but I am how sure how programming it with what appears to be an innocuous program could do that. No matter what USB Tap we use, the Transmit/Receive LED on the flashes green but the Run/Pause starts off as either Red or unlit, but stays Red no matter what commands are issued.  It never goes green or orange.  It is as if it is permanently paused.

[johnlwinters]

Reprogramming the reset pin as a GPIO is now the most likely cause.

This malady is easily acquired with processor expert.

If all unused pins are made GPIO it will happen. There are warnings issued in the GUI but the determined easily overcome them.

Look at the chip picture in processor expert.

Make it full size. What function is assigned to reset pin?

Or, just read the content of the docs directory.

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

No, the reset wasn’t reprogrammed. Neither were any of the JTAG pins GPIOD0 – 3. They are all “unassigned”, just as they are in a barebones project.

If you think of something else, like me know. I have been racking my brain for several days and just can’t think of anything yet. Thanks.

[johnlwinters]

The board must be powered prior to connecting the JTAG. Also the JTAG must be removed prior to removing power from the board. The flash parameters may be erased if this is not respected. Such devices would have to be refreshed at the factory.

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

This sounds a little strange, since it hasn’t happened before. Also, it only went bad after attempting the programming and only this year. I have had many students doing projects with this board for several years and it hadn’t happened before. That is why it makes me think that this group had something strange in their project, but I sure can’t what that would be.

Such devices would have to be refreshed at the factory

What is the cost of this?

What does it take to do it? Does it use the JTAG Connector but a special program or do you connect something special to other pins on the board?

[johnlwinters]

It is beginning to look as though this may not be the issue.

Devices that do need refreshing at the factory must be removed from a board, cleaned up, and sent to the factory.

However, we are not at that stage.

The version of CodeWarrior 10.2 has known issues.

[josephclifton]

Wow! I would that would be pretty expensive. If you are saying we need to remove them from the Freescale eval board, then that is impossible. We have nothing to do that with.

[johnlwinters]

We are not down to that stage yet. Please move your project to root level or use a better file compression method.".

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[johnlwinters]

The flash parameters are entered at factory test .

If you can attach the project we can check it for any bad effects on the device.

Best Regards,

John L. Winters

Senior Applications Engineer

AMR/EU MCU & MPU AE Group

Freescale Inc.

2100 Elliot Road

This email and any associated attachments have been classified as:

Freescale Confidential and Proprietary

[josephclifton]

The flash parameters are entered at factory test

How would they be changed back on an eval board? I am assuming you wouldn’t remove the chip, right?

If you can attach the project

I have attached it as a ZIP file. So if neither email side strips it….

Thanks!

[johnlwinters]

I tried to unzip the file, but it had errors.

I suspect the directory names are too long.

Please instantiate your projects at close to root level, such as C:\w\your_proj

to minimize string lengths within the IDE.  It really builds some long path names!

[josephclifton]

Thank You!!! That is what I was hoping!