Custom Board Based on i.MX93 (MIMX9352CVVXMAB) — Board Unresponsive After Failed fuse prog Command

[mjaimin]

Hi all,

We’re working with a custom board based on the NXP i.MX93 SoC (MIMX9352CVVXMAB), and we encountered an issue while attempting to program the MAC address into fuse memory.

Steps Performed:
```
fuse prog 3 16 0x00112233
fuse prog 3 17 0x44556600
```

After Power Cycle:

- No serial output is observed.
- The board is no longer visible under `/dev/ttyUSB0`.
- lsusb does not list any USB serial or ROM device.
- The board was previously working fine and serial communication was functional.

Both commands returned `ERROR` at the command prompt.
We suspect the issue may be due to a failed or partial fuse programming operation that affected the boot configuration or triggered something.

Board Details:

- SoC: i.MX9352CVVXMAB
- Board: Custom hardware (not an official EVK)
- Host OS: Ubuntu Linux
- Previously active serial device: `/dev/ttyUSB0`

Looking for your help

Thanks

Jaimin Modi

[Manuel_Salas]

Hello @mjaimin 

I hope you are doing very well.

It appears the device is bricked.

You burned fuses on bank 3 (Mainly, responsible for boot mode), but MAC_ADDR fuses are located on bank 39 according to the Fuse_map.

Best regards,

Salas.

[mjaimin]

Thank you once more for your earlier insight regarding the device potentially being irreversibly bricked due to incorrect fuse programming (Bank 3 instead of Bank 39 for the MAC address).

I realise this might be a dead end, but before completely dismissing the board, I have one final question:

Is there any remaining possibility to boot the OS from an SD card?
-----------------------------------------------------------

- Prior to the fuse incident, I successfully booted Linux from an SD card.
- After the failed fuse writes, I have no serial output, and the board does not enumerate via USB SDP.
- However, I'm curious if there’s any way:
- Force the SoC to boot from the SD card again.
- Bypass the boot fuse settings.
- Or potentially boot if a valid U-Boot/OS is present on the SD/emmc.
I would greatly appreciate any final suggestions. Even the slightest boot - regardless of UART - would assist in confirming whether the SoC is still functional.

[Manuel_Salas]

Hello @mjaimin 

Unfortunately, there is not a way to boot from SD after that.

There is a Recovery boot on i.MX93, but it is for LPSPI3 or LPSPI4:

Manuel_Salas_0-1748282510695.png

Manuel_Salas_1-1748282534071.png

Unfortunately, as you have not access to burn new fuses, you can not burn Recovery boot fuse:

Manuel_Salas_2-1748282583878.png

So, you must to change your chip.

Best regards,

Salas.