How to recover bricked MIMXRT1015DAF5A?

[audio_guy]

I'm working on a project with a custom board and MIMXRT1015DAF5A. Several of my boards stop responding in the IDE after initially working. I'm booting mode 10b (internal) and when I try J-Link commander I get the error message:

SEGGER J-Link Commander V6.70b (Compiled Apr 3 2020 11:45:44)
DLL version V6.70b, compiled Apr 3 2020 11:44:53

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Mar 19 2020 11:10:39
Hardware version: V10.10
S/N: 850100616
License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
VTref=3.335V

Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>
Unknown command. '?' for help.
J-Link>
Unknown command. '?' for help.
J-Link>connect
Please specify device / core. <Default>: MIMXRT1015DAF5A
Type '?' for selection dialog
Device>
Please specify target interface:
J) JTAG (Default)
S) SWD
T) cJTAG
TIF>s
Specify target interface speed [kHz]. <Default>: 4000 kHz
Speed>
Device "MIMXRT1015DAF5A" selected.

Connecting to target via SWD
Found SW-DP with ID 0x0BD11477
Failed to power up DAP
Found SW-DP with ID 0x0BD11477
Failed to power up DAP
Found SW-DP with ID 0x0BD11477
Failed to power up DAP
Found SW-DP with ID 0x0BD11477
Failed to power up DAP
Cannot connect to target.
J-Link>

I think there may be some bad code in external QSPI FLASH so I switched to boot mode 01b (serial) and now the part responds by I cannot erase the FLASH:

SEGGER J-Link Commander V6.70b (Compiled Apr 3 2020 11:45:44)
DLL version V6.70b, compiled Apr 3 2020 11:44:53

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Mar 19 2020 11:10:39
Hardware version: V10.10
S/N: 850100616
License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
VTref=3.335V

Type "connect" to establish a target connection, '?' for help
J-Link>connect
Please specify device / core. <Default>: MIMXRT1015DAF5A
Type '?' for selection dialog
Device>
Please specify target interface:
J) JTAG (Default)
S) SWD
T) cJTAG
TIF>s
Specify target interface speed [kHz]. <Default>: 4000 kHz
Speed>
Device "MIMXRT1015DAF5A" selected.

Connecting to target via SWD
Found SW-DP with ID 0x0BD11477
DPIDR: 0x0BD11477
Scanning AP map to find all available APs
AP[1]: Stopped AP scan as end of AP map has been reached
AP[0]: AHB-AP (IDR: 0x04770041)
Iterating through AP map to find AHB-AP to use
AP[0]: Core found
AP[0]: AHB-AP ROM base: 0xE00FD000
CPUID register: 0x411FC271. Implementer code: 0x41 (ARM)
Found Cortex-M7 r1p1, Little endian.
FPUnit: 8 code (BP) slots and 0 literal slots
CoreSight components:
ROMTbl[0] @ E00FD000
ROMTbl[0][0]: E00FE000, CID: B105100D, PID: 000BB4C8 ROM Table
ROMTbl[1] @ E00FE000
ROMTbl[1][0]: E00FF000, CID: B105100D, PID: 000BB4C7 ROM Table
ROMTbl[2] @ E00FF000
ROMTbl[2][0]: E000E000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 000BB00C SCS-M7
ROMTbl[2][1]: E0001000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 000BB002 DWT
ROMTbl[2][2]: E0002000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 000BB00E FPB-M7
ROMTbl[2][3]: E0000000, CID: B105E00D, PID: 000BB001 ITM
ROMTbl[1][1]: E0041000, CID: B105900D, PID: 001BB975 ETM-M7
ROMTbl[1][2]: E0042000, CID: B105900D, PID: 004BB906 CTI
ROMTbl[0][1]: E0040000, CID: B105900D, PID: 000BB9A9 TPIU-M7
ROMTbl[0][2]: E0043000, CID: B105F00D, PID: 001BB101 TSG
Cache: Separate I- and D-cache.
I-Cache L1: 16 KB, 256 Sets, 32 Bytes/Line, 2-Way
D-Cache L1: 16 KB, 128 Sets, 32 Bytes/Line, 4-Way
Cortex-M7 identified.
J-Link>exec enable eraseallflashbanks
ERROR: Unknown command
J-Link>exec enableeraseallflashbanks
J-Link>erase all
Erasing device...
J-Link: Flash download: Total time needed: 0.089s (Prepare: 0.057s, Compare: 0.000s, Erase: 0.031s, Program: 0.000s, Verify: 0.000s, Restore: 0.000s)

****** Error: Failed to erase sectors.

ERROR: Erase returned with error code -5.
J-Link>

Any ideas?

Peter

[audio_guy]

My board uses LPUART1 connected to another on board device. When I connect to USB (in boot mode 01b) it does not show up as an HID device. USB sniffer shown no activity either. Is there a series of commands to erase the flash via J-Link commander?

By the way I found that the 'bad' code in FLASH is calling:

PIT_StopTimer(PIT, kPIT_Chnl_0);

when PIT is not initialized (no call to PIT_Init()). When is step into PIT_StopTimer() the jlink debugger disconnects and after this the board is bricked. I have corrected this and have a working board but would like to recover some of my other prototypes.

Finally the USB on a working board works fine running one of the evkmimxrt1015_dev_cdc_vcom_... demo projects and shows as a virtual COM port (board hardware is OK).

Peter

[jingpan]

Hi Peter,

Before connect USB or UART port, please set the board to serial download mode. Please see table 8-2 in reference maunal.

Regards,

Jing

[audio_guy]

I am using BOOT_MODE[1:0]=01b as stated in my post.

Peter

[jingpan]

Hi,

If the chip is configured to serial download mode, the application code in external memory will not be executed after reset. Please check pin setting and MCUBootUtility setting again.

Regards,

Jing

[audio_guy · Accepted solution]

I managed to get the boards back up and running. It seemed that using 10K pull-up resistors does not reliably configure the BOOT_MODE pins, 1K or 2K does. After resolving this I used the NXP MCU Boot Utility (https://github.com/JayHeng/NXP-MCUBootUtility.git) to configure the external FLASH via USB, and then erased the FLASH using JTAG using MCUXpresso IDE FLASH tool.

Thanks for the help

Peter

[mjbcswitzerland]

Hi

Have you tried using NXP MCU Boot Utility to erase the SPI flash via LPUART or USB?

Regards

Mark

[uTasker project developer for Kinetis and i.MX RT]