Erase, Program, Verify, PIC not starting

[blacklab]

Programmer: MicroProg Suite for PIC v2.90
PIC: PIC16F18345

At first, it did not work on a certain PC, so they installed the programmer on another PC it worked correctly.
I can't understand why it can Erase, Program, then Verify, but not start the PIC. The PIC appears halted.
We can't imagine it has anything to do with the PC, since the information must be getting to the programmer.
We can only think that somehow a string of 0's was introduced into the hex file that prevented the PIC from starting.

We are in the process of recreating the issue with the original PC, hopefully we are able to recreate the issue and not chalk it up to a gremlin.
One thing that my colleague mentioned is to read back the Hex file and verify the contents with a known good hex file.
We are really at a loss as how this is even possible.

Any ideas. Has this issue ever shown up before?

P.S. Why does the programmer not give any sort of confirmation when it has finished?
P.S.S. When the programmer does a "Verify", does it download the Hex file and then compare to what is on disk?

Thank you,

[sgssn]

Hi
and whats about the program itself? Did it already run on a PIC?

regards
Gerhard

[IvanJeremic]

Hi,

It could be that you set the debug bit (you can find it in the configuration bits), that can get a PIC mcu to get halted.

Also can you send me your HEX file so we can try to replicate the issue (if i manage to find the same MCu as you are using)?

As for your other questions:
Verification compares the HEX to what was uploaded to the MCU.

I do not know why there is no confirmation message in the suite.
I am not sure when they will add it since these older suits and compilers are not getting a lot of attention these days, most of it is going towards Necto Studio and CODEGRIP at the moment.

Regards,

Ivan.

[blacklab]

Yes. The program ran before. It ran after we switched to another PC.

[blacklab]

Hi,

It could be that you set the debug bit (you can find it in the configuration bits), that can get a PIC mcu to get halted.

Also can you send me your HEX file so we can try to replicate the issue (if i manage to find the same MCu as you are using)?

As for your other questions:
Verification compares the HEX to what was uploaded to the MCU.

I do not know why there is no confirmation message in the suite.
I am not sure when they will add it since these older suits and compilers are not getting a lot of attention these days, most of it is going towards Necto Studio and CODEGRIP at the moment.

Regards,

Ivan.

Hi Ivan,

I think you might have something there with the Debug bit being set. That does make sense, but I don't see any configuration bits to set debug mode.
The microProg should be a programmer and not a debugger.
Maybe somehow the microProg inserted a debug bit?

I am still waiting for verification that the issue is reproducible and they can download the hex file from the PIC.

Thank you very much for the feedback

[IvanJeremic]

Hi,

You can configure this bit in the suit like in the picture below(and MikroProg is a Programmer/Debugging unit, so it can do both):

Untitled.png (28.1 KiB) Viewed 656 times

Also if it does work well on your other PC, check how you configured everything there and just copy it to the other PC.

Regards,

Ivan.