MSP430F5419A EXTERNAL CRYSTAL NOT WORKING

Read SLAA322 (PDF).

Show the schematics and the board layout.

Hi,
Like described in SLAA322, you should also shield your circuit path with a GND ring, not just the crystal itself. Probably there is some coupling from your Vcc line.

Can you please also share which crystal type your are using? Is 39pF the recommended cap value for this kind? Did you considered the parasitic capacitance of your board and subtracted this value?

Can you accurately measure the frequency on the two working boards, this will give me an indication if the value of the used caps are fine.

Best regards,
Tobias

39pF seems awfully high. Most crystals I have worked with need capacitance in the 10pF range. Check the datasheet for the crystal and do the calculations to determine the capacitors.

Agreed. Typical load capacitances are 9 or 12pF, which means 2*18 or 24pF including pin capacitance and stray capacitance on the wires. Usually, the internal capacitors can be used and no external ones are required at all. If both are there, the load increases even more, so the crystal frequency might be far off and the resulting oscillation amplitude might be too low to trigger the digital thresholds on the input driver.

Due to tolerances in the analog parts, some boards may work and others won't when you're already close to the edge.