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AM335x starter kit board does not boot

Prathamesh Deshpande
Prodigy 50 points

Hello TI folks,

This might be a late post since the kit's inception. I had purchased the kit 2 years ago. Recently, i was playing around with the Linux OS and everything was working fine. Then i inserted Android SD card and was exploring the OS. Executed some scripts related to Crash the system etc.(not able to recall the exact position or the script name where i navigated to). Also, after this I saw connect charger notification on the top right corner of the screen and the board hanged. I rebooted the board but nothing came up.

Earlier the Power LEDs used to glow for 2 seconds after the reset button was pressed, but now even with inserting the SD cards(both Linux/Android) and also without the SD cards, the LEDs glow for a fraction of a second and go off, nothing comes up on the LCD screen. I tried attaching serial console with the USB-to-serial cable using Hyperterminal/teraterm/minicom but nothing is getting displayed on the console either.

To troubleshoot, I searched the TI forum for many issues related to boot and board bringup, reprogrammed the EEPROM too using this link: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/XDS100#Q:_How_do_I_reprogram_the_VID.2FPID_EEPROM_if_it_has_not_been_programmed_correctly.3F

I am not sure if this was to be done, but now after the serial cable is attached, nothing is shown in the device manager for the COM ports, I can see TI XDS100 driver, but corresponding no USB COM or serial converters now(earlier before the reprogram using Mprog, I used to see COM ports).

My only concern is if somehow unknowningly the Board's capacitors/resistors might have been damaged and hence it is not able to boot up or draw appropriate power, can the ROM vector address might have erased as well(cause i see same behavior with/without SD card)?

My host is Windows 7 and have VMware workstation, inside it a linux Ubuntu 14.04 trusty. Please suggest steps to troubleshoot the issue, stuck on this for 2 weeks. Please note, I am not able to see any "CCCCC" characters on the serial console in minicom on ubuntu or teraterm on windows with 115200 Baud settings.

Please let me know if anything is required from my side.

P.S. I have really enjoyed exploring the kit :) Keep up the good work

Thanks and Regards,

Prathamesh Deshpande

  • 0
    TI__Guru**** 393215 points
    Hi,

    This might be a board failure in your Starter Kit. Please note that Android is ni longer supported by TI.
  • 0 in reply to Biser Gatchev-XID
    Prodigy 50 points
    Hello Biser,

    This behavior is also observed for Linux. Can you please answer my below questions. Please suggest me steps to verify if the device is still alive.

    1) Are there any troubleshooting guides for this kind of situation(on pressing RESET, the power LEDs don't glow[only come up for a fraction of a second] and the LCD screen shows greyish white display with nothing afterwards)

    2) How do I verify if the device is still alive? Any power related issues with the board?

    3) Can I try repairing the device for any faulty/burnt out resistors/capacitors? If yes, then what are the steps i need to ensure.

    4) Can the ROM be wiped off, hence its not able to find the vector table after a RESET?

    5) I have made some custom applications to test with the board using Linux. Wanted to know if I can either simulate/emulate the board using qemu emulator. Do you folks use emulators to test the applications before testing it on the board? I did something like this(used the prebuilt kernel image for now which came with the SD card for linux). Gave -M as realview-pb-a8 since this is Cortex A8. Tried several other variants of this command, but stuck with this error. Please suggest an appropriate command to test/simulate the board using an emulator.

    arm@ubuntu:~/ti-sdk-am335x-evm-05.05.00.00$ qemu-system-arm -M realview-pb-a8 -kernel board-support/prebuilt-images/uImage-am335x-evm.bin -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/nfs init=/sbin/init"
    oss: Could not initialize DAC
    oss: Failed to open `/dev/dsp'
    oss: Reason: No such file or directory
    oss: Could not initialize DAC
    oss: Failed to open `/dev/dsp'
    oss: Reason: No such file or directory
    audio: Failed to create voice `lm4549.out'
    VNC server running on `127.0.0.1:5900'
    qemu: fatal: Trying to execute code outside RAM or ROM at 0x80008000

    R00=00000000 R01=00000769 R02=70000100 R03=00000000
    R04=00000000 R05=00000000 R06=00000000 R07=00000000
    R08=00000000 R09=00000000 R10=00000000 R11=00000000
    R12=00000000 R13=00000000 R14=00000000 R15=80008000
    PSR=400001d3 -Z-- A svc32
    s00=00000000 s01=00000000 d00=0000000000000000
    s02=00000000 s03=00000000 d01=0000000000000000
    s04=00000000 s05=00000000 d02=0000000000000000
    s06=00000000 s07=00000000 d03=0000000000000000
    s08=00000000 s09=00000000 d04=0000000000000000
    s10=00000000 s11=00000000 d05=0000000000000000
    s12=00000000 s13=00000000 d06=0000000000000000
    s14=00000000 s15=00000000 d07=0000000000000000
    s16=00000000 s17=00000000 d08=0000000000000000
    s18=00000000 s19=00000000 d09=0000000000000000
    s20=00000000 s21=00000000 d10=0000000000000000
    s22=00000000 s23=00000000 d11=0000000000000000
    s24=00000000 s25=00000000 d12=0000000000000000
    s26=00000000 s27=00000000 d13=0000000000000000
    s28=00000000 s29=00000000 d14=0000000000000000
    s30=00000000 s31=00000000 d15=0000000000000000
    s32=00000000 s33=00000000 d16=0000000000000000
    s34=00000000 s35=00000000 d17=0000000000000000
    s36=00000000 s37=00000000 d18=0000000000000000
    s38=00000000 s39=00000000 d19=0000000000000000
    s40=00000000 s41=00000000 d20=0000000000000000
    s42=00000000 s43=00000000 d21=0000000000000000
    s44=00000000 s45=00000000 d22=0000000000000000
    s46=00000000 s47=00000000 d23=0000000000000000
    s48=00000000 s49=00000000 d24=0000000000000000
    s50=00000000 s51=00000000 d25=0000000000000000
    s52=00000000 s53=00000000 d26=0000000000000000
    s54=00000000 s55=00000000 d27=0000000000000000
    s56=00000000 s57=00000000 d28=0000000000000000
    s58=00000000 s59=00000000 d29=0000000000000000
    s60=00000000 s61=00000000 d30=0000000000000000
    s62=00000000 s63=00000000 d31=0000000000000000
    FPSCR: 00000000
    Aborted (core dumped)


    Please guide me for testing this on an emulator. I wanted to test the applications on the device, but since it is not booting up, I am not able to do anything. My aim is to emulate the AM335x device's Linux kernel that came with the SDK, without the actual hardware, including matrix GUI and other apps; so i can build up on top of this.

    Also, if i can confirm if the device can't be restored, I will order another one, hence need to be sure about this device's failure.

    Thanks and Regards,
    Prathamesh
  • 0 in reply to Prathamesh Deshpande
    Prodigy 50 points

    Hello folks,

    Can you please look into above issue?

    I really need a simulator like qemu-system-arm, so that i can test my apps, prior to ordering another kit. So i need to be sure if the kit which i have is really beyond repair.

    $ qemu-system-arm -machine help

    Supported machines are:

    none                 empty machine

    collie               Collie PDA (SA-1110)

    nuri                 Samsung NURI board (Exynos4210)

    smdkc210             Samsung SMDKC210 board (Exynos4210)

    connex               Gumstix Connex (PXA255)

    verdex               Gumstix Verdex (PXA270)

    highbank             Calxeda Highbank (ECX-1000)

    integratorcp         ARM Integrator/CP (ARM926EJ-S) (default)

    kzm                  ARM KZM Emulation Baseboard (ARM1136)

    mainstone            Mainstone II (PXA27x)

    musicpal             Marvell 88w8618 / MusicPal (ARM926EJ-S)

    n800                 Nokia N800 tablet aka. RX-34 (OMAP2420)

    n810                 Nokia N810 tablet aka. RX-44 (OMAP2420)

    sx1                  Siemens SX1 (OMAP310) V2

    sx1-v1               Siemens SX1 (OMAP310) V1

    cheetah              Palm Tungsten|E aka. Cheetah PDA (OMAP310)

    realview-eb          ARM RealView Emulation Baseboard (ARM926EJ-S)

    realview-eb-mpcore   ARM RealView Emulation Baseboard (ARM11MPCore)

    realview-pb-a8       ARM RealView Platform Baseboard for Cortex-A8

    realview-pbx-a9      ARM RealView Platform Baseboard Explore for Cortex-A9

    akita                Akita PDA (PXA270)

    spitz                Spitz PDA (PXA270)

    borzoi               Borzoi PDA (PXA270)

    terrier              Terrier PDA (PXA270)

    lm3s811evb           Stellaris LM3S811EVB

    lm3s6965evb          Stellaris LM3S6965EVB

    tosa                 Tosa PDA (PXA255)

    versatilepb          ARM Versatile/PB (ARM926EJ-S)

    versatileab          ARM Versatile/AB (ARM926EJ-S)

    vexpress-a9          ARM Versatile Express for Cortex-A9

    vexpress-a15         ARM Versatile Express for Cortex-A15

    xilinx-zynq-a9       Xilinx Zynq Platform Baseboard for Cortex-A9

    z2                   Zipit Z2 (PXA27x)

    Thanks and Regards,

    Prathamesh

  • 0 in reply to Prathamesh Deshpande
    TI__Guru**** 393215 points
    1) Are there any troubleshooting guides for this kind of situation(on pressing RESET, the power LEDs don't glow[only come up for a fraction of a second] and the LCD screen shows greyish white display with nothing afterwards)
    No, we don't have hardware troubleshooting guides for the EVM boards. Normal practice is to contact your vendor for repair/replacement.

    2) How do I verify if the device is still alive? Any power related issues with the board?
    As I already pointed out, the fact that you see no LCD or debug console activity strongly suggest that the board has failed.

    3) Can I try repairing the device for any faulty/burnt out resistors/capacitors? If yes, then what are the steps I need to ensure.
    I cannot recommend this.

    4) Can the ROM be wiped off, hence its not able to find the vector table after a RESET?
    There is no such possibility.

    I cannot answer your last question, since it's about a third-party product, which is not supported by TI.
  • 0 in reply to Biser Gatchev-XID
    Prodigy 50 points
    Thank you Biser for your response.

    Before I order another kit, can you please answer my below questions:
    1) How do I simulate/emulate the AM335x kit if I don't have the hardware board(only the prebuilt-images and board support packages)? Is there a way(TI toolset) to test(validate) the images before testing it on the actual board(via uSD card)?

    2) If I order another AM335x, will support for it(Linux) be available on TI community. If not, which board do you recommend?

    Thanks and Regards,
    Prathamesh
  • 0 in reply to Prathamesh Deshpande
    TI__Guru**** 393215 points
    1) TI offers the Code Composer Studio for software development, but I'm not sure if it includes a simulator for AM335X. You can ask on the CCS forum: e2e.ti.com/.../81

    2) The following AM335X EVM boards have Linux support from TI: GP EVM, Starter Kit, Beaglebone Black.