Question About Error Codes From Programmer

[Larryd]

I started using PBP 2.6C in 2011 when Darrel Taylor was still on the forum. He helped me with a communications program
on the PIC-16F877-20/P. He thought me how to use his DT INTERRUPTS to do communications and timers on the PIC-16F877.
he suggested I use the in-circuit programmer with the board I had purchased. It is a WinPic 800, I also have a MELabs
programmer but have it set up on my PBP3 system.


The program has worked great for me so I have not made changes for quite some time.
however now I have had trouble getting the 16F877 chips, so I have had to purchase on the secondary
market to get them in a timely manner. I bought a few and having a difficult time getting the
programmer write the program to the Chips. I am getting the same error on all the chips and cant seem to find the
meaning of the error code. attached is a snap shot of the screen.
Thanks in advance for any direction anyone could point me on where to find the
meaning of these error codes.

[HenrikOlsson]

What it's saying is basically that the chip does not contain what you expect it to.
The programmer (and its software) writes .hex file to the chip, it then verifies it by reading it back. Here it expects to read the value 0x29E1 at memory location 0 but instead it reads 0x3FFF which means the chip isn't programmed properly.
0x3FFF is 14 bits, all ones which is the same as blank.

[Larryd]

Thank You HenrikOlsson



Is there a way to fix this, or does this mean the chips are bad?

Thanks
Larryd

[HenrikOlsson]

The chips or the programmer could be bad.
If you have a 16F877 from another batch then try programming that. If it programs properly then the chips are either bad or marginal for use with that particular programmer.

Perhaps you have another programmer you can try or borrow one from a friend or send one of the chips to a friend with another programmer to try.

A while back I bought some OTP PROMs from EBAY. My universal programmer (TL866) supported that particular chip but it didn't work so I thought they were fakes. But I asked on a forum if someone with another programmer would be kind enough to try and program the chip for me. It worked fine.

/Henrik.