What have I done now?

[Hylan]

I've been trying to narrow this down a bit further. I have 2 programmers from MELabs. A usb powered one and a older db9 one. I dusted off the older one to rule out the hardware. It functioned the same as the newer usb programmer.

I found a hex file that I compiled a couple weeks ago and it loads and runs fine on the board. However, the same program now compiles with no errors and it says that it successfully loads, but then nothing.

I can reload the other hex file and wall-ah, back in business. So I'm thinking this is a configuration issue but can't find anything that looks out of place. I pretty much only use this computer for programming and pcb layouts and haven't used it since the last time and it worked.

Thoughts on where to start poking?

[Archangel]

Does it work on 16f chips ? My JDM won't do 18F chips, that's why I bought PICKIT2.

[Hylan]

I don't know about 16F chips. I only have/use the 18f6520 chip. I went back and double checked my .inc folder to make sure it's settings were the same.

The odd thing is I can program a hex file that I compiled 2 weeks ago onto a board and it works fine. I'm pulling the hex file straight from the folder using the MELabs Programmer software. But if I then try to compile and program the same program through the PBP and MicroCode Studio Plus (which I used two weeks ago), it compiles with no errors, and programs with no errors but the code doesn't run???

I can turn around and reload the other program onto the same board and it's fine???

I'm not sure what changed over the last two weeks. I even quized the 5 year old as to whether he "played" on Daddy's computer which he said no and I believe him. No jelly on the keys.

[skimask]

I can turn around and reload the other program onto the same board and it's fine???

By any chance, did one of those 'updates' include updates to PBP?

[Archangel]

So when you program and it does not work, can you read back the hex from the chip and see the information ? How do you select the programmer when you load an old hex? Is that the same way as you load a new hex? Are you sure your programmer is using the correct COM port when called by MCS ? Same programming software in both instances ? Have you tried saving the new hex and then loading it the same way as the old hex? I am just throwing out some troubleshooting ideas, no answer required.

[Hylan]

I'm still fighting with this issue and here's where I'm at.

I uninstalled everything PBP, MPASM, Micro Code Studio Plus and several other IDE's I had loaded a long time ago before getting this thing to work (with much help from everyone here on the forum). And life was good up until a week or so ago!

I then reinstalled everything today and finally got the settings worked out on the programmer. So I'm sort of back to square one and looking for ideas. I can load hex files that I created literally 3 weeks ago fine. However, when I try to recompile the pbp file, nothing!

Now when I say nothing, I mean nothing from the board with the chip. The system says that it assembles and compiles fine with no errors. Then it erases the chip, programs and verify's the load and says it programmed successfully, but does nothing.

So, to summarize. Hex file created weeks ago from a pbp file loads and works fine on chip. Exact same pbp file now, assembles, compiles and loads with no errors, but is like it's not on the chip at all. Hmmm???

The one thing I was looking at on the MELabs site: http://www.melabs.com/support/mpasm.htm
was under the xp section trying to figure out what all should be in this path block? What different things should this be point to? Just to Mpasm location, or should it be pointing to other stuff too? Mine was pointing at a whole lot of nothing, so I did at least point it at the folder where Mpasm.exe is located, but that's it right now. And no change to what I posted above.

I'm grabbing at straws here, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[mackrackit]

Upload a working hex and a non working hex compiled/assembled from the same code so we can take a look at it. we can ckeck the fuse settings from there.