The following is something which can be applied to anyone trying to troubleshoot a BURN1, BURN2, or APU1 with respect to chip programming. It is also useful to get the USB device drivers correctly configured.
It is unlikely that your chip or burner has failed, such events are actually quite rare. All devices are fully tested for all functionality prior to shipment.
We have many folks that send their units back to us, but very few that actually exhibit failure during bench testing once they arrive.
However, it is possible that something is wrong with your procedures.
Please utilize the following test matrix. This should take about 5 minutes:
1) Disconnect all USB devices, close all software, and re-install USB drivers. See here. If you suspect that your drivers may be confused, use the FTCLEAN procedure outlined here.
2) Re-connect the Moates device, and allow the drivers to associate with it. Wait about 30 seconds.
3a) Go into the Windows Device Manager, and look under ‘Ports(COM/LPT)’. If there is a ‘USB Serial Port’ listed, right-click on it and select ‘Properties’. If not, carry out step ‘3b’ on this list first.
3b) If you saw the ‘USB Serial Port’ from step (3a) then go directly to Step 4. If not, then expand your ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ section, and right-click on the ‘USB Serial Converter’. Go to the ‘Advanced’ tab, and check the box indicated as ‘Load VCP’. Then hit ‘OK’, unplug the device, and plug it back in. You should then be able to carry out (3a) successfully.
4) Go to the ‘Port Settings’ tab and then click the ‘Advanced’ button. Change the COM port setting on the pull-down to COM4, COM5, or COM6, regardless of ‘in use’ warnings. Accept any warnings. If you are running multiple devices (for instance an Ostrich and BURN2), make sure you assign different COM port numbers to each of them. But, make sure your COM port assignments are in the range of COM4-COM8. Also, while you’re on this page, change your ‘Latency timer’ to 1mS via pulldown. Click OK to apply all settings and close all Windows Control Panel sub-windows. If you like, you can unplug and replug the USB cable to the device to verify that it appears in the list with the new settings.
5) Download and install the latest version of Flash-n-Burn from here:
http://tunerpro.net/download/SetupFlashBurn.exe
Note: If you’re working with an APU1, check the back and make sure the horizontal switches are placed in the ‘outboard’ position, away from the USB connection.
6) Download a 64k ‘test’ bin from here:
http://static.moates.net/zips/00-512-TEST.zip
Unzip it, and open the FlashBurn software.
7) Within the FlashBurn software, make sure the chip burner is recognized in the white dialog window. Select 27SF512 on the top left, and load the 64k ‘test’ file to the buffer. Make sure that the file size displayed in the dialog window is 65,536 bytes. If you’re loading a 32k file (like for Hondas etc), make sure the file size is 32,768 exactly.
8) The addressing should auto-select on the top right, but make sure it is correct. Chip addressing should be 000000-00FFFF. Buffer addressing should also be 000000-00FFFF. If you are loading a 32k file rather than the test file, make sure chip addressing is 008000-00FFFF and buffer addressing is 000000-007FFF.
9) Insert the chip into the socket, with the notch (pin 1) facing up toward the ZIF handle and USB cable. Make sure the chip is positioned furthest away from the handle and USB, such that the 4 empty slots are closest to the handle.
10) Select ‘erase chip’ and ‘blank check’. Verify that these steps were successful. Look up again at you addressing, and make sure it matches what is specified in step (8).
11) Select ‘program chip’ and then ‘verify chip’. Make sure you have success in the dialog box.
At this point, if everything checks out, you have illustrated that your chip and programmer are working correctly. If any of these steps fail, please send us a screen capture of the part of the process which failed, and we’ll do what we can to help you troubleshoot further.
Other problems can come from corrupt, incorrectly sized, or mismatched binaries for target application, incorrect chip and buffer addressing for a given file size, or incorrect COM port settings within the client software (such as Crome, etc).
For the burner itself, typical ‘next step’ troubleshooting would include taking apart the enclosure, blowing it out with compressed air to remove any metallic dust that might have accumulated, gently prying loose the ZIF socket to make sure there are no bent pins underneath where it snaps in, trying a different USB cable, trying a different chip, or trying a different PC or USB port.
Certainly if there is a true hardware failure, we’ll be glad to take care of it at no cost, but we doubt you want to spend time shipping back and forth if there isn’t a real hardware fault.