[MinnowBoard] Firmware hang

Richardson, Brian brian.richardson at intel.com
Wed Oct 26 15:57:26 UTC 2016


Unfortunately, there are many reliability issues with SPI sockets that make them unsuitable for production boards (hinges/doors/clips break after repeated use … I have experienced this often after years of working on pre-production hardware). It also takes more board real estate to mount a socket (layout issue & cost issue).

The SPI 8-pin header is provided for easy reprogramming of the SPI part. SPI parts have a fairly long life cycle, even factoring in frequent reprogramming and storing NVRAM variables.

When using a SPI hardware programmer, please make sure you’re using the correct voltage values. This can easily damage the SPI part. Using the default UEFI Shell app or Capsule update for firmware upgrades is the most reliable method, since the firmware is using proper values for that part.

Thanks … br
---
Brian Richardson, Senior Technical Marketing Engineer, Intel Software
brian.richardson at intel.com<mailto:brian.richardson at intel.com> -- http://evangelists.intel.com/bio/Brian_Richardson_

From: elinux-MinnowBoard [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org] On Behalf Of Douglas Kryder
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 4:25 AM
To: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion <elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org>
Subject: Re: [MinnowBoard] Firmware hang

because of this "decay" thru use of the chip and the nature of the board to be used by "makers", "experimenters", "researchers", and " hobbists" i'd sure like to see these chips to be mounted in socket type receptacles instead of surface mount. and i do not think i'm alone in desire for this change.  it would be a generous nod to the makers to place a socket. not sure there is much, if any, downside to doing this. others may want to help present the gains and loses.

On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Wu, Mike <mike.wu at intel.com<mailto:mike.wu at intel.com>> wrote:

Be aware that SPI flash has limited life cycle. If we repeatedly erase it (like write big variable into it), the SPI chip will be dead very soon. Then it will look like variable corrupted.

Best Regards
Mike Wu


-----Original Message-----
From: elinux-MinnowBoard [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org<mailto:elinux-minnowboard-bounces at lists.elinux.org>] On Behalf Of Eric Wittmayer
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 12:23 AM
To: 'MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion'
Subject: Re: [MinnowBoard] Firmware hang

Hi Sjoerd,
   I had a similar problem on a minnowboard max.  I ended up replacing the SPI flash part on it and that solved the problem.  Of course I probably caused the problem by repeatedly programming the SPI flash with a 5v programmer while I was working on UEFI driver development.  I don't remember specifically where the boot would hang but repeated power cycling the board would get it too boot eventually.  The problem started out happening occasionally and slowly got worse until I had to power cycle many times to get a good boot.

I used part # N25Q064A11ESE40G as the replacement.  Here is a link to Arrow where I purchased them.
http://components.arrow.com/part/detail/51523204S9061241N1037

Hope this helps.
   Eric

> -----Original Message-----
> From: elinux-MinnowBoard [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-<mailto:elinux-minnowboard->
> bounces at lists.elinux.org<mailto:bounces at lists.elinux.org>] On Behalf Of Sjoerd Simons
> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2016 6:42 AM
> To: elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org<mailto:elinux-minnowboard at lists.elinux.org>
> Subject: [MinnowBoard] Firmware hang
>
> Hey,
>
> I've been having issues with some of the minnowboard max boards in our
> test lab for a while where at times they never finished post.
> Reflashing the flash seemed to help for a while, until the issues came
back
> again. With the debug version of the firmware the last few lines
> are:
>
> Gpio_S5_4 value is 0x3
> Gpio_S5_17 value is 0x3
> Firmware Volume for Variable Store is corrupted Firmware Volume for
> Variable Store is corrupted
>
> ASSERT_EFI_ERROR (Status = Not Found)
> ASSERT m:\Vlv2TbltDevicePkg\PlatformInitPei\PlatformEarlyInit.c(213):
> !EFI_ERROR (Status)
>
>
> A full log can be found here:
>   https://lava.collabora.co.uk/scheduler/job/367353/log_file
>
>
> Any ideas?
> --
> Sjoerd Simons
> Collabora Ltd.
>
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