Xilinx Board jtag problem

[sherif123]

I got an old xilinx fpga board which contains an fpga and one cpld and a rom. When i try to download the bit file on the fpga, I first run Impact software, it does not correctly find the chips. It may find just one, or two. Sometimes it finds 10 or more "non xilinx chips". At first use for this board it did not show this bad behavior (very few times only) but now I may spend 1 hour trying to download a bit file to the fpga.
I tried to change the clock speed for the the cable to be the lowest value of 750k but it does not help solve the problem.

Is the jtag programmer damaged? or the board has some damages????
Thanks

 

[barry]

I have found that JTAG ports are sometimes kind of touchy. They'll work fine for a while, and then they just ignore you, and then they work again. Your clock line in particular needs to be properly terminated (Look at the Xilinx documentation). You don't want to use long cables, that will cause problems.

I believe IMPACT has some self-test modes. You might want to try that and look at signals with a scope.

 

[jamespond]

I have same problem. I think the xilinx's soft incompatible with win7 and win vista.
I used an IBM ThinkCentre in my workshop for programming another chips, contollers...It works fine. But not with xilinx softwares.
Tried it on EGS caleido laptop with XP, but not work with a VIA CPU. I have 40 pieces of xc9536.
Checked the lpt port with logic analisator. On IBM have no signal. On caleido i have some garbled signal, but the XP kill the application.
I will try xilinx's software with virtual machine and win98...

Ps: Caleido detect the cable right. The IBM detects nothing.

 

[sherif123]

I don't think it's a driver issue because it worked at first.
And the board is bought from a manufacturer not designed by us, so no issue like "The clock line" should exist.
I tested the cable with another fpga board and it recognized the fpga well.

 

[shahulakthar]

Informations required: xilinx device name, os version, tool version. also board link.

 

[ftsolutions]

"platform cable" revision?

 

[sherif123]

Windows 7
ISE version : can't remember now but an old one

I don't think this information is very important. I was working somehow without problems but suddenly this problem just came up. I tested the cable with another fpga board and the cable worked.
I tested the board at another PC and the same problem just happened

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Is there a method to test the fpga chips in the board without depending on the JTAG ?