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My Arty S7 board has killed three USB 3.0 ports on my Microsoft Surface Studio 2 computer.

javagoza

Yesterday while loading a new bitstream to the Arty S7 50 rev. B the board turned off. At first I thought it was the board, I powered it via USB with a power bank and the board worked. So I tried all three USB 3.0 ports on the computer, a Microsoft Surface Studio 2, with a USB mouse and all three ports were dead.

I have no idea what happened as it is something I have been doing without problems for the last two months, I had not added any new connections either. It only occurs to me that there has been a short circuit in a PMOD connector from which I use the two 3V3 ports for logic voltage for the encoders (VCCENC) and the pull-up voltage for the open-drain encoder outputs (VPU). Also yesterday it was 43ºC, 109F, in my city and I don't have air conditioning at home, I don't know if that could have influenced. 

I'm not having good luck with the Arty S7 board. First, when it arrived, on the first day the voltage regulator on the board burned out, maybe due to some faulty component. See thread under Arty S7 rev B vs Arty S7 rev E? Somewhat confused.

And now my computer is damaged, at least the computer still has two other USB ports, one USB-C and another USB-A and with an externally powered USB hub I think I'll be able to get by.

It's a bittersweet feeling, on the one hand I'm learning a lot and enjoying the Arty S7 board and on the other I'm suffering I think it's due to a bad design of the board or my computer, I don't understand how loading a firmware can damage a USB controller, something escapes me. Surely there is some explanation of something that I have done wrong, a layer 8 error, but it is beyond me.

The computer was a prize from element14 for the Sensing the World Challenge and for that alone it has great sentimental value to me. I don't know if it's worth trying to fix this problem or the remedy will be worse than the disease.

I wish I had worked with a self-powered external USB hub.

*SOLVED 2023-01-02*

After a firmware update of the Microsoft Surface Studio 2 for windows 11 the USB 3.0 ports have come back to life.

  • in reply to javagoza

    That is a mega prize!  I hope it is recoverable.


  • Sorry to hear that. The tips suggested by everyone may help, since it might be a temporary issue (for instance requiring a hardware reset, or waiting for a polyfuse to recover maybe).

    If it makes you feel any better, the USB ports are physically quite flaky on some Surface machines, so eventually you may have lost a port or two anyway, and then require a external hub.. I've lost a port twice, on two Surface Books, perhaps because they got wiggled too much I have no idea, since I cannot open the Surface device : ( On my current machine, one USB port intermittently works.

    I love the Surface machines, they feel quite cutting-edge, and have a lot of nice features, and I would still buy future Surface machines, even though their reliability seems not great. I've had two different models of Surface books, and a couple of Surface Pro's. I've also had 3 or 4 power bricks for the Surface books fail on me. Plus a video (perhaps GPU) problem that leaves faint ghosting of windows on the display. And a puffed-up battery: ) Also the proprietary magnetic connector eventually needs daily checking, because it stops charging unless it is unplugged and reinserted a few times.

    Although some things were replaced under warranty, Microsoft is quite strict about how it interprets the law in the UK, and so in future I probably would take insurance for them (I realize that's not an option for you, this is just in case you plan to buy any future Surface stuff), to me it feels that it is too much of a risk for Surface devices to assume that if it works fine for a year or two during the default warranty period then it may continue to work for many years.

  • How are you doing now? I checked stock and see no one has an arty s7 - 50. Though artys7-25's have stock.

    Randall

    --element14

  • in reply to rscasny

    Thanks, Randall, I didn't get a notification of your message.

    At the moment I can continue with the project I have bought an externally powered USB hub to avoid future accidents. And to power the board when it is not connected to the computer I am using power banks. 

    With this solution I think I'll be able to finish everything I planned to do, I've already published 9 blogs and I have to finish the initial blog about the differences between the Spartan-6 and the Spartan-7 and the final blog with the lessons learned.

  • in reply to javagoza

    Do you have notifications turned on? 

    Anyway, that's good to know. I haven't heard of this problem with the ArtyS7 board, so I'm glad you have found a work around.

    I have noticed all that you published. thanks.

    Randall

  • in reply to rscasny
    rscasny said:
    Do you have notifications turned on? 

    I think so. I will report this issue to support.

    image

    image

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Thanks! Blush I am also learning many things reading yours.

  • Good news, after a firmware update of the Microsoft Surface Studio 2 for Windows 11 the USB 3.0 ports have come back to life. So, I still don't know how I couldn't fix this from the BIOS as someone suggested. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread.

  • I am glad that a firmware update resolved the issue.  I guess 2023 is off to a good start.  I was really surprised to see that it was 43C in Spain in January.  Then I realized that the initial post was 6 months ago.