Continuous LAN Connection/Disconnection of ADSP-BF537 EZ-KIT Lite to PC and Switch

[SeanB_1]

Hello all,

I am having a very peculiar problem with my BF537 dev board.  When I try to directly connect the board to my PC via an Ethernet cable, I run into a continuous cycle of connection/disconnection between the two.  The following picture illustrates what I mean:

It goes back and forth every second or so.

I'm fairly sure it's problem with my ADSP-BF537 EZ-KIT Lite because I get the same connect/disconnect behavior when I connect the board to a 4-port Black Box switch.  The LEDs on the switch linked to the port the board is connected too flash on and off, presumably displaying the same connect/disconnect issue.  Even more odd is after a little bit of time, all the LEDs on the switch will flash on and off (not just the LEDs associated with the port the board is connected too), and my PC's (which is connected to the switch as well) connection will go on and off with it.

There are no connection problems between the board and my PC via Serial or USB.  But, as you can imagine, this problem is keeping me from being able to use my board's TCP/IP I/O capabilities and therefore is a significant issue.

Things I've tried:

1)  Power cycling the board

2)  Updating my PC's NIC drivers

3)  Power cycling the switch

4)  Plugging the Ethernet cables into different ports in the switch

5)  Trying different Ethernet cables (including the crossover cable that came with the Kit)

6)  Restoring all SWs on the board to their default positions

7)  Reflashing the flash memory to the default program (irrelevant, I know)

😎  Ensuring the default Windows Firewall is off

9)  Verified my Windows XP SP 2 machine automatically obtains an IP address and DNS server address 

10)  Updating LabVIEW to 8.6, VDSP++ to 5.0 update 4, and installing the newest Blackfin Embedded Module

11)  Contacting NI, ADI and my company's HelpDesk over the phone about the issue

NI & ADI have yet to get back with me (they are researching the problem), but all of them think it might be a bad LAN IC or Ethernet port.  Probably a hardware issue.  Everything else on the board appears to work fine though

Can anyone offer any help or advice?  I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Sean

[Aashish_M]

Hey Sean,

Does the green power light flicker at all?

Could you please be a bit more clearer with the LEDs on the port? One green light should be flashing and the other solid!!

[SeanB_1]

I'm not sure why my initial post was formatted the way it is...I did "Preview Post" and there were no problems.  Sorry about that.

---

Aashish_M wrote:

Hey Sean,

Does the green power light flicker at all?

Could you please be a bit more clearer with the LEDs on the port? One green light should be flashing and the other solid!!

---

Hi Aashish,

The two LEDs on the port switch back and forth between off and on.  When one turns off, the other turns on, and visa versa.

Unfortunately, both NI and ADI have concluded that I have a bad Ethernet port and/or chip.  I'm going to be sending it in for repair...unless you have any ideas?

Thanks,

Sean

Message Edited by SeanB_1 on 10-13-2008 12:03 PM

[Aashish_M]

Hey Sean,

It definitely doesn't sound right. The alternative blinking directly points to a hardware problem or the startup sequence could be corrupted. Either way, the best choice is to get ADI to look at the board.

It doesn't look like it's something you can fix through software. 

Aashish

[fredfy]

Hello Sean,

I had the same problem you describe when i connected the crossover cable to my board after powerup, in initial state with no code loaded.

I ran the web led.vi from the examples with static ip thru the usb connection. then i could connect to the board with the crossover cable and connect thru internet explorer

for me the blinking you describe only appear when there is no server code loaded.

<!--[endif]-->