Unable to program NRF9151 DK

[Jonathon Ross]

I'm having some trouble connecting to the onboard jlink with the NRF9151 devkit that I've recently received. The quickstart seems to detect the NRF9151 dev kit, but when I attempt to program the example code I run into issues




The log doesn't have super helpful information

2025-06-12T20:28:10.326Z INFO Initialising the bundled nrfutil device
2025-06-12T20:28:10.352Z DEBUG Started watching devices
2025-06-12T20:28:11.740Z INFO Using the bundled core version for nrfutil device: 8.0.0
2025-06-12T20:28:11.763Z INFO Using nrfutil-device version: 2.10.2
2025-06-12T20:28:11.763Z INFO Using nrf-device-lib version: 0.17.71
2025-06-12T20:28:11.763Z INFO Using nrf-probe version: 0.38.0
2025-06-12T20:28:11.763Z INFO Using JLink version: JLink_V8.42
2025-06-12T20:28:11.764Z INFO Your version of SEGGER J-Link (8.42) is newer than the one this app was tested with (8.18). The tested version is not required, and your J-Link version will most likely work fine. If you get issues related to J-Link with your devices, use the tested version.
2025-06-12T20:28:13.328Z DEBUG Selected device: nRF9151 DK
2025-06-12T20:28:13.350Z DEBUG Changed step: Info
2025-06-12T20:28:15.493Z DEBUG Changed step: Rename
2025-06-12T20:28:16.315Z DEBUG Changed step: Program

When I attempt to detect the device using nrfjprog, I don't see anything either

PS C:\Users\jonross> nrfjprog --version
nrfjprog version: 10.24.2 external
JLinkARM.dll version: 8.42
PS C:\Users\jonross> nrfjprog --family nrf91 --eraseall --log
ERROR: No debuggers were discovered.

There is a mass storage device that shows up in windows explorer when I plug in the development kit


I'll note that I can connect to a separate unrelated device (USB JLINK PLUS) with nrfjprog and other Segger tools, but nothing shows up from the nrf9151 dk.

Any ideas on how to debug or configure the onboard jlink?

[dejans]

Hi,

Have you tried to erase your device using "nrfutil device erase"?

Have you tried to update modem firmware and application firmware using Programmer application?

Best regards,
Dejan

[Jonathon Ross]

Hello Dejan,

When trying to use nrfutil device erase I get the following response:

PS C:\Users\jonross\git\argus> .\nrfutil.exe device list
1051236715
Product         J-Link
Board version   PCA10171
Traits          devkit, usb, modem, boardController

Supported devices found: 1

PS C:\Users\jonross\git\argus> .\nrfutil.exe device erase --serial-number 1051236715
❌ Failed to erase 1051236715, No plugins support device operation
Error: One or more erase tasks failed:
 * 1051236715: No plugins support device operation (NotFound)

PS C:\Users\jonross\git\argus>

Unfortunately the development kit doesn't show up in the programmer application:



Which is sort of odd because the device is found with the "Quick Start" application.



Another data point is that the onboard jlink doesn't show up when I list the devices using seggers utilities. There is no output from the command.

J-Link>ShowEmuList

However if I plug in a dedicated JLINK, the output shows my device

J-Link>ShowEmuList
J-Link[0]: Connection: USB, Serial number: 600103367, ProductName: J-Link PLUS
J-Link>

This leads me to believe there is a problem with the onboard JLINK. Odd that it shows up with nrfutil,exe but not with jlink.exe, though.

Let me know what you think I can do from here to recover the device.

Thank you,
Jon