nRF52840 DK Programming Failed: Timeout While Erasing Sectors

[mKepka16]

I am experiencing issues programming my newly purchased nRF52840 DK, which has never been successfully flashed. After following the official starting guide on nordicsemi.com/start52840dk, I downloaded nRF Connect for Desktop and entered the Quick Start application. My board was correctly detected, and I selected the "Hello World" sample. However, programming failed with the error "Failed to erase device" (see attached screenshot).

Here are the logs from the desktop application:

2025-08-08T16:25:16.388Z INFO Initialising the bundled nrfutil device
2025-08-08T16:25:16.390Z DEBUG Started watching devices
2025-08-08T16:25:16.785Z INFO Using the bundled core version for nrfutil device: 8.1.0
2025-08-08T16:25:16.891Z INFO Using nrfutil-device version: 2.10.2
2025-08-08T16:25:16.891Z INFO Using nrf-device-lib version: 0.17.71
2025-08-08T16:25:16.891Z INFO Using nrf-probe version: 0.38.0
2025-08-08T16:25:16.891Z INFO Using JLink version: JLink_V8.52
2025-08-08T16:25:16.892Z INFO Your version of SEGGER J-Link (8.52) 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.
2025-08-08T16:25:19.401Z DEBUG Selected device: nRF52840 DK
2025-08-08T16:25:19.419Z DEBUG Changed step: Info
2025-08-08T16:25:27.961Z DEBUG Changed step: Rename
2025-08-08T16:25:41.365Z DEBUG Changed step: Program
2025-08-08T16:26:01.135Z ERROR [ProbeLib] [2025-08-08 16:26:01.134760Z] {jlink_usb_001050213957} J-Link: Timeout while erasing sectors  @0x10001000, RAMCode did not respond in time!
Failed to erase sectors.

2025-08-08T16:26:21.608Z ERROR [ProbeLib] [2025-08-08 16:26:21.608285Z] {jlink_usb_001050213957} J-Link: Timeout while erasing sectors  @0x00000000, RAMCode did not respond in time!
Failed to erase sectors.
Timeout while calculating CRC, RAMCode did not respond in time!Timeout while calculating CRC, RAMCode did not respond in time!
2025-08-08T16:26:24.050Z ERROR [ProbeLib] [2025-08-08 16:26:24.049676Z] Worker terminated by signal 9.
2025-08-08T16:26:24.050Z ERROR [ProbeLib] [2025-08-08 16:26:24.049774Z] Error output of terminated worker: 

When I try to flash any sample using VS Code Extension - flash button - I get following error:

 *  Executing task: nRF Connect: Flash: l2_e1_sol/build (active) 

Flashing build to nrf52840dk
west flash -d /Users/mkepka/nrf/ncs-fund/l2/l2_e1_sol/build --dev-id 1050213957

-- west flash: rebuilding
[0/5] Performing build step for 'l2_e1_sol'
ninja: no work to do.
[2/5] No install step for 'l2_e1_sol'
[3/5] Completed 'l2_e1_sol'
[4/5] cd /Users/mkepka/nrf/ncs-fund/l2/l2_e1_sol/build/_sysbuild && /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/ef4fc6722e/Cellar/cmake/3.21.0/bin/cmake -E true
-- west flash: using runner nrfutil
-- runners.nrfutil: reset after flashing requested
-- runners.nrfutil: Flashing file: /Users/mkepka/nrf/ncs-fund/l2/l2_e1_sol/build/merged.hex
-- runners.nrfutil: Erasing address ranges touched by firmware
-- runners.nrfutil: Programming image
Error: One or more batch tasks failed:
 * 1050213957: Timed out waiting for response from worker. (Generic)

FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 1: nrfutil --json device --x-ext-mem-config-file /opt/nordic/ncs/v3.0.1/zephyr/boards/nordic/nrf52840dk/support/nrf52840dk_qspi_nrfutil_config.json x-execute-batch --batch-path /Users/mkepka/nrf/ncs-fund/l2/l2_e1_sol/build/generated_nrfutil_batch.json --serial-number 1050213957

 *  The terminal process terminated with exit code: 1. 
 *  Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it. 

I tried solution from this thread:  Can't flash or erase - "Error: Timeout while checking target RAM, RAMCode did not respond in time." . I executed:

nrfjprog --program build/merged.hex --sectorerase -f nrf52

 
With result:

[ #################### ]   0.773s | Erase file - Done erasing                                                          
[ #################### ]   0.156s | Program file - Done programming                                                    
WARNING: A programming operation has been performed without --verify.
WARNING: Programming can fail without error.

It didn't help.

I also tried using this command:

➜  l2_e1_sol git:(main) ✗ nrfjprog --recover
Recovering device. This operation might take 30s.
Erasing user code and UICR flash areas.
Writing image to disable ap protect.

After that I still cannot flash any firmware to the devkit.

I also tried entering J-Link Commander CLI and executed:

exec EnableEraseAllFlashBanks
erase

As you can guess, It didn't help.

Setup:

• Operating System: macOS 15.5 (24F74)
• nRF Connect SDK Version: v3.0.1
• nRF Connect for Desktop Version: 1.3.0
• J-Link Version: 8.52
• Board: nRF52840 DK

[Benjamin]

Hi Michał,

The latest supported SEGGER J-Link version for the nRF Connect SDK is v8.18, can you try with this version? Also, did you install the Apple Silicon version? You may want to use the x86 version as this is more supported. (Make sure you have Rosetta 2 installed).

Best regards,
Benjamin

[mKepka16]

Hi Benjamin,

Many thanks for your help! I wouldn’t have realized the cause on my own — your suggestion to try J-Link v8.18 was exactly what fixed it.

It turned out the problem wasn’t related to CPU architecture at all — both the Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x86_64) builds of J-Link work fine on my machine. The real issue was simply that I was using a too new SEGGER J-Link version.

After uninstalling my current J-Link and installing version 8.18, my nRF52840 DK immediately became programmable again. Device detection works in nrfutil, nRF Connect for Desktop, and VS Code without any additional tweaks.

It’s really weird that nRF Connect for Desktop doesn’t warn about an unsupported SEGGER version — I spent so much time trying to debug this before you pointed me in the right direction.

I really appreciate your guidance — it saved me a lot of further frustration.

Best regards,
Michał