Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Stian Røed Hafskjold — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 10:33:40 GMT

Ok, glad to hear it worked out in the end! And thanks for reporting back. I'll forward this to the developers so they can look into it

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Ingoo — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 07:37:47 GMT

Problem solved. It was the anti virus program Cylance that was causing the problem. I uninstalled it and now the PowerProfiler works again. Strange thing is that the nRF Connect/Programmer worked correct but not the PowerProfiler.

Stian, thank you for trying to help me.

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Ingoo — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:13:11 GMT

Updated to JLink_Windows_V646j. Power Profiler works perfect at the first test. Disconnect and connect again and I get "ERROR Failed to start the PPK". USB cable has been changed with same result.

Now I have downgraded to nRF Connect v2.7.0 and Power Profiler v2.1.0 restarted the computer and I get the same result:
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-ppk v2.1.0 local
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG App path: C:\Users\H863260\.nrfconnect-apps\local\pc-nrfconnect-ppk
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG nRFConnect 2.7.0 is supported by the app (^2.4.0)
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: C:\Users\H863260\AppData\Local\Programs\nrfconnect\resources\app.asar
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG HomeDir: C:\Users\H863260
2019-07-18T13:59:56.348Z DEBUG TmpDir: C:\Users\H863260\AppData\Local\Temp
2019-07-18T14:00:00.483Z INFO Validating firmware for device with s/n 000682414075
2019-07-18T14:00:24.039Z INFO Opening device with s/n 000682414075
2019-07-18T14:00:24.041Z INFO PPK opened
2019-07-18T14:00:24.041Z INFO Initializing the PPK
2019-07-18T14:00:31.672Z INFO SEGGER serial: 682414075
2019-07-18T14:00:31.672Z INFO SEGGER speed: 2000 kHz
2019-07-18T14:00:31.672Z INFO SEGGER version: J-Link OB-SAM3U128-V2-NordicSemi compiled Jan 7 2019 14:07:15
2019-07-18T14:00:37.680Z ERROR Failed to start the PPK.

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Stian Røed Hafskjold — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:14:23 GMT

Not really sure what's wrong here. Maybe some other software on the computer is keeping the serial port busy. I know that in Linux there are some issues with the mass storage device driver keeping it busy, so it has to be disabled. Maybe there are something similar in your Windows 10 installation.

Things to try:

Download the newest JLink driver version: https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/#J-LinkSoftwareAndDocumentationPack
Change the USB cable. Maybe it's broken
You can also try to downgrade nRF Connect to the version that worked:

nRF Connect v2.7.0 install: https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-core/releases/download/v2.7.0/nrfconnect-setup-2.7.0-ia32.exe

PPK software v2.1.0: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/.pc-tools/nrfconnect-apps/pc-nrfconnect-ppk-2.1.0.tgz

Download and install the nRF Connect software
Open nRF Connect and uninstall PPK app. Under "Add/remove apps"
Close nRF Connect
Download and place the pc-nrfconnect-ppk-2.1.0.tgz file in C:\Users\<username>\.nrfconnect-apps\local\
Open nRF Connect and the PPK app

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Ingoo — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:40:14 GMT

Yes I have power cycled the board and the computer. I have installed nRF Connect and Power Profiler on my private computer and it works fine. So the hardware is ok. One thing I have done at the same time as upgrading the nRF Connect is that I installed LabView. I have uninstalled LabView again but maybe some driver software is left.

A strange thing is if I uninstall nRF Connect and install another version of nRFgo Studio and then install nRF Connect again nRF Connect starts automatically and if I Iaunch Power Profiler it works. If I disconnect and connect again it does not work any more.

RE: Power Profiler: Failed to start the PPK

Stian Røed Hafskjold — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 09:33:19 GMT

I was able to reproduce it here when upgrading the software. But then I unplugged everything and restarted the software and it seems to be working fine now. Not sure what went wrong. Did you try to just power cycle the board? Maybe even try restarting the computer, if the serial bus is busy for some reason.