DK boards (nrf52832DK and nrf52840DK) fail to load JLINK driver

[Keith Brafford]

I tried to install the latest nRF Connect (3.1.0) on my Windows 7 dev machine and it did something to wipe out my USB setup (froze up during install of JLINK). So I had to use the latest System Restore Point to get my USB keyboard, mouse, etc to work.

But now my Nordic DK boards won't load.  When I plug them in the USB, I see a "Port" show up, but the "JLINK" part of the driver doesn't show up in the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" section any more.

On this same computer, I can use my standalone J-Link debugger (the expensive kind), and I can even use it to debug my DK boards (in a limited fashion, since I was using the built-in debugger for comms too, and that's all messed up now).

These same DK boards are visible and work on a different Widows 10 laptop and Macbook (i.e. I can 'nrfjprog -f NRF52 --reset', --halt, --run and all those work).  So the DK boards seem ok.  I tried forcing a reload of the DK jlink firmware and that doesn't make it work on the win7 box.

Absent other good ideas to try (which are welcome), is there a way to force the complete removal of JLINK drivers from the USB subsystem of this windows 7 machine and reinstall from scratch?  I've tried uninstalling JLINK itself from the programs and features" control panel (even going so far as choosing a few different versions of jlink to try) and it still doesn't work.

Edit: on the same Win7 machine, in a Mint Linux VM, the nrfjprog + jlink tools work like they are supposed to.  It's only trying to use them on the Win7 host that doesn't seem to work

[tesc]

Hi,

Have you tried also to (uninstall and) install nRF Command Line Tools? In addition to the SEGGER J-Link Software and documentation pack, it contains tools such as the nrfjprog executable and the nrfjprog DLL.

Regards,
Terje

[Keith Brafford]

Yes. I also uninstalled the “windows driver” jlink entries in the programs/features control panel as suggested in the Nordic doc

[tesc]

Hi,

And there are no conflicts with regards to what machine (host or VM) takes ownership of the USB port and boards?

Regarding removing JLINK versions, removing them through the "Programs and Features" method has always worked fine on my Win7 system...

I have sometimes experienced that I must give Windows time to "install drivers" when I plug a DK into a USB port which it has not been connected to before, but after that everything has been fine. (In some occasions it has taken several minutes, though.)

Is there anything left in the registry, after uninstalling J-Link and Nordic Semi software? (E.g a SEGGER folder under HKEY_USERS -> random folder name -> Software in the registry.)

Regards,
Terje

[Keith Brafford]

No conflicts with VMWare.  Their scheme of intercepting the board and letting me choose where to connect it works great.  If I choose the VM, it is connected, and linux nrfjprog works.  If I choose the host, it shows up as an unknown device in the device manager, even though my expensive JLINK is handled correctly by the same host.

I have gathered more info that I will post as an outer level comment.

[Keith Brafford]

>Is there anything left in the registry, after uninstalling J-Link and Nordic Semi software? (E.g a SEGGER folder under HKEY_USERS -> random folder name -> Software in the registry.)

I will re-de-install everything and check for that next.

[Keith Brafford]

This exists:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-863567031-3561377604-2044554372-1000\Software\SEGGER

and has a J-flash, J-Link, and J-LinkRemoteServer sub folder

[Keith Brafford]

I renamed the SEGGER folder in the registry to SEGGER_OLD, then reinstalled the cmd line utilities (which installed jlkink 6.44e again) and it made a new registry entry, but the problem is still here.