avrdude: stk500_recv (): programmer is not responding

Hi all. I know this has been a common post but there never seems to be a definitive answer other than following the troubleshooting guide.

I have an Arduino Uno and I have been programming it tthrough my MacBook Pro. I bought the Uno on Saturday and it has been working great including today. A few hours after making a small led project I plugged in my power adapter in to play around with it again and nothing happened.

The power light turned on, pin 13 led turned on and thats about it. I pressed the reset button and again nothing happened. I decided do hook it back up to my computer to re-upload my sketch to see if that would help and that is when I got my error.

I went through the trouble shooting guide, tried pressing reset during different times of the upload and that didn't help either.

When I do upload (including the simple blinking sketch) the RX led blinks three times then a few seconds later the error comes up about the programmer not responding.

Im at a loss and disappointed that this has happened especially because I've been taking good precautions with it.

Has anyone been able to fix this problem or know what the issue is?

Thanks
Jeff

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,73748.0.html
...pass / fail?

I'll have to look more into this and a serial connector. Thanks.

jeffu:
...and a serial connector.

Why?

Step 7

A "terminal application" is software running on your computer. The kind of application found with a search like this one...

https://www.google.com/search?q=macbook+pro+terminal+application&oq=MacBook+Pro+terminal

There is no "serial connector" involved in the test.

My mistake. I understand now.

How would I go about connecting to my terminal application? I am not familiar with this process

jeffu:
My mistake. I understand now.

How would I go about connecting to my terminal application? I am not familiar with this process

The loop back test can be run using either the serial monitor feature of the arduino IDE OR you could use a standalone PC terminal application, but for you use just run the arduino IDE, select the proper com port number for your board and then press the serial monitor button. Anything you type in the output window and press send should be echoed back into the receive window of the serial monitor.

Lefty

Thank you Coding Badly and Lefty for your help. The loop-back test was successful but I am still unable to upload any sketches. What would that narrow down my issue to? Is my ATMEGA328P-PU bad?

With nothing connected to the board (except a USB cable) and the board powered by USB, is the green ON LED lit?

When you click the RESET button does the L LED blink quickly a few times?

Power light comes on and the pin 13 LED comes on when powered up by USB as it should.

When I press the reset button nothing happens.

jeffu:
...the pin 13 LED comes on when powered up by USB as it should.

And stays lit? (two LEDs lit: power and L)

When I press the reset button nothing happens.

The LED labeled L stays lit? It does not blink a few times?

Yes. Both the power and L LED stay lit. L does not blink when pressing reser.

Im used to calling the L pin 13 LED based on tutorials I have done. Sorry for the confusion.

The only theory that comes to mind is that the processor is toast.

Well thanks a ton for your help and patience with a newbie like me. I saw that adafruit has programmed processors so I'm going to get one of those and see what happens.

Thanks again!

Well, food for thought:

My FREETRONICS one the power LED comes on, and the Pin 13 Led.

The "L" led Slowly glows brighter and cycles this.

Pressing the reset button: Nothing exciting happens. The board doesn't seem to reset.
Neither LED really stop doing what they are doing.

My ARDUINO (genuine one) UNO is similar.
But the "L" led blinks.

Pressing the reset button: Neither LED stop doing what they are/were doing.

TWO bung processors from TWO DIFFERENT SHOPS?

What are the chances?

UPDATE: I ordered a new ATMEGA for my uno and it is now up and running again. I had got to thinking to figure out how I had fried my chip and I'm thinking when I powered it up I must have had something conductive underneath it, without realizing it, which shorted the chip.

Thanks again for all the help and I am glad I can get back into things. I attached a photo of a nice little holder I also got for my uno and breadboard from sparkfun.com

20130111_015239.jpg3264×2448 1.67 MB