Thanks for the reply David,
Normally I use a PC and AVR studio for burning bootloaders, because it's way faster and has a host of information and useful options, but I have a hosed PC right now. I have encountered this signature error off and on with AVR dude (another reason to use the PC) but ususally it was only a chip or two that would balk (and they would always program OK with AVR studio which also checks sigs, so something is slightly fishy with AVRdude in this department I think.
The batch of chips I have now refuses to program at all, so something has changed.
My setup is Mac OS 10.4.11, Arduino11 AVRmkII,
burning on a BBB with a resonator, and zif socket. The green light is on on the mkII
wonder if heat is an issue? no AC in my office
Without modifying the programmer file, I get
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06
Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.
after modifying programmers.txt,
with
avrispmkii.name=AVRISP mkII
avrispmkii.communication=usb
avrispmkii.protocol=stk500v2
avrispmkii.force=true
I get
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06
***failed;
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
0x3f != 0x01
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch
So I get out a Diecimila and burn it with the chip included and it burns fine.
Try a new chip and
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06
***failed;
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
0x3f != 0x01
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch
Put in the old chip, and it burns fine. Try the new chip again - NADA.
Swap setups and try old chip in my zif setup - burns fine.
So it kind of looks like the chip is the smoking gun at this point.
Chip is marked ATMEGA168-20PU just like the old one, although Atmel seems to have gone to some kind of different marking system that is lot harder for geezers to read. They came from Digikey so I'm puzzled at that - Maybe Atmel added a new sig for ROHS or something?
But that still doesn't expain what AVR dude is up to on the new chip - unless I somehow got a bad batch of chips, which I consider unlikely.
This together with teenager-download-infected-generic-PC-with-no-support-at-90 degrees is causing me to have a fun day
Paul