Pro Micro's Corrupting

Using Arduino Avrdude, stk500, Bootloader issues
1

I mysteriously killed my Pro Micro so I ordered another one, and after having it working for a bit I killed it too. I plugged in my circuit into to +12/5V power and went to reprogram it via the Arduino IDE and it told me:

avrdude: ser_send(): write error: sorry no info avail
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: write block
 ***failed;  
 ***failed; 
etc

vrdude: Error: butterfly programmer uses avr_write_page() but does not
provide a cmd() method.
 *** page 127 (addresses 0x0000 - 0x007f) failed to write

 ***failed;  
 ***failed;  
etc

In device manager, under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, it showed up as "Unkown USB Device"

I reprogrammed the bootloader using a generic USBASP programmer which made it show up again as a COM port, but it disappears after several seconds. If I time it right, I can initiate programming, but Arduino IDE throws the same error as above. The two red LEDs blink at first then stay lit solid. Then usually after some attempts of plugging and unplugging and messing around, it goes back to showing up as an "Unknown USB Device".

When it does show up as a COM port for that brief period, the Arduino IDE recognizes it, and tells me its a Leonardo with no sketch.

I've swapped USB ports, tried just 2.0 ports, tried on another machine also running Win 10 but same thing each time.

2

Whatever is killing it has nothing to do with the USB port !

:frowning:

3

Double click the Pro Micro RESET button to put the Pro Micro in bootload mode. Try uploading the BLINK sketch. If this works, nothing is wrong with the Pro Micro or its bootloader. The problem is in your sketch or the hardware connected to the Pro Micro.

4

I get the same error when I try the double reset. I just ordered a new one and hopefully I can figure out why my circuit is doing this.

5

I've had SAMD21 boards from sparkfun "stop working" due to something going wrong with the host side.
Double-tapping reset doesn't put the board into upload mode, nor does host-initiated uploading work.
Power cycling the USB hub that the board is on fixes the problem! (presumably rebooting the computer would work, too.)
(I have no idea whether the pro-micro has USB logic in its bootloader that might cause similar behavior, but it's worth a try.)