Do you think anti-virus software could cause the issues I am having? I have Bitdefender installed on my Windows PC.
Tried to run it on a Mac but the situation is not any better:
Hardware reset caused lost of connection - Other Hardware / 3rd Party Boards - Arduino Forum
I doubt it, but turn it off and try.
I also have a Mac and NEVER have a problem as you have. At this point, the board is not in factory condition. Either it's permanently damaged, or you are NOT following the instructions. I had a look at the link you provided, and those are EXCELLENT instructions. Maybe have a friend try the reset with you out of the house.
Did you do the following procedure?
I just followed the steps in "Install the Factory Reset Firmware UF2" as I got FTHRS3BOOT drive appeared. I just dragged the downloaded UF2 file to the BOOT drive as instructed.
As I could get the FTHRS3BOOT drive to show up by double-tapping the reset button, I did not do "UF2 Bootloader Installation and Repair".
Now, here is a new thing...
I took out an old Intel NUC with i3 CPU bought many years ago and connected it to the same Feather. Under Windows 10 22H2 and Arduino IDE 2.3.7, the Serial Port only shows one port which is connected to the Feather. The ports connecting the keyboard and mouse are not shown.
Have been running it for about 30 minutes. So far so good. So the Feather is not broken but something strange is happening when I am using it with the Mac running Tahoe 26.2 and a PC running Windows 11 25H2. That Intel NUC has no usb-c port which might be the cause of my problem? Of couse this is not a long-term solution as Windows 10 is no longer supported by MS and I plan to buy a new laptop as my main work computer soon.
Normally, in troubleshooting, if you have a widget X and a widget Y that fails, you exchange one of the widgets. If you exchange say widget Y and the problem remains, that means the problem is in widget X.
It is tempting to say that, in this case, when you changed from Win 11 to Win 10 without failure, it proves that Windows 11 is the root cause. BUT you mention a widget Z (Mac) that also fails.
I noticed you mention USB-C, which is NOT on the Win 10 but is on the Mac and Win 11.
Now we KNOW it's the USB-C cable that is the problem, assuming you have told us everything. Sometimes people use a port extender or hub and think that doesn't make a difference, but it does.
So, assuming the cable on the Win11/Mac is USB-C on one end and something else on the other, that cable is bad. You need to purchase a new decent-quality cable.
I have 2 different USB cable testers, one is a simple continuity tester to detect broken wires inside the cable or bad connectors. The other tester actually has a bunch of chips and parts that represent the internals of a computer, etc.
USB-C is EXTREMELY different from older USB. A cable costing $129 is very different from one costing $29.
As an example, I recently got a new Mac with only Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. It's 40Gbps. My main 1TB SSD is about 50% full. My Time Machine (backup) SSD is 2TB. The first backup used to take overnight, but with the properly rated cable, it takes 45 minutes.
The USB-C to USB-C cables I am using are Anker cables bought less than 2 months ago.
"Anker USB C Cable, 240W Type C Flow Cord, Fast Charging for iPhone 17/16 Series, MacBook Pro 2020, and More (White, 6FT)" and
"Supports File Transfer: Move photos, music, and movies between USB-C devices at speeds of up to 480 Mbps."
The one I am using with the Intel NUC has one end of the old type and the other end of the new type. Don't remember which product it is but previously it worked with Arduino on that Windows 11 PC. Just connected the Feather ESP32 S3 to the PC with Windows 11 via an old USB3.1 port at the back, no problem so far. So it seems that the Anker cables may be the culpit? If I recall correctly, in that past, sometimes they worked but sometimes they don't. I got three of them. That old type to new type usb cable seems to work more often.
Which Mac and type of ports are you using with the ESP32 boards?
That is a USB-2 technology, my cables are working at 40,000. Of course when connected to older products it can run at 480Mbps.
It sounds like you may be naive. Are you aware that there are many counterfeit goods sold on Amazon or eBay?
Anker is well known for POWER.
Show me your Mac model info like below and I will tell you what cable to order. what country are you in?
I know about counterfeit goods sold on Amazon. That is why I always buy from Anker's official store on Amazon.
With or without the Feather connected?
What country are you in so I can look up the exact cable for you.
I have an Anker cable plugged in right now and it is BAD. It makes poor contact.
Ok, I looked it up and you are Thunderbot-4.
This is the kind of cable I would get for the Mini. This is from the apple.ca site so look for the same on your countries apple site. I checked my Amazon and the brand is there but no cables.
CONNECTED of course.
USA. This is the one I got from their official store:
Do you see any possible problem with such cable?
Now I connected the Feather ESP32-S3 to the "Thunderbolt™ 3 connectors (USB Type-C™ ports, with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support)" port at the back of my Windows 11 PC. No problem in port selection. It shows COM3, COM5 and COM23 (Adafruit Feather ESP32-S3 2MB PSRAM). Also tried the USB3.1 port at the front of the PC. Also no problem. Very strange. Regardless of whether I connected to the port at the front or back of the PC, it always shows COM23. Is this normal?
If you do not answer my questions then I can't help you.
One last time.
Connect the feather to the suspect USB cable, plug it into the Mac Mini, show me the port selection screen.
The cable is fine; it's a charging cable and a USB 2 (480 Mbps) data cable.
Am I to understand that the feather works when plugged into some USB ports but not others?
I can only help you with the Mac scenario, I have Windows, but only use it if I am forced to.
If you dont want my help just say so and I will go away.
OK. So focus on the Mac now to avoid confusion.
For the Mac, using the same Anker cable and port at the back of the Mini M4, sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't.
Am I supposed to press the Reset button after each upload on the Mac? On Windows, no need to do that. As of now, pressing it disconnected the board briefly and the board got reconnected automatically briefly. Then, it gave "Port monitor error: command 'open' failed. Serial port busy. Could not connect to /dev/cu.usbmoderm3101 serial port" for a few seconds. Then, reconnected itself and within a minute or so, port monitor error again and on and on. Now it stays connected for over two minutes. It seems that there is a stability issue somewhere.
Show me the port selector dialogue on the Mac. Feather on one end and Mini on the other.
This means either the cable is bad or your Mac Mini. Since the same cable fails on Windows, it's the cable. Put that cable aside and try another proper USB-C to USB-C cable.
Just like post#36 but this time there is a check mark.
