ArduinoISP "avrdude:Expected signature"

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

Good day!

I'm trying to burn a Arduino bootloader into blank Atmega8A-PU using Arduino Duemilanove (Atmega328P) as ISP programmer. The target configuration is without external clock.

Here is the wiring: http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Tutorial/SimpleBreadboardAVR.png

The bootloader comes from here: Minimal Arduino with ATmega8 – todbot blog
(The same as original, just changed for 8Mhz).

Here are settings from boards.txt:

##############################################################

atmega8noxtal.name=ATmega8-noxtal @8MHz

atmega8noxtal.upload.protocol=stk500
atmega8noxtal.upload.maximum_size=7168
atmega8noxtal.upload.speed=38400

atmega8noxtal.bootloader.low_fuses=0xe4
atmega8noxtal.bootloader.high_fuses=0xc4
atmega8noxtal.bootloader.path=atmega8_noxtal
atmega8noxtal.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT.hex
atmega8noxtal.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega8noxtal.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

atmega8noxtal.build.mcu=atmega8
atmega8noxtal.build.f_cpu=8000000L
atmega8noxtal.build.core=arduino

I've enabled detailed messages in Arduino IDE. It seems it first run avrdude to write fuses and lock bits.

I've tried to upload avrdude to the latest version as described here: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/21412

Here is an error:

C:\Tools\arduino\hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -CC:\Tools\arduino\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -v -v -v -patmega8 -cstk500v1 -P\\.\COM10 -b19200 -e -Ulock:w:0x3F:m -Uhfuse:w:0xc4:m -Ulfuse:w:0xe4:m 

avrdude: Version 5.10, compiled on Jan 19 2010 at 10:45:23
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "C:\Tools\arduino\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

         Using Port                    : \\.\COM10
         Using Programmer              : stk500v1
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200

[...skip...]

avrdude: Device signature = 0x0000ff
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA8 is 1E 93 07
         Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.

Sometimes I get this:

avrdude: Device signature = 0x8133ff
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA8 is 1E 93 07
         Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.
avrdude: Send: Q [51]   [20]

or this:

avrdude: Device signature = 0xffffff
avrdude: Yikes!  Invalid device signature.
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

Is chip brokent\locked? May be I've erased the signature in some way (as described here: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1248979803)

2

The problem is solved, chip fuses were configured by previous owner to use external crystal. I've connected external crystal and now I can use this chip.