Bricked my Portenta H7 - Need to re-flash Bootloader

Official Hardware Portenta Family Portenta H7
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I bricked my Portenta H7 and have been trying (for several days) to re-flash the bootloader with no luck. Lots of posts about re-flashing the bootloader but non of them are working for me. I am currently trying it with an ST-Link v2, the Portenta breakout board and a JTAG (2x10 2.54mm) to SWD (2x5 1.27mm) Adapter Board. Setup is pictured here:

I had to cut the plastic ends off of the 10 pin 1.27mm cable because there are 'plugs' that prevent it from plugging into the JTAG connector on the breakout board. I had the red strip plugged into pin 1 and that matched the pin 1 on the adapter board but there was a post in the forum that said the "flat side of the black cable housing should point towards the 'PDM SPDIF' label closest edge of the board and not toward the H7 USB connector". But that didn't make a difference.

I have no idea if I hooked this up correctly. Device manager never shows the H7 on a COM port and I think why is because the H7 is bricked and has no brains. The H7 LED just burns bright red all the time with a little flash about every 15 seconds.

I've tried the boot jumpers in every possible combination. Clicking the H7 reset button twice quickly just beeps the computer twice quickly. Pressing the 'ON' button on the breakout board does, well, I don't know if it does anything. No beeps or boops or flashing LED's.

I've seen a few posts that mention success by hooking up 3.3v and gnd from an external power supply. I tried that and the H7 does not power up. So I also power it through the USB but that also does not work.

I'm using the STM32CubeProgrammer and it can see the ST-Link but can't connect to the H7. Here is the output from a connect attempt:

03:18:08:401 : UR connection mode is defined with the HWrst reset mode
  03:18:09:552 : ST-LINK SN  : 16004A002933353739303541
  03:18:09:553 : ST-LINK FW  : V2J43S7
  03:18:09:553 : Board       : --
  03:18:09:553 : Voltage     : 3.18V
  03:18:09:553 : Error: No STM32 target found! If your product embeds Debug Authentication, please perform a discovery using Debug Authentication
  03:18:09:569 : Disconnected

I have also tried loading the bootloader from the Arduino IDE 2.latest. I use the "STMicroelectronics STLINK." This is what I get from that attempt:

Open On-Chip Debugger 0.11.0+dev-gab95bac57-dirty (2021-05-11-10:45)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
	http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0

Error: init mode failed (unable to connect to the target)
Failed to burn bootloader: uploading error: exit status 1

I've also noticed that the Arduino IDE Tools->Port menu item is greyed out. Though the correct com port is shown, it is not selectable (Device manager also cannot see it).

I have also followed the instructions here: https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/portenta-h7/updating-the-bootloader/

But the examples referenced in these instructions do not exist under File->Examples and though I found the STM32H747_manageBootloader sketch on GitHub, it does not compile.

UPDATE 03/18/24: So I purchased the official ST-LINK/V2 in-circuit debugger/programmer for STM8 and STM32. Connection to my Portenta H7 and Portenta breakout board pictured below.

This programmer also has the old 20 pin JTAG connector so I've routed it through the JTAG (2x10 2.54mm) to SWD (2x5 1.27mm) Adapter Board. Red stripe on the 10 pin 1.27mm cable to breakout board JTAG connector has been plugged back into pin 1. I have no idea if I am doing this correctly.

This time the STM32CubeProgrammer gave me this error. A little different from the previous error.

  13:36:36:073 : UR connection mode is defined with the HWrst reset mode
  13:36:42:158 : ST-LINK error (DEV_USB_COMM_ERR)
  13:36:42:159 : Error: Problem occured while trying to connect

UPDATE 03-20-24: Got the Arduino STM32H747_manageBootloader sketch to compile but the download failed. Again, this sucker has no brain. Nothing but the RED LED of death. Windows Device Manager can't even see it. The very definition of "Bricked".

If more info is required, please let me know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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So as it turns out, when you read about people solving this problem by using an external power supply, it turns out they were doing that for the Breakout Board, not the H7! Go figure. I spotted one little comment in the myriad of posts that mentioned this. I tried it and it worked.

This is the post with the most helpful comments on this entire matter.

Orange LED of hell

Also, I used the ST brand (the $43 one) ST-Link/V2 and the JTAG (2x10 2.54mm) to SWD (2x5 1.27mm) Adapter Board to connect to the JTAG connector on the Breakout board. You will need to clip off the plastic ends of the 1.27mm 10 pin connector because it has plugs that prevent it from plugging into the JTAG connector on the Breakout board. Don't forget to push both boot pins to their 'ON' position (towards their label).

Clip these ends off. Be careful you don't cut any ribbon.

In reference to the PC not even recognizing the H7 on the COM port it was plugged into (after the bootloader was successfully re-flashed), here is how I fixed that:

  1. Unplug the H7 from the USB port.
  2. From the Device Manager (Windows) right-click on the COM port the H7 was using and click on "Uninstall device" then click on "Uninstall" in the popup dialog.
  3. Plug the H7 back into your USB port. This will create another COM connection for the H7 and you should be back in business.
  4. Don't forget to change the port number for your project in the Arduino IDE or other dev environment you are working in.

ALSO, MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING A GOOD PORTENTA BOOTLOADER! EVERYTHING STARTED WORKING FOR ME WHEN I SWITCHED TO THIS ONE:

UPDATE Sept 2024: Use the .hex bootloader.
portentah7_bootloader_mbed_hs_v2.hex

LOCATED HERE:
Portenta H7 Bootloader