Trouble Programming ATtiny84 With Arduino as ISP

Hi there,
In the past I had successfully used my Arduino Uno as an ISP to load sketches onto my ATtiny84. Suddenly, however, it stopped working. My Arduino will pop up and say "Done uploading." but my ATtiny doesn't actually do anything when I give it battery power. As I said, I have used the exact same method before and it worked perfectly.

I'm using the 1.8.13 IDE.
I'm using this board manager: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/damellis/attiny/ide-1.6.x-boards-manager/package_damellis_attiny_index.json

Here's the sketch I'm trying to upload:

void setup() {
  for (int i=0; i<11; i++) {
    pinMode(i,OUTPUT);
    }
}

void loop() {
  for (int i=0; i<11; i++) {
    digitalWrite(i,HIGH);
    }
  delay(1000);

  for (int i=0; i<11; i++) {
    digitalWrite(i,LOW);
    }
  delay(1000);
}

It's meant to blink LEDs on every pin. I know the sketch works because I tried it with a separate Arduino, not through the ATtiny84, and it works fine. I've even tried a different ATtiny84 thinking that one of them went bad. But none of them I try seem to work.

I'm just really puzzled as to why it worked one day and now it doesn't. My only guess is that my IDE or some other program updated and now there's an incompatibility issue. Either that or I'm overlooking something super simple.

I can show pics of my circuits if necessary.

I have successfully loaded sketches onto my Attiny85 with Arduino IDE 1.8.13 and that same board manager. Your sketch looks good, like you said. I'll set up a breadboard and an Attiny85 with that (slightly modified) sketch and see if I can get it to work. The only difference is that I'm using a dedicated Attiny25/45/85 programmer instead of an Arduino Uno.

I had a new error I couldn't figure out and had to use this core to get it to upload, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/damellis/attiny/ide-1.6.x-boards-manager/package_damellis_attiny_index.json, but it worked. If you use that core make sure you read about every option you choose before burning the bootloader because you can make it very difficult to recover.

Thanks for the effort! I tried that core and it also didn't work. May I ask what error you were getting? Just for laughs lol

But you're comment got me thinking...

Also, I'm still using the ArduinoISP example sketch to get my Arduino set up as an ISP. Is that okay? Is it outdated?

This is the error I am getting:
Arduino: 1.8.13 (Windows 10), Board: "ATtiny25/45/85, ATtiny85, Internal 1 MHz"

Sketch uses 720 bytes (8%) of program storage space. Maximum is 8192 bytes.

Global variables use 9 bytes (1%) of dynamic memory, leaving 503 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 512 bytes.

An error occurred while uploading the sketch

avrdude: can't open config file "C:\Users\yorka\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\attiny\hardware\avr\1.0.2/avrdude.conf": No such file or directory

avrdude: error reading system wide configuration file "C:\Users\yorka\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\attiny\hardware\avr\1.0.2/avrdude.conf"

This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
option enabled in File -> Preferences.

Not sure how a config file would just vanish on me, but the other core has more options so I'll use that anyway.

I read that you should burn the bootloader once (or when you change board options, such as clock rate). As far as I know that example sketch should work fine, but I've never tried it.

If you use the core I linked, then options I used are no bootloader on the board, 1MHz internal (external or 128kHz will cause serious issues), CPU frequency, LTO enabled, milis()/micros() enabled, EEPROM retained, and BOD disabled. I believe those options are only set when you burn the bootloader, even if not technically using a bootloader.

Again, thank you!

New development. I decided to set up the visuals as described here:
image

And this is what happens when I upload the sketch: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

The error light blinks once. Is this normal?

Thinking that the issue was with my Arduino UNO, I tried using an Arduino Mega as an ISP. The exact same issue is still occurring. This must mean something is wrong with the way my IDE is set up, but that's really confusing me because I didn't change anything in the time between programming was working, and then suddenly wasn't...

I downgraded my IDE to 1.6.13 and reinstalled my core from there. Tried everything again from scratch, still having the same problem.

I'm at a loss here.

EDIT: I'm going to buy some more ATtiny84s. I've only tried 2, maybe I'm having really bad luck and they're both faulty. That would explain the suddenness of all this. Would be a heck of a coincidence though lol.

I may also buy one of the programming boards from Adafruit or some such.

That seems like the best course of action. Worst case you have a few extra microchips for your next project. I believe the programmer I bought is based on the Adafruit one because it uses their drivers. It's only 8 pin though.

That's what I was thinking lol

Thanks for your help, sir. I'll post here again once the chips arrive.

Well, my new chips came in...

...they work perfectly lol. I guess it really was just 2 faulty chips. It's possible I accidentally burned them with the "external crystal" setting.

Sorry for wasting your time, everyone.

Interesting. If you did burn them that way they may still be salvageable if you are willing to buy a crystal.

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