I have an original AVR ISP Mk-II bought from Element-14. It is running the latest firmware from Atmel.
It fails to be detected by Atmel Studio VERY often. It usually works the first time after reboot if I follow a ritual (connecting the programmer to a powered up target board and then connecting the USB cable after a few seconds). I have followed all the troubleshooting tips provided on Atmel's site as well as on various forums. They don't help.
I think I am wasting my time with a poorly built tool. Is there a good reliable drop-in alternative? I would like it to work with Atmel tools and other IDEs. Maybe something that pretends to be AVR ISP Mk-II but works flawlessly.
I am using Windows 7 64 bit. The programmer should support Windows 10 too.
So far my AVR ISP mkII clone gave me no issues. I am using Windows 10 Pro amd64 on a Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H motherboard with a (slightly) overclocked Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 processor. If you are seeking replacing the ISP you might as well upgrade to the Atmel ICE (no issue on my computer too) which can not only program but also debug your MCU. And if you don't mind spending the time you can create a serial bootloader that speaks STK500v2, so you can skip the ISP entirely except on a fresh board.