Quartus / USB Blaster / Windows 10 blue screen of death

• Quartus / USB Blaster / Windows 10 blue screen of death
  Posted by Macbeth on 30 Nov, 2015 11:01
• I previously used Quartus II Web Edition 14 on my desktop Win 7 with my clone USB Blaster without issue. Since upgrading to Win 10 I get blue screens when trying to use the Blaster. I've got the latest Quartus Prime Lite 15.1 and still have the same problem with the drivers. I've also tried with a fresh install of Win 10 on my laptop.
  
  Thankfully the linux kernel driver works just fine so I dual boot into Ubuntu but it can be a drag when most of my other work I get up to runs under windows.
  
  Anyone else using Win 10? I am beginning to suspect Altera are doing an "FTDI-gate" with their win drivers to root out all the clone hardware 
• #1 Reply
  Posted by obiwanjacobi on 30 Nov, 2015 20:48
• Not sure about the blaster but the supported windows version for 15.1 is 8.1 - the simulator is only good for windows 8.0.
  So you're on unsupported territory with Windows 10...
• #2 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 30 Nov, 2015 21:46
• I'll stick with the Ubuntu dual boot I think. I might try a VirtualBox in Win 10, but it's slow enough as it is!
• #3 Reply
  Posted by Kjelt on 30 Nov, 2015 21:49
• Can you in win10 select the compatibility mode for that program and choose win7 or 8 ?
  http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/set-compatibility-mode-windows-10
• #4 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 30 Nov, 2015 21:57
• Not really, it's not the Quartus application but the USB Blaster drivers that are crashing windows. A hardware fault.
• #5 Reply
  Posted by Rasz on 01 Dec, 2015 07:30
• thats what virtual machines are for
  some people even keep separate VMs per client/project
• #6 Reply
  Posted by 1uk3 on 01 Dec, 2015 09:54
• The original USB Blaster works fine here  (Win10 Pro N 64bit)
  
  I ordered a clone from china, will post here as soon as it arrives(~2 weeks)
  
• #7 Reply
  Posted by kscarbery on 18 Dec, 2015 20:01
• I am experiencing what could be the same BSoD with a bugcheck of PFN_LIST_CORRUPT: 0x4E (0x9A, 0x425536, 0x6, 0x2) https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559014%28v=vs.85%29.aspx. I'm running Windows 7 x64 with Quartus Prime 15.1.0 Build 185. I'm seeing the BSoD immediately after trying to load the driver for the (generic) USB Blaster.
• #8 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 18 Dec, 2015 20:12
• I managed to overcome my USB Blaster BSOD problems. I got an FPGA board from AliExpress that had a spare USB Blaster with it. That one worked. 
  
  See my post here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/beginner-fpga-dev-board/67/
  
• #9 Reply
  Posted by kscarbery on 18 Dec, 2015 22:10
• Wow, changing to a different USB Blaster clone also solved my problem. The Terasic Blaster is working fine for me.
• #10 Reply
  Posted by free_electron on 18 Dec, 2015 22:21
• if i remember right the blaster uses an ftdi chip ....
  
  fake china blasters may have fake ftdi's in em ... er emulated using a cypress chip ...
  
  not altera's fault.
• #11 Reply
  Posted by marshallh on 19 Dec, 2015 01:01
• I'm currently using one that uses a PIC18F14K50 and an octal buffer. It's actually slightly faster than the real one.
  
  
• #12 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 19 Dec, 2015 11:20
• Yep, that looks the same as my (new) one 
• #13 Reply
  Posted by miguelvp on 20 Dec, 2015 04:15
• Speaking of Quartus, has anyone migrated to the new Quartus Prime Lite?
  
  https://www.altera.com/products/design-software/overview.html
  
  Are we going to loose features compared to Quartus II Web Edition?
  
  https://www.altera.com/products/design-software/fpga-design/quartus-prime/download.html
  
• #14 Reply
  Posted by tpw_rules on 20 Dec, 2015 19:49
• How do you all run the driver with windows 10 anyway? I'm using a Terasic board and I can't find a signed driver for it. Every time I reboot, I have to go back into debug options and disable signing to be able to do anything. Super obnoxious. Never had a blue screen though.
• #15 Reply
  Posted by miguelvp on 20 Dec, 2015 20:01
• To tell you the truth, I don't think I fired up Quartus since my Windows 10 upgrade.
  
• #16 Reply
  Posted by marshallh on 21 Dec, 2015 02:46
• Legit USB Blaster Rev C:
  
  
• #17 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 21 Dec, 2015 14:13
• Quote from: tpw_rules on 20 Dec, 2015 19:49

  How do you all run the driver with windows 10 anyway? I'm using a Terasic board and I can't find a signed driver for it. Every time I reboot, I have to go back into debug options and disable signing to be able to do anything. Super obnoxious. Never had a blue screen though.
  

  I'm using the Altera driver that comes with Quartus. In my case that's C:\altera_lite\15.1\quartus\drivers
   
• #18 Reply
  Posted by DuMOHsmol on 13 Feb, 2017 20:41
• For those suffering BSODs (or hanging Quartus) with cloned USB Blasters, try this driver: http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19233. Or (mirror) https://yadi.sk/d/lLD5vgk03E2Hb3. Or get it from this post You may need to disable driver signature enforcement to install it. Worked for me!

  ---

  USB Blaster WIN7 x64.zip
• #19 Reply
  Posted by p_wolf on 19 Sep, 2017 09:39
• Thank you very much! The driver works fine for me with  Woindows 10 and Altera prime 16.1!