Products > Test Equipment
Keysight 34465A reliability
skander36:
Yeah ... it is from autoranging :palm:
When disabled no more clicking ...
Thank you very much @wrapper!
nctnico:
--- Quote from: nctnico on April 07, 2022, 11:58:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: floobydust on April 06, 2022, 05:55:15 pm ---Likely not related to OP's fault, but something to point out (and I do hope I'm wrong here):
TI/Stellaris LM3S1D21 ARM processor is discontinued 2016 and withdrawn from the market due to the flash corruption issues. The parts are a lemon, known about in 2014.
"Flash corruption or device failure may occur at power on"
"Flash memory endurance cycle specification is 100 cycles"
"Flash memory corruption may occur when device is unpowered and stored for several months - Due to the storage oxide thickness and trap-assisted electron tunneling, there are more leaked cell values than originally expected in the Flash design within several months after programming. As a result, the ECC logic is not able to repair all of the errors in the Flash memory. Data derived from customer returns predicts that devices that are left unpowered at room temperature storage for 6 months can result in failure rates of 2000-3000 DPPM per year."
Ref: TEMPEST/INFERNO LM3S Errata Document (Literature Number: SPMZ861)
Bench multimeter product line 34461A, 34465A, 34470A use this MCU not as the main front panel processor but I think it's the Inguard processor.
If this is a real problem, silicon revisions need to be confirmed it's all 130nm parts, Keysight should be offering free extended warranty. It would be a massive debacle.
--- End quote ---
I'm afraid you are not wrong. It is a good find though so I appreciate you taking the trouble for digging this up. There is nothing to be found on TI's website about these microcontrollers nowadays. As if they never existed!
My 34461A also has the LM3S1D21 microcontroller revision A2 which is affected by the flash corruption problem. A way around it, is to leave the device on for at least 24 hours to give the internal flash controller the chance to fix the bits that have gotten corrupted. However, that system isn't failsafe as well and can actually corrupt data which was good. On top of that it is hard to tell whether a corrupted flash is signalled at all and how this affects measurements. It could be that the software continuous on with bad data affecting the measurement results.
All in all these units have a ticking time bomb inside them. :palm:
--- End quote ---
In the meantime I had a rather in depth email exchange with Keysight support (without needing to pay or jump through hoops). It looks like Keysight has found the issue with the LM3S1D21 by themselves and reported back to TI. According to Keysight they did some kind of check on the part to see if it is affected before assembly so units in the field shouldn't be affected. In case there is a problem, it shouldn't result in bad/wrong readings. The latter is my main concern.
If my unit where affected, it would have shown by now as it is sitting switched off for periods lasting over a year.
wraper:
--- Quote from: nctnico on July 31, 2022, 09:25:49 pm ---In the meantime I had a rather in depth email exchange with Keysight support (without needing to pay or jump through hoops). It looks like Keysight has found the issue with the LM3S1D21 by themselves and reported back to TI. According to Keysight they did some kind of check on the part to see if it is affected before assembly so units in the field shouldn't be affected. In case there is a problem, it shouldn't result in bad/wrong readings. The latter is my main concern.
If my unit where affected, it would have shown by now as it is sitting switched off for periods lasting over a year.
--- End quote ---
It's not like that. If you read the errata, you'd know that sitting off for years does not necessarily cause the NAND corruption. It just increases its chance. Staying always ON does not help with corruption either since of garbage ECC circuit which may cause corruption of good data by itself. The flash corruption rates given in ERRATA because of both issues are similar. It's not like there are good chips and bad chips, there is a crappy design.
autorepair78:
Is there anyone on the forum who had a problem with the processor in the 34XXX series and after replacing everything was back to normal? I am asking because I have the opportunity to buy a 34461A which, when turned on, only illuminates the LCD and nothing else works. When opened, you can see that the SPEAR320-S2 is very hot.
CraigD73:
It's now 2024 has this problem been resolved with current production KS3446A DMMs?
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