James, I had the same problem, but fortunately my product was in the early prototype stage at the time. The PIC's main CPU and oscillator sections start up at a lower voltage than does the memory, thus locking the chip up upon brown-out or power-up when the supply doesn't ramp up quick enough. The watchdog timer will only protect you against software lock-up, not against the CPU core itself going off into the twilight zone, which is what it sounds like you have here. Without getting into too much detail on the various power-up requirement specs, the internal power-up timer (PWRT) and oscillator start-up timer (OST) specs, you can simply enable the PWRT if your power supply will always ramp up in less than 28ms AND the supply shuts off at low voltage instead of going into un-regulation mode. If your power supply can't do that, then simply toss a Motorola MC34064 onto the /MCLR (active low RESET) pin, along with a cap and resistor or two if you like. This is a little 3 pin undervoltage sensing IC, and will hold the '74 in reset unless the voltage is above 4.6 V. It comes in many different flavours like wider temperature ranges, different cutoff voltage like 4.3 or 2.7 volts, TO-92 or SO-8 packages, etc. Similiar devices are available from many other manufacturers. Oh, and they cost way less than $1 U.S. each in low quantities. The microchip databook shows some other cheap alternative brown-out protection circuits. Of course, Microchip has realized this deficiency in the standard '74 as well, and have introduced the '74A as a result. As far as I can tell (note the subtle disclaimer) the only difference is the addition of a brown-out reset circuit (BOR). When enabled via the BODEN bit (love those acronyms) the BOR will hold the device in reset once VDD falls below about 4V, and will keep it in reset until VDD has remained above 4V for more than 28 to 132ms (72ms nominal). For the BOR to kick in and reset the chip, VDD must remain below 4V for at least 100usec. I assume that Microchip in their wisdom has made this delay less than the time is takes the chip lock up, though I could find no indication or guarantee of this in the databook. So basically you have three choices: Improve your power supply, add in something like a MC34064 (happy rework & PCB changes), or go for the 74A's and save your '74 stock for a future project. Now get in there and call another meeting to say you've got a fix. Ok, maybe test it first. -Ed VanderPloeg. ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Power Brown Outs Author: pic microcontroller discussion list at InterNet Date: 4/3/96 7:34 PM Here's a brain buster. We have a stand alone CO gas monitor (safety equipment) that uses a PIC16C74. If the power supply is momentarily shorted (milliseconds), the PIC does not recover, but locks up in random modes. We have the Watchdog timer ON and CLRWDT is only given one time in the main program loop. Any ideas? I was massacred today in an engineering meeting as this instrument was on the verge of its first major shipment. Thanks. -- Regards, James Musselman, President Radix/Cobalt Instruments, Inc. PO Box 897 Clovis, CA 93613 USA tel 209-297-9000 fax 209-297-9400 Check out my home page http://rdx.com