Aha - So I took the miscreant chip home and stuck him
in my P16Pro - Ran Bojan's software, and erased
the chip, then blew the fuses I wanted (with LVP off).
The software complained about a fuse mismatch - that
unimplemented bit10 was set on the chip, but since it's
harmless(!?) I left it. Dragged the chip back to the
lab today stuck it in the PICSTART PLUS, ran MPLAB,
downloaded the new code and everything went fine.

Thank you to Peter (DIY) & Bojan for your fine
products :)

PS. I did notice that the schematic for the P16Pro
shows RB3 tied to the RB6 clock. But it worked, so
why question it ? However, why did the PICSTART
go insane when it encountered the chip (yes, it has
the latest firmware and MPLAB is 4.10...)

----------------------------------------------
Kenneth C. Finney
==============================================
Wilkes Associates, Inc.
Software Engineering - Embedded Systems
Design & Development - Project Management
==============================================
170 The Donway West Ste. 405, Toronto, Ontario
Office: (416) 445-9224 Mobile: (416) 453-6400
----------------------------------------------

 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: Kenneth C. Finney [mailto:kfinney@home.com]
 > Sent: Friday, August 06, 1999 2:20 AM
 > To: 'pic microcontroller discussion list'
 > Subject: Uh-Oh - PIC Programming Troubles !
 >
 >
 > Hello learned people,
 >
 > This is a new one on me. PIC 16F877 -
 > programming from MPLAB version 4.02.
 >
 > Brand new chip - programmed once, worked
 > fine. second attempt (to download a revision)
 > runs to completion, then reports failure,
 > doesn't blow the fuses.
 >
 > error log indicates dozens of program memory
 > locations are bad. 5 unsuccessful passes.
 > Tried programming in 3FFFs, same result.
 >
 > If I change the program code, failures occur
 > at different addresses. If I don't change the
 > code, failures occur at same addresses.
 >
 > On a read, configuration bits are showing
 > correctly - they would have been set during
 > the initial successful pass. Same with device
 > ID, which is a custom ID.
 >
 > Any ideas, or do I have another candidate for
 > the wall display ?
 >
 >
 > ----------------------------------------------
 > Kenneth C. Finney
 > ==============================================
 > Wilkes Associates, Inc.
 > Software Engineering - Embedded Systems
 > Design & Development - Project Management
 > ==============================================
 > 170 The Donway West Ste. 405, Toronto, Ontario
 > Office: (416) 445-9224 Mobile: (416) 453-6400
 > ----------------------------------------------
 >