Greetings to all PIClisters,

I have recently developped a PIC programmer circuit, based on Taits'
design, which worked fine for a PIC16F84. The problem occured when I
tried to program a brand new PIC16F877. At that time, I had no idea of
the LVP ability (I know, I know, RTFM next time :) ), so RB3 was
unconnected. The programming was successful (or so it seemed), but
something weird happened then. All ports of the PIC16F877 that were
configured as outputs, could not rise their voltage to +5. To my
understanding, the PIC is now useless, blown, and that has something to
do with the programming process and the RB3 pin. Later, I found out
about disabling the LVP from the configuration word, but that applies to
all programming attempts after the first.

What should I do with the RB3 pin in order to successfully program the
PIC16F877 for the first time, when all I have is a high voltage
(12-14Volt) programmer (except from obtaining/building a LVP
programmer)?
I desperately need a solution for my final project in university.
Any advice or reference (or good news about the blown chip :) ) is
welcome.

Thank you all in advance.

Nickolas Axelos