E (611) cpu_start: Failed to init external RAM!

[vonnieda]

Hi all,

We have a board based on the WROVER module and on a small percentage (maybe 0.5%) we're seeing "E (611) cpu_start: Failed to init external RAM!" during boot. This boards flash fine, but then during boot we get this error. The full dump is:

Code: Select all

E (611) cpu_start: Failed to init external RAM!
abort() was called at PC 0x40081365 on core 0
0x40081365: call_start_cpu0 at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/cpu_start.c:157 (discriminator 1)


Backtrace: 0x40094bc4:0x3ffe3ca0 0x40094db7:0x3ffe3cc0 0x40081365:0x3ffe3ce0 0x4007907a:0x3ffe3d20 0x4007912d:0x3ffe3d50 0x40079493:0x3ffe3d90 0x40078623:0x3ffe3db0 0x40007c31:0x3ffe3eb0 0x4000073d:0x3ffe3f20
0x40094bc4: invoke_abort at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/panic.c:648

0x40094db7: abort at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/panic.c:648

0x40081365: call_start_cpu0 at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/cpu_start.c:157 (discriminator 1)


E (638) esp_core_dump: Core dump flash config is corrupted! CRC=0xffffffff instead of 0x0

Has anyone seen this before? I'm wondering if there is anything we can do about it, of if it's just a percentage of bad ESPs?

Thanks,
Jason

[ESP_Angus]

Hi Jason,

That's not something we'd expect. What clock speed are you running the PSRAM at (config item)? And what ESP-IDF version are you using?

Recent ESP-IDF fixed some issues running PSRAM at 80MHz, where signal quality could be borderline in some cases.


Angus

[vonnieda]

Hi Jason,

That's not something we'd expect. What clock speed are you running the PSRAM at (config item)? And what ESP-IDF version are you using?

Recent ESP-IDF fixed some issues running PSRAM at 80MHz, where signal quality could be borderline in some cases.


Angus

Hi Angus, thank you for your response!

We are running 52f9a5ca16aee72650e2a7686e0386c0e4c6bd8c and my sdkconfig is attached:

In particular:

Code: Select all

CONFIG_SPIRAM_SPEED_40M=y

Thanks,
Jason

[ESP_Angus]

Thanks Jason. There are some software changes to PSRAM configuration which were merged to the IDF master branch since the commit you have. Are you able to build an updated firmware on some of your problem modules?

If it's still an issue, I'll find someone from the hardware side to look into this.

[vonnieda]

Thanks Jason. There are some software changes to PSRAM configuration which were merged to the IDF master branch since the commit you have. Are you able to build an updated firmware on some of your problem modules?

If it's still an issue, I'll find someone from the hardware side to look into this.

Thank you Angus, I will test latest IDF master tomorrow and get back to you.

Cheers,
Jason

[vonnieda]

Thanks Jason. There are some software changes to PSRAM configuration which were merged to the IDF master branch since the commit you have. Are you able to build an updated firmware on some of your problem modules?

If it's still an issue, I'll find someone from the hardware side to look into this.

Thank you Angus, I will test latest IDF master tomorrow and get back to you.

Cheers,
Jason

Hi Angus, I tried latest master this morning and got the same error. I also tried switching the Flash and SPI RAM to 80 MHz and got the same.

Here's the error:

Code: Select all

I (650) boot: Loaded app from partition at offset 0x10000
I (650) boot: Disabling RNG early entropy source...
E (651) cpu_start: Failed to init external RAM!
abort() was called at PC 0x40081441 on core 0
0x40081441: call_start_cpu0 at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/cpu_start.c:158 (discriminator 1)


Backtrace: 0x40096eb8:0x3ffe3ca0 0x400970ab:0x3ffe3cc0 0x40081441:0x3ffe3ce0 0x400790a6:0x3ffe3d20 0x40079159:0x3ffe3d50 0x400794e3:0x3ffe3d90 0x40078647:0x3ffe3db0 0x40007c31:0x3ffe3eb0 0x4000073d:0x3ffe3f20
0x40096eb8: invoke_abort at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/panic.c:649

0x400970ab: abort at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/panic.c:649

0x40081441: call_start_cpu0 at /Users/jason/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/cpu_start.c:158 (discriminator 1)


E (678) esp_core_dump: Core dump flash config is corrupted! CRC=0xffffffff instead of 0x0
Rebooting...

And my IDF:

Code: Select all

[jason@Geode:~/esp/esp-idf]
> git log
commit 7aa7b35a951b67ae1388cc22a4148e88d92c1579 (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
Merge: 4eda1b7a 1bab62a6
Author: Jiang Jiang Jian <jack@espressif.com>
Date:   Tue Jun 12 16:32:26 2018 +0800

Thanks,
Jason

[ESP_Angus]

Thanks for verifying this Jason. Will get someone from the hardware side to look into this and get back to you.

[ESP_Angus]

Hi Jason,

Can you confirm if there's anything unusual environmentally (temperature, etc) with your board? Does the WROVER module have adequate 3.3V power and decoupling capacitors on the power rail?

Angus