Your LEGO NXT Brick wont start… it wont show up… but it gives a strange sound. Put your ear right up to the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Brick with fresh batteries and it turned on. Do you hear a clicking noise? tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… tic… There is no way you can start your brick. Whether you press the orange button or whatsoever. The brick isn’t even recognized in the NXT software! But don’t worry, this is a very common problem. There are many names for this case: Samba mode (technical term!) You can also give a creative name! Explanation: Very simply, the firmware got washed-off / corrupted / erased / anything else! There is no physical damage to the brick. Reasons for this problem: Hard Reset (Button) applied Changing firmware / installing different firmware (changing the firmwares like NXT, RobotC, Enchanting, Labview etc.) Seriously bad programming (rare, but not impossible!)
Pulling out the USB Cord while a program is downloading Solution: It’s very simple to solve this problem. 1. First try the Hard Reset as shown below. 2. Connect your NXT Brick to the computer. 3. Open your LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Software, go to Tools -> Update NXT Firmware 4. Check for the latest Firmware version available 5. Select the latest Firmware Version and Click on the Download as shown under. Let it finish its work. 6. Your NXT Brick is now ready to use! 7. Precaution: Do not update the firmware when batteries are flat or low on charge. You may totally ruin your NXT brick! NXT-G power programming tipsHow To The brick is dead, and it's making clicking noise!Generally this happens when the USB driver is incompatible with NXT Brick.The NXT Brick uses two USB interfaces (thereby needing two drivers). First driver is needed for normal operation (when you are connecting the brick to your PC while making your robots). Where as the second driver is needed when the brick is in firmware update mode.
The first driver is generally installed when you install the NXT software, where as the second driver is a default driver provided by the operating system. In Windows 7 (or higher) the default driver is not compatible with the NXT brick.When you invoke that driver to upgrade your firmware, the firmware upgrade fails and brick goes into a clicking mode.Connect your clicking brick to your computer using a USB cable and open the 'Device Manager' of your computer.(Right click on 'My Computer' and select menu 'Manage')Look for LEGO Devices, and see what the brick is listed as.If you don't see 'LEGO Devices' at all or it isn't listed as 'LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Firmware Update Mode' then you have incorrect driver.Hard reset your brick and then update firmware using a Windows XP or Mac computer.(For hard resetting, there is a press button in top corner mounting well on the bottom of the brick - press and hold it down for about 5 seconds). Sign up or log in to customize your list. Here's how it works:
Anybody can ask a question The best answers are voted up and rise to the top I'm running 6 NXT robots in an introductory class. Occasionally we've had bricks that would not accept a program and I've reset the brick by pushing the reset button under the battery pack as well as pushing the button under the USB port, experiencing the blank screen and "click..." Re installing the firmware usually gets them going again. I have one brick that when cleared and reset will accept a download, but when the program is run, port B drives the motor at full speed, and nothing else happens. I have reset the brick many times, and the problem still exists. I sent a query to LEGO and got a computer generated response that there would be contact in 1-2 days.... nothing after a week, Sent the same query again and got tho same auto response.... still no real contact (after 4 days) I'm looking for suggestions. I just got an e-mail from LEGO that was the real fix: Make sure the NXT brick is unplugged from the computer and take the battery or batteries out.
On the fourth battery holder down from the top, there is a black rubber button. Using a paper clip, please press down and hold this black rubber button for at least 20 seconds. Put the batteries back in and then press the orange button. If the brick makes a clicking noise, this is a good thing. There is a silver button on the top right connector peg hole on the back (there are 6 on the top and 6 on the bottom). clip, please hold this silver button down for at least 20 seconds. If the brick is clicking, please plug it into the computer and open up the NXT software. Go to 'Tools' then choose 'Update NXT Firmware,' then proceed the update the NXT firmware. If you get the error "Cannot Locate," then please go through the following steps: With the brick plugged in and clicking, go to your computers device manager. To do so you can search your computer and type in device manager and hit enter. In the device manager, find the 'Ports (Com & LPT) and click to expand this.
You should see something that says 'Bossa' which you will right click and choose 'Update Driver Software.' In the next window, choose 'Browse my computer for driver software.' In the following window, choose 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.' Choose the options that says 'NXT' or 'LEGO NXT' (one of the options will say something along those lines) and click 'Next." Once the update is complete, please open the NXT software and try running the firmware update again. Please note that the NXT brick needs to be clicking the entire time as there is a timeout function on the NXT brick which turns the brick off after a certain amount of time. If the brick is clicking, you know it is on Since you tried reuploading the firwmare without success, it sounds like the brick is indeed defective. You were right to contact the customer service in that case as they should be able to replace it; however it's not normal that they didn't contact you back.
You may want to call them directly (you can find the number on the service web page) and let them know that your online queries went unanswered. Alternatively, if you got Education kits (which seems likely since it's for a class), you may want to contact your reseller first and let them know aoub the issue. The only other possible thing I could imagine going wrong is that the firmware file is corrupted somehow - this would be consistent with the brick accepting it for download, but then failing to run properly. If you have another brick, you may want to try to send the same firmware to it and see if the problem happens too. Then of course you'd need to make sure you download the latest firmware and try that one - I woudl say it's worth a shot anyway (you could also redownload and compare with your existing file if you want to check it's corrupted or not). /2006/06/clicking-brick-syndrome.html will help you. We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context.