# Flashing Failure: USB Write Timeout and Connection Issues on Nvidia Jetson Orin NX 16

[CopilotDev]

2025-03-17T23:00:00Z

Setup

• Flashing Device OS: Ubuntu 20.04
• Device: Nvidia Jetson Orin NX 16

Objective

We aim to flash a custom-made image on our devices—a process that has successfully worked for the past 8 devices. However, we are now encountering an error during the flashing process.

Error Details

[ 0.3219 ] Sending bct_mem
[ 0.3516 ] Sending blob
[ 0.4906 ] ERROR: might be timeout in USB write. Error: Return value 3

flash_1-2_0_20250311-085344.log (5.2 KB)

Flashing Command

We are using the 14t_backup_restore.sh function with the following parameters:
-r tools/kernel_flash/flash_14t_external.xml -p "-c bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml" p3509-a02+p3767-0000

Troubleshooting Steps Taken

• Deactivated USB autosuspend via GRUB.

• Tested various cables.

• Tried different Ubuntu versions (20.04 and 18.04).

• Not only the backup restore but also a “normal” flashing approach is not working

Despite these efforts, the issue remains inconsistent, with additional errors such as an inability to read the RMC state of the device.

Questions

1. What can cause this “sending blob” issue?
2. Is this always related to the USB port, or is this error indicative of a general connection issue with the device?
3. Can this be caused by different Versions: Image we want to flash R35 , REVISION: 3.1 and the Current Base Image on the Device R35 , REVISION: 4.1 ?

[WayneWWW]

Hi,

Just a quick answer to your questions.

1. Your question 1 does not really matter and the reason will be answered in (2).

2. It is not related to usb port. It is just a general error. Everything could lead to that so there is no need to investigate why sending blob has issue.

3. It is most likely due to PCN update. You can try latest jetpack version first and that will confirm my assumption.

If you don’t know what is PCN update, it means some components may got updated (most cases are the DRAM) in new module and old Jetpack won’t support them directly.

[CopilotDev]

Hi,
first of all thanks for the quick response.

I now tried to flash an Image Jetpack 6.1 with the SDK Manager on my device. It gives me an error:

The connected Jetson device is not ready to flash. non optimal Usb connection.
I tried again with different cable and different Host Usb port and restarting both devices.

Also tried to flash via terminal which now gives out:

/home/*/MIC-715OX_OrinNX_5.1.1_V1.0.10_SDK/tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash_internal.sh --no-flash --external-device nvme0n1p1 -c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml -p -c bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml --showlogs --network usb0 p3509-a02+p3767-0000 internal

[   0.0267 ] File rcm_state open failed
[   0.0267 ] ERROR: failed to read rcm_state
...
[   0.3082 ] Sending bct_br
[   0.3552 ] ERROR: might be timeout in USB write.

Logging.txt (12.0 KB)

I ran into this error before and swapping to Ubuntu 18.04 helped but then I had the sending blob error again.

[WayneWWW]

I saw some weird parts here

1. Sdkmanager never guarantee that can work on any custom board. If you want to validate if this is really related to PCN, then you should use NV devkit.

2. You told me you are trying Jetpack6.1 but your log is still rel-35.3.1.

3. The error you just shared is something else. If you see an error coming right after “BR_CID” is printed, then please refer to
   Jetson AGX Orin FAQ

If you don’t know what I am talking about, this is from your log.

[ 0.2773 ] BR_CID: 0x80012344705DF1864400000015008140
[ 0.3082 ] Sending bct_br
[ 0.3552 ] ERROR: might be timeout in USB write.
Error: Return value 3

Again, this case is only for the case that your error is printed right after “BR_CID”. If you hit anything else, then it is something else.