Suddently, "avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000" with ArduinoISP. Is my chip dead?

Question

I have some boards with the atmega32u4 that they were working perfectly before. I'm using an unnoficial UNO board to program them via ICSP. To power the uC I'm using two lithium batteries and a step-down converter to drop it to 5 V.

This started happening when I tried to upload code via ISCP when the target chip was not powered by mistake.

This is my error message:

Arduino: 1.8.5 (Windows 10), Placa:"Arduino Leonardo"
avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Jan 17 2017 at 12:00:53
 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
 Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch
 Using Port : COM4
 Using Programmer : stk500v1
 Overriding Baud Rate : 19200
 AVR Part : ATmega32U4
 Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
 PAGEL : PD7
 BS2 : PA0
 RESET disposition : dedicated
 RETRY pulse : SCK
 serial program mode : yes
 parallel program mode : yes
 Timeout : 200
 StabDelay : 100
 CmdexeDelay : 25
 SyncLoops : 32
 ByteDelay : 0
 PollIndex : 3
 PollValue : 0x53
 Memory Detail :
 Block Poll Page Polled
 Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack
 ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
 eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
 flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
 lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
 hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
 efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
 lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
 calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
 signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
 Programmer Type : STK500
 Description : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware
 Hardware Version: 2
 Firmware Version: 1.18
 Topcard : Unknown
 Vtarget : 0.0 V
 Varef : 0.0 V
 Oscillator : Off
 SCK period : 0.1 us
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000 (retrying)
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000 (retrying)
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
 this check.
avrdude done. Thank you.

What I've already tried:

• Different programmer (another Uno board);
• Uploading to a proper Leonardo board via ICSP, it worked;
• Uploading to another of my boards via ICSP, it worked;
• Running with the portable Arduino version;
• Check if the chip is being powered with 5 V;
• Changed wires and checked the connections;
• The chip does not get hot;

I've been around this two days straight, any help would be much appreciated.

• sa_leinad: Have a look at this question and answer: Have I bricked my Arduino Uno? Problems with uploading to board

Answer 1

Mostly this error is due to connections/powering issues (as already mentioned in your output ).

• Check connections, especially power and ground also check the resistance between Vcc and GND of your target MCU. (If it's less than 100ohm that means something is off in your circuitry or your MCU is already fried.)

• Check if your MCU is actually getting enough power (voltage and current) also check if it's getting excess voltage.

• Make sure there is proper "common grounding" done between devices.

• If you are sure that the above points are checked and you still get the error try the override flag -F (avrdude through shell/command-line) and if you are still not able to upload try the manually changing the address (not recommended ) in your arduino's library so that it matches with the signature it's receiving.

• Finally try using a direct USB interface with atmega32u4 as atmega32u4 supports it and upload the bootloader again through an old software called Flip after that try again.

After all this if you are not able to upload then probably your MCU is dead and it might be due to an unnoticed wrong power connection or short circuit or unintentional fuse reconfiguration (highly unlikely).