Reply To: Hobby Components Altera USB Blaster frequently causing bsod during flashing

[Morpheus_79]

I can confirm the BSOD issue with (some of) the cheap Chinese USB Blaster clones and newer Quartus Prime versions. The last version working for me with such a USB blaster clone is v13.1.
Someone informed me, that it’s related to the microcontroller inside the clones. There are some with an STM32F101 – those will crash. And there are some with a PIC18F14k50 – those won’t crash. Sadly they are indistinguishable from the outside, since they are using the same casing.

In the end it’s kind of a ‘hit and miss’ with those clones. So to be on the safe side you’ll have to buy an official Intel/ALTERA one – like this:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Intel-Altera/PL-USB-BLASTER-RCN?qs=jblrfmjbeiFezz56mIHRCg%3d%3d

The (cheaper but newer) one from Terasic should work too, since both are recommended by Intel for the Cyclone FPGA family:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Terasic-Technologies/P0302?qs=ePbE9GiMmvVJztTDlxPoAw%3d%3d

But i’ve read about some very rare compatibility issues inside Quartus Prime with those too… even though the Terasic one is an official product with an ALTERA sanctioned design.