Problem Bootloading AVR328P-PU I executed the following steps in order to burn a bootloader into an  AVR328P-PU chip I acquired on ebay.


I have set up AVR328P-PU on a breadboard as described here: http://arduino.cc/en/main/standalone
I have uploaded the ArduinoISP sketch into Arduion Uno.
Connected the wires in a way described here http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard ( the setup with external clock)
Chose "Tools -> Programmer -> Arduion as ISP" in the IDE.
Chose "Burn Bootloader" from the IDE.
Got and error avrdude: Yikes!  Invalid device signature., noticed that I connected the wires in the wrong order.
Fixed the wired, but still got the error:


avrdude: Version 6.0.1

     System wide configuration file is "C:\Program Files\Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

     Using Port                    : COM3
     Using Programmer              : stk500v1
     Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200
     AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
     Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
     PAGEL                         : PD7
     BS2                           : PC2
     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  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
       flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
       lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 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% 0.06s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000 (retrying)

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.05s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000 (retrying)

Error while burning bootloader.
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.07s

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.






My questions


I understand that this can be caused by poor breadboard quality. How can I test this hypothesis before buying new breadboard?
Could the wrong wiring from step 5 ruin the chip?
Being from eBay, I would assume the seller "bricked" the chip beyond his/her capability to fix.  Fortunately, you know about stack exchange!

My immediate suggestion is to find, borrow or build a high-voltage programmer.  This is a special programmer that can un-brick the chip no matter what's been done to it. The concept is easy, but you need to protect the programmer's pins from the 12v reset signal.

Googling "avr high voltage programmer" gives several useful links.
I'll get the actual links when I get back to a real computer.

Ok, so life got in the way, sorry about that.
This is the one I built which worked perfectly:
MightyOhm

However hooking up the AVR to a "high voltage programmer" is well documented in the data sheets.  These should be very much similar circuits on Google.