This question relates to solderless breadboards causing an mbed to hang when inserted and reset.

I have now tried it (LPC1768) with two brand new, completely empty
solder less prototyping boards.

When I plug it in and and power up through the USB connector the the
program doesn't appear to start. I have tried it with a program that
exercises the LEDs and also one which writes to a local file, neither
work. The blue indicator lamp does come on, flashes after startup
which presumably is the USB drive connecting up (which appears to
work) but my program doesn't run
If I unplug it from the board, power up just standing on the desk it
is OK.
Am I doing something fundamentally wrong or do I have a faulty unit?

The respose, probing for a little more information :

If both programs you wrote (one to exercise the LEDs, the other to write to the
filesystem) work when the mbed is not in the solderless breadboard,
I'd suggest that there is something about the breadboard, or how you
are using that is causing the problems you are having.

Some bread boards have buses in odd places, and if you were
inadvertantly plugging into one of these (therefore shorting all the
pins together) you'd certainly see odd behaviour.

I'd like to suggest you take a photo of your mbed board in the
breadboard, and post it to the forum, along with details of the make
and model of the breadboard you are using. It is probably easier to
spot potential problems from a photo that guess what the problem might
be, and we might also find that somone has the same breadboard that
they could recreate the problems with.

And the reply :

Basically running ok just sat on the desk. Insert into breadboard and
continues to run ok. Press reset, or power up and it won't run anymore.

Went out and bought another breadboard, different type from Maplin and
the same symptoms.

If nothing else is attached, and the breadboard isnt inadvertantly shorting any pins you shouldnt see this behaviour.

A few other things to ask to get to the bottom of this :

1. When the mbed is plugged into the breadboard, does the Flash drive remain present and accessible after the reset?

2. Can you post to the forum a photo of the assembly that you have that is causing the problem?

3. Can you supply the part number of the Maplin breadboard(s) that are causing the mbed to fail. I could pop down to Maplin and buy some for experiments!

Thanks,
Chris