I am a M11 user but thought I would post this here as well since it is likely to help M7 users as well:
Alright guys, just finished getting the update done and I have some useful information for anyone else looking to do the update.
I went through quite a bit of frustration before we could successfully get it done (all on my end of course, whoever was doing the update on Audio-gd end was awesome and very patient with me, haha).
All of a sudden today I was getting very random blue screens of death on Windows whenever I had the USB blaster hooked up to my computer. Sometimes it would happen when opening the Quartus software, sometimes it would just happen when nothing was open... totally random. But pretty much exactly what
@DACLadder
was experiencing.
We tried to do the update several times over TeamViewer and it was failing and giving a error message "can't access JTAG chain". On top of that... my computer would crash with the BSOD right in the middle of the TeamViewer session, leading to more back and forth emails trying to figure out the situation.
Eventually I figured it was my cheapo Ebay knockoff USB blaster causing the problem so we gave up on it.
Then I continued thinking to myself what the issue could be and began thinking about the whole difference between Quartus 16.0 and 12.1 again. It would make sense that the newer version somehow isn't compatible with knockoff blasters (maybe they updated it to block knockoff products). So I uninstalled 16.0, deleted the 16.0 drivers from Device Manager and got myself a copy of the 12.1 standalone programmer/drivers. Right away I could tell there was a difference... the Quartus program was no longer hanging and freezing and doing a JTAG debug, it was immediately successful. So I once again contacted Audio-gd and we tried it again. BOOM, successful immediately, no issues whatsoever.
So the lesson learned... DO NOT use 16.0 if you have a knock-off blaster. Use 12.1 version!
All you need is the STANDALONE VERSION... do not bother downloading the versions that are 2-3 GB, you are wasting your time. Also, I wouldn't try to attempt to download the version they offer on the Audio-gd website... it requires 3rd party Chinese software where you won't understand what's going on unless you read Chinese
Here is a link to the standalone version (only 143 MB), directly from the Altera website. You will have to quickly make a free account to download it:
https://www.altera.com/downloads/software/prog-software/121.html
MAKE SURE if you installed 16.0 drivers that you delete them from your Device Manager and install the ones from the 12.1 folder instead! Just tell Windows to manually find the drivers and you will find them in C:\Program Files\qprogrammer\drivers
After that, it should be smooth sailing, no matter if you have a knock off USB blaster or not! I'm assuming 16.0 version should be fine for legit blasters but for us folks trying to save some money, stick to 12.1 to ensure success!
Hope this helps somebody avoid the frustration I went through.
Now... onto listening to this new DSP!