Anonymous Nvidia User Self-support Association
Welcome, fellow sufferer. You have found us in your darkest hour.
Your Jetson does not boot. Your fuses are burned. Your warranty is void.
You are not alone. You were never alone.
We have been waiting for you._
You wanted security. You wanted protection. You wanted to protect your intellectual property from competitors who would clone your brilliant designs.
We understand. We all wanted that once.
Now your $600 piece of hardware is a decorative brick. Congratulations. Your IP is very secure. So secure that you cannot access it either.
Every Jetson owner must complete this sacred pilgrimage. There are no shortcuts. There are no alternatives. There is only the path.
Error: Failed to burn fuses. Error code: -808464661
Error: Device is now brick. This is not a drill.
# This message brought to you by hope.exe not found
Q: Can I recover my bricked device?
A: Maybe. Probably not. It depends on which fuses you burned and whether you have access to Nvidia's internal tools, which you don't.
Q: Is there documentation?
A: There is documentation. It was written for a different device. Or the same device with different firmware. Or it's just wrong.
Q: Why does secure boot exist?
A: Great question. We don't know either.
Wherein we document the silent suffering of Jetson owners worldwide. These are their stories. These are our stories. We are all experiencing the same collective trauma.
Your Jetson's eMMC storage has a life expectancy. It's not a question of if it will fail, but when. Most users report failures around the 18-month mark, right when your warranty expires.
⚠ Current eMMC health: DECLINING
# Have you tried crying? It doesn't work but it's worth a try.
Your Jetson runs hot. Very hot. It will thermal throttle before completing any meaningful task. You will spend more time managing thermals than actually using the device.
Performance at 85°C: THROTTLED TO 10%
Performance at 90°C: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN
Performance at room temp: STILL THROTTLING
The GPIO pins are a mystery wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in documentation that contradicts itself across three different developer guides.
Pin 29 voltage: UNDEFINED
Pin mapping: WRONG
Everything: YOUR FAULT
The CSI camera connectors are delicate. The fan connectors are fragile. The debug headers are non-standard. Everything requires a specific $47 cable that ships in 6-8 weeks.
Cable type required: OBSCURE
Cable availability: LIMITED
Cable cost: $47.99
Compatible cables: NONE
The barrel jack vs. USB-C vs. PoE debate will consume hours of your life. Spoiler: none of them work reliably. All of them cause brownouts. All of them destroy your projects at the worst possible moment.
Warning: Power fluctuation detected
# Your UPS thanks you for your purchase
Real Time Clock. Such a simple concept. Such a fundamental feature. And yet, every Jetson will lose time. Will lose date. Will reset to 1970 at the most inconvenient moment.
Current system time: 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Last good time: UNKNOWN
Time since NTP sync failed: FOREVER
O Mighty Nvidia,
Grant us the wisdom to understand our hardware failures.
Grant us the patience to debug in peace.
Grant us the strength to flash one more time.
And grant us the wisdom to know when to use an FPGA instead.
— Amen, or whatever. We're not sure about the theology here.
Here in the twilight zone, time moves differently. A page can be updated in 2024 while referencing hardware from 2018. A guide can be marked "Latest" while being 5 years obsolete. Welcome. You will never leave.
Our comprehensive guide to what works with what, assuming nothing works together.
| Jetson Model | JetPack Version | CUDA Works? | TensorRT Works? | You Will Suffer? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (original) | 4.6 | ✓ | ? | DEFINITELY |
| Nano (2GB) | 4.6.1 | ✓ | ✗ | ABSOLUTELY |
| Xavier NX | 5.1 | ✓ | ✓ | EVENTUALLY |
| AGX Xavier | 5.1.2 | ✓ | ✓ | YES |
| Orin Nano | 6.0 | UNSTABLE | MAYBE | INEVITABLY |
| Orin AGX | 6.0 | ✓ | ✓ | UNTIL NEXT UPDATE |
# This will fail 73% of the time. The other 27% you'll get the wrong version.
Since Nvidia support is a myth and documentation is a fever dream, we have compiled this list of resources that might help. Or won't. We're not sure. Nobody is sure.
When the flash fails, when the boot loops,
When the eMMC dies and your code never droops,
Remember these words, carry them close to your heart:
"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
— IT Crowd wisdom, surprisingly applicable here
Step 1: Unplug everything
Step 2: Wait 30 seconds (do not skip this, the device needs to grieve)
Step 3: Plug everything back in
Step 4: It still doesn't work
# We told you so
You have suffered enough alone. It is time to join others who understand your pain. Together, we debug. Together, we flash. Together, we wonder why we didn't just use a Raspberry Pi.
I, a Jetson owner, do solemnly swear to always read the documentation twice.
To flash my device at least three times before asking for help.
To blame myself first, and Nvidia second.
To remember that the green LED means nothing.
To accept that my CSI cameras will never work in unison.
To embrace the thermal throttling as a feature, not a bug.
And to always, always, carry backup eMMC in my heart.
So mote it be. So won't it work. So goes the Jetson life.
Initializing membership...
Adding you to the suffering registry...
Sending invoice for your emotional labor...
Welcome to ANUSA. Your journey has just begun._