Is my NUCLEO-F401RE board damaged?

[SamSamuels]

After using the board for a couple of days, the board started giving the following error is Keil-MDK:

And the two led's (LD1 & LD3) are always RED as shown below:

And the Nucleo USB drivers are installed: 

I tried also to put the chip into loader mode (as shown above) by shorting the VDD pin and the BOOT0 pin but I get the following error from the STM32Cube Programmer when trying to connect to the board:

 I tried also to use the STM32 ST-LINK Utility but also get the following error when 

But if i try to do a firmware upgrade (ST-Link Upgrade), it can perform Device Connect and upgrade to the recommended firmware:

But still can not connect via STM32CubeProgrammer and the ST-LINK Utility tool. But on Keil-MDK i get a different Error:

Can someone assist if the board is damaged or there is hope it can still be recovered.

Thank you in advance.

[TDK]

LD1 being solid red indicates successful USB connection. LD3 on is normal.

What does the firmware on it do? Do you reassign SWD pins or go into low power modes?

> shorting the VDD pin and the BOOT0 pin

You need to reset the device while BOOT0 is held high. Did you do this as well? You should be able to connect after that.

[SamSamuels]

Yes, I pressed (and Hold) the Reset Button (B2) while BOOT0 is held high, but still can not connect to the board after that as shown below.

And even in Keil still giving the same error:

Question: What does the firmware on it do? Do you reassign SWD pins or go into low power modes? 

Ans: I was only testing to see if i can connect to the ST-LINK and upgrade its firmware. Not sure if upgrading firmware reassigns SWD pins or put the device into low power modes.

[SamSamuels]

@TDK , I tried the steps you indicated but still not connecting. I even tried powering the board from E5V using the 5V power supply and connected VDD to BOOT0 pin and RESET but still not connecting.

Can you please advise if there is another method to get the board up and running.

[TDK]

Sounds like the board is toast.

Boards don't typically spontaneously fail, are you sure nothing happened? No chance of putting 5V somewhere it didn't belong or something similar?

> After using the board for a couple of days

So during your few days of using the board, you never uploaded any firmware to it?

Doesn't really add up to me.

[SamSamuels]

@TDK thanks for the assistance. No I did not upload any firmware during the few days of using it. The version of firmware that was running was the V2.J37.M26. Only started uploading firmware when the board started not connecting to the Keil-MDK.

Always careful when connecting power to GPIO pins. Might be that somewhere a short circuit happened and fried some component/s of the board. 

Is there a way to troubleshoot where the problem can be, suspecting the STM32F401 microcontroller is damaged or not connecting to the ST-Link part of the board. Because the ST-Link part of the board is working as i can upgrade the ST-Link firmware.

Thanks, will then have to go get the circuit diagram and see if indeed the MCU is damaged.