NUCLEO-H7S3L8 HSE times out

[qua]

I am trying to set up a basic USB project on a NUCLEO-H7S3L8. It works okay with the HSI, but I need the HSE. I can see that the board has a 24MHz crystal fitted and resistors on SB14 and SB15. It's unmodified from the factory.

HAL_RCC_OscConfig() always returns with a timeout when trying to activate the HSE. I've tried various settings but can't get it to work.

I have attached my .ico file. The code is just what CubeMX generates. Thanks.

[qua]

Thanks. That works, and I notice some interesting things about it.

USB regulator not enabled.

UCPD not enabled.

MPU enabled for Boot.

XSPI disabled.

There is some bad advice out there, it seems. Anyway, based on that I created a new project and got it working with the HSE. Would not work with the HSI.

Thanks for your help.

[qua]

Now it's back to not working, without any changes. I think the hardware must be flakey. When I check with the debugger, sometimes it gets stuck enabling the data cache, sometimes it gets stuck resetting the USB bus.

[AScha.3]

Hi,

>I think the hardware must be flakey. 

Yes, this i also was thinking many times - but most times , i found my error later. :)

So here, on a working "standard" board, if you not damaged it (by ESD typical), its almost 100% not the board...

Is the basic test prog (my ioc ...) still working ? Try it. Then tell.

[qua]

Yes, I re-loaded your .ico from scratch and it still didn't work.

I feel the same, it's usually an issue with the code that stops it working, but maybe I was blaming CubeMX because I've had issues like that before with it, when it was in fact the hardware.

I really just want to test the USB HS to see what kind of throughput I can get.

[AScha.3]

So it seems, something happened .

Sure, there was no ESD ?

Clear way to test would be, you buy a new board and load the program to test it.

If it works fine, but the old dont, then, if board is almost new, return for exchange.

[qua]

Yeah, I might stick a new board on my next Digikey order. Or I might just look at other devices with USB HS capability.

Unfortunately ST don't offer many Nucleo boards with USB HS. They have some F4 parts with it, but don't seem to have any evaluation boards. Microchip are no better, no eval boards for their HS capable ARM parts. I kinda want ethernet too, although it's less important.

[spike]

Ah, the HSE timeout on the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 usually means the board isn’t detecting the external crystal properly. Common causes include:

1. Incorrect CubeMX Clock Settings – Make sure HSE is enabled and selected as the PLL source. Double-check the crystal frequency matches your board specs.

2. Hardware Issue – Rarely, a faulty or misconnected crystal can cause the timeout.

3. Startup Timeout Too Short – CubeMX allows you to adjust the HSE startup time; sometimes increasing it fixes the issue.

4. Bypass Mode – If you’re using an external clock instead of a crystal, ensure “bypass” is enabled in CubeMX.

A good first step is to try the default clock configuration from ST’s example project for the H7S3 board — it usually works out of the box. If it still times out, double-check the board and jumper settings.