LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 'clicking brick' troubleshooting

If your LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT Intelligent Brick is making a clicking sound, won’t turn on and isn’t being detected by the NXT software, it’s likely that the brick lost power during a firmware update. Don’t worry though! Most of the time, you can solve the problem by following the steps below:
 

1. Charge your NXT Intelligent Brick

Make sure your NXT Intelligent Brick is at least 50% charged.
 

2. Reset your NXT Intelligent Brick

Disconnect your NXT Intelligent Brick from the computer. Then, turn it over and you’ll see 12 circular connection holes (6 above the battery and 6 below). There’s a silver button inside the top-left tube. Insert a paper clip into that tube and press down the silver button for 20 seconds.
 

3. Reconnect your NXT Intelligent Brick to your computer

If you don’t have the latest NXT software version, download it from this page. Open the software on your computer. Then, connect your NXT Intelligent Brick to your computer using the USB cable.
 

4. Update the firmware

Select ‘Tools’ in the NXT software and then choose ‘Firmware Update’.

Select the latest firmware file (1.31) and click ‘Download’. This process usually takes 15-20 seconds and the green progress bars at the bottom of the update box will show you how much of the file has downloaded. When the download is complete, you’ll see a message saying the update was successful.

If you follow these steps and your NXT Intelligent Brick still doesn’t work, please get in touch with us.