PicForum

I got this error on boards that I had previously programmed OK with ICD2.

ICD3Err0035: Failed to get Device ID. If you experience
persistent problems communicating, the ICD 3 test interface
can be used to help diagnose the problem.

After double checking the target boards, remaking the programming cables
and generally removing the things that might be wrong, I applied external
Vcc and everything sprang into life.

The power consumption of the board is quite low - about 5mW, but there is
about 47uF on Vcc, which must be enough to skew some rise times or something.

Anyway - the moral is that using external Vcc fixed it...

I've had struggles with pickit 3 in a similar way.

I think they have the power up delay too short and the data rate too high. For a prototyping tool they should have maximum stability by allowing worst case timing conditions, but they seem to have everything cranked to max to shorten the target programming times. That's annoying, I'd rather have more tolerance in the programming device and forgo the fast programming time. Fiddling with the wires and guessing what is wrong wastes a lot of time.