Maynard,
What is the silicon revision of your device? It is reported in u-boot. My DM814x device is TI8148-GP rev 2.1
I made a test with pure EZSDK 5.04.00.11 and it works fine, the HDVPSS firmware was reloaded successfully after the saWatchdog reset. But I am using SD card. I have created the SD card with the following approach:
host: $ sudo ti-ezsdk_dm814x-evm_5_04_00_11/bin/mksdboot.sh --device /dev/sdb --sdk ti-ezsdk_dm814x-evm_5_04_00_11/
Can you try with booting (and rebooting) from SD card with pure EZSDK 5.04?
Best regards,
Pavel