Brand new Raspberry Pi 4 - no boot at all.  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 02:32:06 am
content: I bought a RPI4 kit (comes with proper power adapter etc) a while back from Canakit and just never got around to setting it up till now. It won't do anything. It won't even activate the monitor, light just stays orange. It tried a few times where it went blue, and that's it. I downloaded the latest Raspbian to see if maybe the Os it came with is faulty. For whatever reason when I put the SD card into my computer it was called "settings". So it almost looks like it was a SD card for something else and it somehow got sent with the package instead of the proper card. Overwrote it with Raspbian using dd and it still won't boot. Is the board a DOA? Sucks considering it's brand new but too late to return...While further troubleshooting, it suddenly decided to work, but only for a very short while. I saw a welcome screen and a GUI but then the monitor turned off again. It seems the video output only works for very short spurts.

author: chriva
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 03:32:42 am
content: Try other cables and power supply.I've never had problems with the pi itself but the damn junk they bundle with it leaves a lot to be desired.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 05:02:24 am
content: Are you quite sure you have a Pi4 power adapter and not one intended for older Pis? The 4 needs a 3 A adapter or *maybe* 2.5 a if there is absolutely nothing plugged into it.With my first Pi I even had problems because the old KB I plugged into it drew too much current.Certainly try unplugging the KB and mouse and see if it will boot like that.

author: Lindley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 09:27:21 am
content: A shame you did not test it as soon as received, though still worth contacting Canakit , don't they offer a reasonabe warranty period, places like Farnells/Newark offer 12 months.https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1627216.pdfAs you can see in the Buy/Sell forum, TopLooser used to get bucket loads of faulty Pis from Farnells/Newark returns departments, used to be the same with Microchips Pickit programmers.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 03:48:53 pm
content: The PSU is quite beefy and made for the pi 4. But the more troubleshooting I do the more I think it's the cable or connector for the video. Was looking into the LED error codes and there was no error codes just what looks like activity. It's an oddball size cable connector so I don't have another long enough to test with but I do have a very short one so I might have to move it to the TV where it will reach and see.So yeah it does appear the PI itself works ok unless it's the video connector. At least if it's the connector it's not a full loss, can still use it for a remote application of sorts.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 03:59:06 pm
content: If PSU and cable (not too thin wires) are OK, then it might be incompatible micro SD card. Not all of them are equal. With some you will get FS corruption after some time, with others it simply won't boot. Is SD card original that comes with Raspberry pi?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 04:05:31 pm
content: Try formatting SD into FAT and copy NOOBS files onto it.

author: ralphrmartin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2020, 06:47:57 pm
content: You can check if its the video by enabling ssh, and then logging in to it over the net.SSH can be enabled by placing a file named ssh, without any extension, onto the boot partition of the SD card (using another computer). When the Pi boots, it looks for the ssh file and if it exists, SSH is enabled.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2020, 05:11:13 pm
content: Yeah I confirmed it's video related, either cable or connector. I saw the GUI briefly. Even enough to be able to use it slightly and go through the "setup" wizard, but then it died again mid update. Have not had a chance to play with it further but I'll move it to the TV where it was originally going and see if the short cable I have reaches. If not I will need to order another with that size connector as it's a small one and not normal HDMI.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2020, 04:48:20 am
content: Kinda forgot about this and got side tracked with other projects.So I got around to testing with another cable and it seems to work, so guess it was in fact the HDMI cable. I hooked it up to the TV where it will end up going as the other cable I had was too short for my test bench and was able to play Youtube videos etc. I was hoping the 4 would be better but it's still a bit choppy to play HD videos off the internet or through direct file. I'm tired of always having to update Kodi or messing with it so my goal is to find a better way that's less maintenance. Was hoping to just open files directly but it may not work out. Still need to setup NFS share and all that stuff to try and see how well that works out, but either way at least I got the PI itself working now, and it's nothing wrong with it, was just the video cable.