Pi Zero Issues

[kryptalivian]

Alright everyone, I'm stumped!

I have two raspberry pi zeros(one for me and one for my step daughter). We're making Gaming Systems, with Retropie OS. I got both image's going for the pi's(one is 3.3 other is 3.4) but I found that one pi will boot to the Retropie Splash screen logo and then it shows no signal. I left it like this for 10 minutes and nothing.

I decided next, I should swap micro sd cards, to make sure that it wasn't the card. It did the same thing, and the known good pi booted the bad pi's micro sd card just fine. I'm just so confused as why it would start the boot process and show a picture then fail at the same place. There aren't different versions of the Pi Zero, right?

Thanks!

[B.Goode]

Purely for diagnostic purposes, not because I think your selection of OS is wrong, have you considered installing Raspbian on the two PiZeros, just to see whether they are reliable with the recommended/supported OS from the RPF?

[kolban]

If you have two identical devices and one boots and the other doesn't and when you swap the micro SD cards around the one that failed to boot still fails to boot ... it is likely that the one that fails to boot is broken. I know that sounds obvious to your ears but it may be as simple a story as that. There is every possibility that a Pi Zero can be damaged in a variety of ways such as a misconnected pin or wire or a static discharge or a myriad of other possibilities. This is the danger when hand touching electronics. A momentarily mis-connected bridged wire can have un-known effects ... not least of which is death of the device.

If there are wires connected to the GPIO pins of the failing Pi, you might want to pull them. Also, did the failing Pi ever boot at some time in the past? If not, then it may have been dead on arrival. You might also want to check the soldered pins (assuming you soldered on a header) to make sure that there isn't a solder bridge somewhere.

[B.Goode]

If you have two identical devices and one boots and the other doesn't and when you swap the micro SD cards around the one that failed to boot still fails to boot ... it is likely that the one that fails to boot is broken..

But the OP states that both systems boot.

[kryptalivian]

Purely for diagnostic purposes, not because I think your selection of OS is wrong, have you considered installing Raspbian on the two PiZeros, just to see whether they are reliable with the recommended/supported OS from the RPF?

Good thinking! I'll try raspbian tonight.

[telemark]

I had a similar issue,one Zero working fine, one unstable, with exactly the same kit/card.

I came to the same conclusion as others have said, I had a faulty Zero.