Pi Zero Will boot, but won't show video

[toldcodger]

Hi,

I received a Pi Zero a few days ago and mine won't show anything on the display.

I've plugged the bare board into my Win7 laptop and it bings. It is in the device manager in other devices. It says it couldn't find a driver. I've tried to update the driver but it comes back with "Windows could not find driver software for your device"

I downloaded the latest NOOBs, Raspbian and Jessie Lite but none of them bring the HDMI to life.

I have an original Pi and a Pi3. All the cards I have built work in the Pi3.

So far I have tried the OS's above on two different SD Cards, and I have tried other SD Cards. One with an updated version of Raspbian and one with the Zero's version of RetroPi. In all cases the screen comes shows "No Video Available"

I've never seen the ACT LED when it is flashing an error code so I have nothing to gauge it by but the Zero appears to be booting. The ACT LED is active for 20 - 30 seconds then flicks on and off at irregular intervals. I have a mouse with a speed adjuster on it if I press the button the indicator LEDs light up. The NUM lock and Caps lock on the keyboard work too. There is just nothing to see.

I put the NOOBs card I had built into the Pi3 and ran the various commands to get the monitor info. I have tried all I can think of in the Config.txt to bring it to life but so far nothing. I have also tried the Zero with three different HDMI leads on three TV's and two computer monitors. All failed to give me a display

I don't have another Zero to test the HDMI converter with, so I bought a cable with a standard HDMI on one end and a mini connector on the other but still nothing.

Basically the only thing I can't test is the HDMI on the Zero itself.

I'm getting wound up with myself for not being able to fix this

Any help appreciated.

Regards

Dave

[DougieLawson]

What's on the other end of your HDMI cable from your Zero?

What do you get from a tvservice -s command?

[toldcodger]

Thanks for the quick response.

I have tried the Zero on 5 monitors / TV's and have the monitor data saved in a txt file.
Apparently you cannot upload a txt file though.

I found a help topic with the various commands for getting the information from the displays so I had already entered the command below using the Pi3 on all the monitors:
sudo /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -s
They all work with the Pi3 but not the Zero. This is the out put for each monitor /TV

From the two Luxor 19" TV's. I got this.
state 0x12000a [HDMI CEA (5) RGB lim 16:9], 1920x1080 @ 60.00Hz, interlaced
They are ASDA'a finest but they work well with the Pi3.

The 37" Samung TV gave this info:
state 0x12000a [HDMI CEA (4) RGB lim 16:9], 1280x720 @ 60.00Hz, progressive

With the Dell monitor I had to use a DVI to HDMI adapter. Again it works fine with the Pi3
state 0x120006 [DVI DMT (35) RGB full 5:4], 1280x1024 @ 60.00Hz, progressive

The iiyama monitor is actually at work. It is 16:9 and has an HDMI connector
state 0x12001a [HDMI CEA (16) RGB lim 16:9], 1920x1080 @ 60Hz, progressive

It might be easiest to concentrate on the Luxor 19" TV. They are the most convenient to get at.

Regards

Dave

[DougieLawson]

Then you have to assume that either your miniHDMI cable is junk or your RPiZ isn't working. Try booting it with the SDCard from your RPi3.

BTW, tvservice a) is in /usr/bin as a link and b) doesn't need sudo.

[toldcodger]

Hi,

I copied the commands from a topic and they came up with what looked like the correct data. To be fair I put the sudo in because I thought it would need it. If I don't it usually does

I thought it might be the standard to mini adapter too so I bought a standard HDMI to mini HDMI cable but that didn't make any difference.

I have tried several SD cards that work in other Pi's but they didn't work either. I even tried to remote on to the Zero but I couldn't get it to connect.

I got it " free" when I subscribed to the MagPi magazine. I'll have a word with the magazine and see if I have any options.

Thanks for the assistance.

Regards

Dave