Pi 2B- Both lights on - nothing happening

[Paul33]

Hi Guys,
I have a RP 2B and earlier today was happily running Windows 10 IOT - it booted, the world was a happy place, I even ran my application (via visual studio).

I then did a shut down and felt good about myself.

This didn't last long.
I put the power cable back into my pi and the red and green LEDs came on - BUT:

1. no flickering of the green LED
2. No signal to the monitor (HDMI)

So I read a few posts and found it might be the SD card, so I went out and brought a new one.
I then imaged it with Win 10 IOT - it didn't work.
So I re-imaged it with Raspian - that didn't work either
I tried it on the TV I'd previously been using instead of the monitor (just in case the monitor was the problem) - it didn't work
I've tried doing a reset (shorting RUN) - it made no difference

I've just been online and ordered 2 Pi 3Bs out of frustration.
Does anyone have anything else I can try, this has really messed with my karma.

Thanks,
Paul.

[pcmanbob]

Hi.

Have you looked at the The Boot Problems Sticky

viewtopic.php?t=58151

[Paul33]

Hi Bob,
yep - already looked at it and tried a couple of things from there (with no luck).

Thanks,
Paul.

[pcmanbob]

Hi Bob,
yep - already looked at it and tried a couple of things from there (with no luck).

Thanks,
Paul.

The problem at the moment is you only have one Pi so you cant test your SD card and prove that the image on it is good, the lack of green LED blinking indicates the Pi cant find the boot files on the SD card, or it just can't see the SD card at all.

Once you get your new Pi's test the SD card if the image is good then you know you have a faulty Pi until then you don't have a known good SD card to work from.

You could try imaging the card again with a newly down load image of Jessie lite ( only because its the smallest and quickest to download ) and try booting from that. I know you have already tried it but its not unknown for image files to get corrupted on download.

You have not said if there was anything connected to the GPIO at the time of failure that might have damaged you Pi, also have you looked closely at your Pi to see if there is any signs of failure/damage.

[Paul33]

Hi All,
an update.

I now have a couple of PI3's and the SD cards work (I can't believe how quickly raspian boots).

I did try powering up my pi 2b because seemingly it's possible that after a couple of days a thermal resistor/cap that acts as a fuse could reset - no joy.

So, not sure why but my 2b died and is remaining dead - not sure what to do with it and to be honest it kinda worries me as I'm developing a product based on it (and the idea of having a product based on something that can die at will is not a comforting thought).

Paul.

[mahjongg]

Probably you powered down before the card had time to write all the files that were written to it from caches, and consequently the file system was corrupted.
That the file system (OS) says it has shut down doesn't mean the sd-card is ready writing, it can also start doing some internal reorganising after lots of writes occurred, aborting that scrambles the file system good.
Just wait a few more seconds after the system reports it has shut down before removing power.

In any case PI's simply do not "brick" spontaneously except if you "zap them" by applying 5V or more to a GPIO pin, which can cause a latchup effect in the SoC. Another cause of sudden death can be a bent pin in the SD-card holder, or applying more than six volt on the power input, which triggers the overvoltage protection diode on the PI, but that normally only means the polyfuse "blows", which should recover if you leave it unpowered for a few days.

[Paul33]

Hi Mahjong,
that's an interesting point but it does leave me with a question, well 2:

1. when I put the SD card into the new pi it works without issue
2. when I put a fresh SD card into the old pi it still behaves the same

so with that in mind is there anything that you can think of to effect a system reset (the shorting of the run connections doesn't seem to have done the trick).

any ideas gratefully received (as I'm about to use the 2b as a door stop

<EDIT>
that's interesting to know about the 6 volt limit - I was using the adafruit powerboost 1000c at the time:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pow ... t/overview

I've just been and checked the output of the 1000c - 6.8 volts on both the USB and 5volt pin - WTF?
I thought this thing had a regulator built into it (I'm using 4 lipo batteries to power it - 2 x (2 in parallel)).
Looks like I need to get myself a 5v regulator to stick in the output.

Thanks for that technical info.
</EDIT>

Paul.

[mahjongg]

added more to my post already, answering these points.

[Burngate]

- I was using the adafruit powerboost 1000c at the time:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pow ... t/overview

I've just been and checked the output of the 1000c - 6.8 volts on both the USB and 5volt pin - WTF?
I thought this thing had a regulator built into it (I'm using 4 lipo batteries to power it - 2 x (2 in parallel)).
Looks like I need to get myself a 5v regulator to stick in the output.

While that would work, it might be better to return that powerboost to AdaFruit for replacement - it's clearly faulty, and could die completely.
It depends of course on how old it is, and how you've treated it - AdaFruit might deny responsibility, - but replacing it would be better than putting a sticking plaster on it.