Red LED on Faint Green LED

[FHU130]

RPi seems dead on arrival.

Red LED on full brightness
Green LED on constant really faint, doesn't flash

Connected via HDMI, no signal.

Both SD cards are listed as working and work on Netbook with Debian Image.

Tried with and without keyboard and mouse/

Where do I go from here?

Disappointed as waited months and now worse off, got to mess about getting a RMA and waiting months for a replacement.

[Bluemerlin]

Have you tried checking the hashes of the downloaded image to make sure it downloaded correctly or tried a different image?

If the /boot partition or any files are corrupt you won't get much of anything from the Pi at all.

[johnbeetem]

Troubleshooting step 1 is to see if your power supply and RasPi's power components are behaving themselves. A good place to start is the RasPi Hardware wiki: http://elinux.org/Rpi_Hardware. Scroll down to "Power" and "Power Supply Problems".

[zbuh]

I have the very same situation.

Tested with several SD cards, with several images...

Red LED ON, Green LED really faint...

No HDMI Output.

Tried also two different power supplies.

Any idea?

[anthonyUK]

Me too.
I have managed to get it to boot a few times by applying pressure around the card contact area so I know my PSU and SD card are fine.

This looks to be a QC issue with the latest batch.

[Tharg]

I think I have the same / similar. Most of the time I only get the red LED but very occasionally I get the green one flickering. I have not been able to get output to HDMI or RCA yet.

My power supply is a blackberry one, it reads OUTPUT 5V 700 mA, on the plug, so I think that should be ok?

My SD card does not appear to be on the good list so it's my prime suspect at the moment. It looks fine from windows from what I can see though.

I have an "approved" (by RS) card and power supply coming soon so I'll be able to troubleshoot them then.

[carl_retrotext]

Is it a faint pin prick green light?

[Tharg]

Is it a faint pin prick green light?

Dunno if this Q was for me but :

I get the faint pin prick one all the time. Very rarely it flickers on 'properly' though - 2 out of perhaps 30 tries so far.

[carl_retrotext]

Is it a faint pin prick green light?

Dunno if this Q was for me but :

I get the faint pin prick one all the time. Very rarely it flickers on 'properly' though - 2 out of perhaps 30 tries so far.

Hi my one did this, I got it working by leaving it to warm up, I have a video about it. I could be a loose joint.

If it works after a while, heat could be the answer.

[Tharg]

Is it a faint pin prick green light?

Dunno if this Q was for me but :

I get the faint pin prick one all the time. Very rarely it flickers on 'properly' though - 2 out of perhaps 30 tries so far.

Hi my one did this, I got it working by leaving it to warm up, I have a video about it. I could be a loose joint.

If it works after a while, heat could be the answer.

Wow thanks I'll give it a try. I did think it could be overheating though ... the 2 times it almost worked were the first tries (yesterday after receiving it and then today in the morning). A question : should the CPU get very hot very quickly? Like painful to touch hot. Mine does this after only about a minute of being plugged in.

[Viewfinder]

I got the same red LED, very faint tiny green LED and no display when I tried the Fedora Remix install which didn't boot or work, but green and red LEDs were fine when I installed Debian.

[Paul_L]

Same on my yesterday arrived Raspi . Red LED lit , very faint on OK , Voltage on TP1-TP2 5,19V Sandisk SDHC 4GB class 4 with debian . What next ?

[zbuh]

Really seams a problem with this lot.

damn... so many months waiting..

[dom]

Wow thanks I'll give it a try. I did think it could be overheating though ... the 2 times it almost worked were the first tries (yesterday after receiving it and then today in the morning). A question : should the CPU get very hot very quickly? Like painful to touch hot. Mine does this after only about a minute of being plugged in.

No. After bootling to login prompt I'd expect it to be close to body temperature (feels comfortably warm, but not hot).
When really pushing it with overclock running quake 3 it feels hot, but I can keep my finger on it indefinitely.

If it is painfully hot when largely idle, then there's a problem. Could possibly be the power supply, but sounds like a faulty board. Contact RS/Farnell.

[Tharg]

Wow thanks I'll give it a try. I did think it could be overheating though ... the 2 times it almost worked were the first tries (yesterday after receiving it and then today in the morning). A question : should the CPU get very hot very quickly? Like painful to touch hot. Mine does this after only about a minute of being plugged in.

No. After bootling to login prompt I'd expect it to be close to body temperature (feels comfortably warm, but not hot).
When really pushing it with overclock running quake 3 it feels hot, but I can keep my finger on it indefinitely.

If it is painfully hot when largely idle, then there's a problem. Could possibly be the power supply, but sounds like a faulty board. Contact RS/Farnell.

Thanks very much. If it's helpful to anyone : this board was from farnell, received yesterday.

[Paul_L]

Also mine. I tried now also with archlinux. The same reaction. Nothing is hot on the board. Processor feels like a bit warm. Disconnected everything from USB , Ethernet, HDMI and the same. What should I test more ?

[Tharg]

Just spoke to Dan @ Farnell. Very helpful; I should have a replacement soon.

[Paul_L]

I also have discussed with Farnell and they can replace it by RMA . But I want to be sure that the board is defective and is not my mistake .

[Paul_L]

Some more measurements :

voltage on C6 5,219 V
voltage on C11 3.299V
voltage on C15 2.499V
voltage on C9 1,823V

so the power supply is working good. Should I try another SD card ?

[carl_retrotext]

Wow thanks I'll give it a try. I did think it could be overheating though ... the 2 times it almost worked were the first tries (yesterday after receiving it and then today in the morning). A question : should the CPU get very hot very quickly? Like painful to touch hot. Mine does this after only about a minute of being plugged in.

No. After bootling to login prompt I'd expect it to be close to body temperature (feels comfortably warm, but not hot).
When really pushing it with overclock running quake 3 it feels hot, but I can keep my finger on it indefinitely.

If it is painfully hot when largely idle, then there's a problem. Could possibly be the power supply, but sounds like a faulty board. Contact RS/Farnell.

You will see in my video, that I had to get mine hot with a hair dryer

H E R E

Farnell have exchanged mine now, they did say that they had not seen my problem before however.

[Dormage]

This seems to be a huge ishue.
Can we expect some confirmation from the foundation about the problem.
I don't think I would feel better about the whole waiting for nothing situation if more of you were in it too.
But some of you might

[carl_retrotext]

This seems to be a huge ishue.
Can we expect some confirmation from the foundation about the problem.
I don't think I would feel better about the whole waiting for nothing situation if more of you were in it too.
But some of you might

Thats okay if they have one particular problem, most who have this problem seem to say that a different SD card gets it working, others say its a new PSU.

Mine was most certainly poor soldering, that may be the prognosis, but the symptoms vary, mine behaved as the reports of a incompatible SD card and low Voltage, but it was neither, I am glad I videoed it, no one would have believed me.

Farnells were great, my one was delivered in the second batch, and I got one as soon as new stock came in last week.

they said that they have a small amount back, all with different problems, mostly soldering.

[Dormage]

After having checked the AC and changed a few SD cards i still can't get it working.
I folowed your guide and even tryed the trick with heating it up.
Nothing seems to work. I cannot tell where and whats wrong but it's defently a hardware problem.

I'll call Farnell tomorow, I hope i woun't have to wait too long for a replacement.

[anthonyUK]

I have tried a different card and the RasBMC installer and it appears much more reliable.
I'm now using the 8Gb class 4 microSD which is on offer in Maplins at the moment.

[skippytv]

Hello there , names Skippy
What I have seen on sd card readers is that the contacts can generate dry joints due to the user inserting the card in and out. Tends to suffer mechanical stress, try and give the card holder a little more support, a nice big lump of aradite might do the job.
cheers and beers
Skippy.