Raspberry Pi Forums

Well I pooped up a brand new (3 day old) A+ yesterday.

Plugging, unplugging USB hubs, HDMI, power and SD cards is a challenge with such a small board, especially during configuration and without a case.

It was my ambition to embed this board into an old stereo, so I soak tested with Raspbian, got used to the new GUI, was impressed that it was faster than a 512k B, then decided it was time for the media centre software. This was going to be headless until I could find an appropriate screen.

Being an A+, a wireless connection, HDMI and a keyboard are necessary for easy configuration. I didn't like OpenELEC, it just didn't seems to work and kept locking up. RaspBMC ran really well, so I settled on that.

If I pulled or pushed the HDMI I always seemed to spring the SD card out. Was never a problem with the earlier SD format. In the end I decided to grip the only side with no removable parts. Poor choice...

With sweaty hands, there was a tingle in my fingers, and the smell of magic smoke. The USB power light flashed, the card would no longer boot and the green LED started flashing. An emergency power withdrawal reset the USB supply, but the board now only shows constant green, and the main chips heats up faster than my electric hob.

I ate a pizza, played some guitar, and went to sleep dreaming it might reset itself overnight.

Nope.

I tried to google Raspberry Pi LED status indicators, and all other permutations to find out how to diagnose this, but nothing helped. So here it is for the internet's sake:

Fried Pi symptoms:
- Very hot chip very fast
- Smell of burning components
- Constant green LED
- No red LED
- Pi does not boot

Cause:
Sweaty digit across GPIO pins while power on

Corrective actions:
None found

Preventative actions:
Buy a case and use it, or find a way of isolating the GPIO from ham fists

Motto:
Some people learn by listening, some learn by reading. Turns out I learn by widdling on the live wire.

Wattie wrote:
Fried Pi symptoms:
- Very hot chip very fast
- Smell of burning components
- Constant green LED
- No red LED
- Pi does not boot

Cause:
Sweaty digit across GPIO pins while power on

Corrective actions:
None found

Preventative actions:
Buy a case and use it, or find a way of isolating the GPIO from ham fists

Motto:
Some people learn by listening, some learn by reading. Turns out I learn by widdling on the live wire.

It's DEAD!
"If you take my advice, old boy. The next time that old engine dies, you'll take it out a bury it.*"


[*] I'll leave it as an exercise for you to work out which film that's from.

Sounds like 1953 English to me. I can never stay awake on Sunday afternoon in front of those films.

Well done for copying the script as it was incorrectly typed

Wattie wrote:Sounds like 1953 English to me. I can never stay awake on Sunday afternoon in front of those films.

Well done for copying the script as it was incorrectly typed

The quote wasn't on the IMDB. Next time I watch it I'll have to add the words (as in the film, not on that wonky website).

Wattie wrote:Cause:
Sweaty digit across GPIO pins while power on

I did just that like 15 minutes ago... Thanks for the heads up, I'll get or make the case as soon as possible!