Raspberry Pi Forums

I'm having a brain fart and for the life of me cannot think what to call the the power port on the Pi. Anyway, I have just got my Pi delivered and have noticed that when I move it, the actual board as I have no case yet, the power cuts out and it reboots. I have tried two USB cables and blowing in the port to remove any dust or dirt that may be causing a bad connection. I take it this is not normal, does anyone have any experience of this or will I have to send it back?

Thanks for any help offered, I did try searching the board before posting but the search always ignores the word 'power' so I found nothing....

Sounds like a bad solder joint - better to return under warranty than try to repair yourself.

It's called a Micro USB port but power port would probably do since it's not really a USB port.
It sounds like a bad solder joint or broken track my Micro USB cable has some sideways moment but the PI certainly doesn't reboot as a result.

Richard S.

The MicroUSB Power Socket is Surface Moumted so unless you have excellent soldering skills, it would be best left to an expert.

If yours is a Rev 2 Board (or a late Rev 1 Board), then it is possible and even preferable to power it from one of the USB Sockets by connecting it to a POWERED USB Hub with all peripherals like the Keyboard and Mouse connected to the Hub. I use a 7 Port USB Hub like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-PORT-MAINS- ... ceRpt=true

although I power the Hub from a 2.1A Apple iPad Power Supply. This keeps the volt drop in the cabling to a minimum. Most MicroUSB cables I have bought are made from very thin guage wire and the volt drop can be as high as a Volt, causing problems with the USB Keyboard and mouse behaving erratically.

Thanks for the replies, appreciated. This problem hasn't occurred anywhere near as much since I posted which is typical! However, I now have another problem, the Pi is stuck on the red light with nothing displaying on the monitor. This looks bad.

So no green flashing light and what about the LAN port LEDs are they dead too??

Richard S.

Aye, all dead apart from that single unblinking red. Had a look at troubleshooting and am leaving it for a while in case the polyfuse thing resets itself. I suspect that using it without a case, no matter how careful I am runs the risk of shorting something.