Pi only boots sometimes (cold solder points detected)

[pi-xel]

Hi folks,

I received my PI several days ago.
It runs with an Samsung SDHC 8GB (Class 6) and an Lexar Premium Series 4GB (Class 6) SD card
but not with an SanDisk Ultra 4GB (Class 4).
But sometimes it will not boot. Only the red led is on without any flashing green led (Power supply is ok >1A and 4.85v between TP1 and TP2).

First, I thought that I have a problem with the SD cards.
But then, I inspected the SD card slot and the apropriate contacts on the PI board.
I tested the contacts of the SD card slot with a DVM.
And I found 2 cold solder joints. The SD card slot was not properly soldered onto the board.
I gave my PI into the refrigerator - and - it works again (be careful - avoid moisture).
So I soldered the defect contacts (be careful - you lost guarantee).
Now it works well.

Has anyone same problems? - May be, there are some more cold solder joints.
The assembly process of the PI seems to be not reliable.

Thanks - and have fun with the PI
Pi-xel

[MaxK1]

And you concluded the assembly process is unreliable from a sample of one?

[pi-xel]

Have a look to the following posts:
"Brand new Pi will not boot."
"voltage and polyfuse"
"Root filesystem corruption"
"Board versions/revisions, or different assembly lines?"
"Raspberry Pi Won't Boot, Red Power Light Only"
...

There are a lot of reports of PIs running / booting unstable.

And those messages help to find the errors.

Pi-xel

[PaulCheffus]

Have a look to the following posts:
"Brand new Pi will not boot."
"voltage and polyfuse"
"Root filesystem corruption"
"Board versions/revisions, or different assembly lines?"
"Raspberry Pi Won't Boot, Red Power Light Only"
...

There are a lot of reports of PIs running / booting unstable.

And those messages help to find the errors.

Pi-xel

Hi

Well the last of your examples happened to me tonight and that was down to a corrupt boot partition nothing to do with the RPI hardware construction.

Cheers

Paul

[pi-xel]

Hi Paul,

do you know something about the reason for the corrupt boot partition?

Regards

Pi-xel

[MaxK1]

And many of those problems can (probably) be traced back to power problems, USB issues, noob
errors, etc. I think I saw one other post describing solder balls (I'll refrain from the obvious comment )
in the SD connector. But I certainly haven't read all the posts.... Maybe there is a QA problem on one
of the assembly lines.

[PaulCheffus]

Hi Paul,

do you know something about the reason for the corrupt boot partition?

Regards

Pi-xel

Hi

Unfortunately I don't. It only appears to happen with my Transcend 8Gb class 10 cards, my Kingston 8Gb class 4 cards seem to be unaffected.

Cheers

Paul

[Jim JKla]

Liz has said weare approaching the half million prodoction landmark this makes the errors we have seen that are directly attributable to hardware as minor quantities.

I have not been statistical but it feels like there have been more issues with broken SD card holders than any others.

[Burngate]

The assembly process of the PI seems to be not reliable.

Depends on the definition of "reliable".
100% - no. 1 error in 400k - yes

[pi-xel]

Have a look on an original solder joint.
This should not happen.
And someone reported about splatter inside the sd card slot.
I think, this is not the only one on the planet.

Please understand me right.
I want to encourage the users to check their board for such errors if their board has a malfunction.

So, buy a magnifier and have a look or be happy if you have a working PI.

[kenl]

i am starting to wonder if i have the same issue here, ordered mine via farnell.

the second led stays red nothing on from RCA showing up on the tv i will check mine now, thansk for the image of the fault.

kenl

[Jim JKla]

There are other things it could be.