blank screen after boot noobs pi 3b

[binhoker]

i am having a display problem on pi 3 b worked fine on first installation but now screen goes black after boot up. wiggling mouse has no effect. reinstalled noobs but same problem, can open command line by ctrl alt f1. but goes black after i startx

[B.Goode]

Welcome to the Raspberry Pi forums.



You will find a solution from one of the following sources of Troubleshooting advice:


There is a Troubleshooting guide in Issue 60 of the MagPi magazine which you can access for free online. https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/60/

The Raspberry Pi Foundation have a Troubleshooting Guide on their website: https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/tr ... ing-guide/

These forums have a post which contains all the information currently available about getting an RPi to boot: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151


From your initial description I would be suspicious of the power supply and/or cables that you are using.

[binhoker]

thank you for your reply i will continue reading fourms but havent found a fix yet. its not a boot problem more like a rouge screen saver that kicks in a few seconds after the Gui starts. i instaled kodi last night and kodi starts with a blank screen then 10min later i can see the desk top but it turns black as soon as i move the mouse or press a key. screen saver in reverse.

[binhoker]

i have been following advice on this thread on how to disable the screen saver
viewtopic.php?p=433728#p433728
i have edited /etc/kbd/config with sudo nano (i don't know why i bothered as this controls sceen saver when x is not running my problem starts when x starts.)

i canot change xset from terminal as i get the reply
xset: unable to open display""

i can not edit /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart or /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart as they aparently do not exist

[binhoker]

installed raspian lite and pixel via wifi. can get to login screen (lightDM) which is a bit glitchy with black horizontal lines. but once i log on iam back in black. cli works fine.

[binhoker]

purged pixel and installed mate. no change but i do see the mate desktop for a second.
i have tried a range of leads an psu s at my disposal all have the same result (none of them are pi specific products). i have no other monitor to test.

[binhoker]

Exciting Development: after 10mins the mate screen saver becomes visible on my monitor, if i touch a key it disappears and i am back to black. why can i see the screensaver and the cli but not the descktop?

[binhoker]

i think i might have installed thinlinx. it don’t do much, but i don’t know what it is supposed to do. i can see an ugly picture of a penguin with stupid hair, a surfboard and a cleavage, a big improvement on the black emptiness of raspian in my opinion.

[fruitoftheloom]

i think i might have installed thinlinx. it don’t do much, but i don’t know what it is supposed to do. i can see an ugly picture of a penguin with stupid hair, a surfboard and a cleavage, a big improvement on the black emptiness of raspian in my opinion.

ThinLinx is a Thin Client OS:

https://thinlinx.com/

[fruitoftheloom]

i think i might have installed thinlinx. it don’t do much, but i don’t know what it is supposed to do. i can see an ugly picture of a penguin with stupid hair, a surfboard and a cleavage, a big improvement on the black emptiness of raspian in my opinion.

ThinLinx is a Thin Client OS:

https://thinlinx.com/

Download Raspbian Stretch with Raspberry Pi Desktop, it is a .zip file:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/


On your Windows machine download Etcher, which is used to create a bootable SD Card from the .zip file:

https://etcher.io/

[binhoker]

thanks, ill try that next, at the minute iam trying to install ubuntu mate. i will keep you up to date.

[HawaiianPi]

My guess would be power supply, or the micro-USB power cable, or both are inadequate.

Could also be the HDMI cable you are using.

Please give us more details about your setup.

Power supply make/model and output specifications?

Monitor make/model?

Are you connecting directly to the monitor with HDMI, or using some kind of adapter (HDMI-DVI, HDMI-VGA), or going through an AV receiver or HDMI switch (basically, is there anything other than an HDMI cable between your Pi3 and the display)?

What USB devices do you have connected to the Pi3 (and is your keyboard backlit)?

[binhoker]

raspian stretch and ubuntu mate both work exactly the same the boot up i get a 1sec glimpse of the desk top and then black. video works with CLI. i am now gona blame the monitor which i got specially for this project as i didnt have any thing with a hdmi in.

iam using a hdmi cable whit a dvi adapter in the end.

the monitor is a samsung syncmaster 940 lcd tv moitor .

usb keyboard (not back lit), usb mouse (iluminated buton)

my power supply is a no name 5v 2a it has a fairly decent cable hard wired. have tried several other usb power supplies and leads with similar specs. but not a branded or pi specific one.

this looks now more like a hard ware problem than soft ware. intrestingly the first time i pluged the pi in it worked perfectly and i was exited by the possibilties. after an hour i shut it down buy pulling the cord (i have since read this is a bad tecnique) next day i was in the dark.

[HawaiianPi]

the monitor is a samsung syncmaster 940 lcd tv moitor... raspian stretch and ubuntu mate both work exactly the same the boot up i get a 1sec glimpse of the desk top and then black. video works with CLI. i am now gona blame the monitor which i got specially for this project as i didnt have any thing with a hdmi in.

Unless the monitor is defective, I would say that's not your problem. I've had a Samsung Syncmaster 940 on my Pi3 for the past year or so without any issues. It works great, actually.

iam using a hdmi cable whit a dvi adapter in the end.

This is more likely the source of your problem. I have used HDMI-DVI adapters successfully, but I have seen a lot of posts on these forums from people who have had trouble with them. Unfortunately both HDMI cables and those adapters can vary in quality a lot. I have 2 HDMI-DVI adapters. One is Monster Cable brand (given to me by a rep), the other is a no-name ebay adapter that looks like this:


Try adding config_hdmi_boost=7 to your config.txt file, and increase it to a higher value if that doesn't work (up to 11).

my power supply is a no name 5v 2a it has a fairly decent cable hard wired. have tried several other usb power supplies and leads with similar specs. but not a branded or pi specific one.

5V/2A should be enough for a Pi3 for most normal use. The recommended PSU is 2.5A, but that would only be needed for a fully loaded Pi3 (running hard with power hungry USB devices). However, many so called 5V power supplies are actually just phone chargers, which can have poor voltage regulation and not maintain 5V under load. I have a 5V/2.4A charger that dips well below 5V at only a 1A load. Most phones will charge fine at 4.5V, but that won't run a Pi3.

Have you noticed any blinking or flickering of the red power LED? If so, then you definitely have a power problem. A bright steady red LED is what you should see with good power, but the LED won't react to fast transients, so a steady power LED is not a guarantee of good power.

this looks now more like a hard ware problem than soft ware. intrestingly the first time i pluged the pi in it worked perfectly and i was exited by the possibilties. after an hour i shut it down buy pulling the cord (i have since read this is a bad tecnique) next day i was in the dark.

Pulling power without a proper shutdown could corrupt the software on the SD card, but it won't damage the Pi hardware.

[binhoker]

yes it lives. turn it up to 11! just like spinal tap.
i uncomented config_hdmi_boost=11 in config.txt file, thank you hawaiianpi.