Solid red light, no green ACT

[lowers93]

I feel a bit of an idiot here, I had my RPi 3 B+ less than 30 minutes before It failed to reboot .

I'd happily installed OctoPi, expanded my memory and had everything up and running with a 3D printer and webcam plugged in before I decided to change the camera resolution. Being a Pi noob i didn't think and just pulled the power before removing the SD card. Since doing this I haven't been able to boot a second time.

Troubleshooting I've already tried:
1) Reformat SD card with OctoPi, NOOBS, Raspbian - none worked (using SD card formatter v5 for NOOBS in 'overwrite' mode and win32diskimager for Raspian/OctoPi)
2) Use another SD card - Tried with OctoPi, Noobs and Raspian using same method.
3) Unplug all USB devices and try with reformatted cards.
4) Check SD card is properly seated.. seems fine.
5) Check PSU - It's an official RPi Stontronics PSU outputting 2.5A at 5.1V
6) Check red light - Always solid red.
7) Polyfuse? - The troubleshooting guide tells me my B 3+ model also has an undervolt detector that would turn the red LED off is this had gone?
8) Try a different img tool? - Tried etcher instead of diskimager for Raspbian - no change.

Is there anything I may have missed?

[mahjongg]

You missed the boot problem sticky.

I would buy a new sd-card, this one is clearly corrupted irreparably, but one thing you could try, and that is to "format" (meaning reset to factory setting) it with a camera. In rare cases that helps get it out of this corrupted state.

[lowers93]

You missed the boot problem sticky.

I would buy a new sd-card, this one is clearly corrupted irreparably, but one thing you could try, and that is to "format" (meaning reset to factory setting) it with a camera. In rare cases that helps get it out of this corrupted state.

All of the ideas above are from the boot problem sticky. I have used another SD card as per 2).. same result. Are these problems only ever related to the SD card interaction?

I have reformatted it with SD card formatter multiple times both 'quick' and 'overwrite' formats. My computer reads it no problem. I will try putting it in a camera as well.

[lowers93]

You missed the boot problem sticky.

I would buy a new sd-card, this one is clearly corrupted irreparably, but one thing you could try, and that is to "format" (meaning reset to factory setting) it with a camera. In rare cases that helps get it out of this corrupted state.

All of the ideas above are from the boot problem sticky. I have used another SD card as per 2).. same result. Are these problems only ever related to the SD card interaction?

I have reformatted it with SD card formatter multiple times both 'quick' and 'overwrite' formats. My computer reads it no problem. I will try putting it in a camera as well.

Reformatted in a camera, even took a picture which came up fine on my PC. Installed OctoPi as I did when it worked and still no ACT light.

[mahjongg]

Are these problems only ever related to the SD card interaction?

YES, although in rare cases if the power supply/cable/polyfuse doesn't deliver enough power so that the PI crashes in the first second of the booting process, before the PI's GPU has a chance to boot, that can be an issue too.

Its the GPU that reads the boot code, after starting the video system, during which it finds which type of RAM it has, then it does a self test, resulting in the "rainbow screen", immediately after it figures out which CPU it has, it then boots the CPU(s) with the ARM code it was given.


arrange a second identical PI, wait 48Hours so that the polyfuses in both PI's are restored, in case one of them was blown.
Now with everything else identical, same power supply and cable, and same monitor and HDMI cable and same USB devices, same everything... (swap those things between one PI and the other).
if the same card boots in one identical PI, and not in the other THEN, and IMHO only then you can assume the PI that doesn't boot is broken.
in which case you should return it under guarantee.


many "broken PI's" that are returned to the factory as broken, are not broken at all.

but if you are completely convinced the PI is broken, you should return it...


Have a look inside the sd-card holder, if you see a bent pin, or other damage...


obviously you already knew this as its also it the boot problem sticky....

[lowers93]

Are these problems only ever related to the SD card interaction?

YES, although in rare cases if the power supply/cable/polyfuse doesn't deliver enough power so that the PI crashes in the first second of the booting process, before the PI's GPU has a chance to boot, that can be an issue too.

Its the GPU that reads the boot code, after starting the video system, during which it finds which type of RAM it has, then it does a self test, resulting in the "rainbow screen", immediately after it figures out which CPU it has, it then boots the CPU(s) with the ARM code it was given.


arrange a second identical PI, wait 48Hours so that the polyfuses in both PI's are restored, in case one of them was blown.
Now with everything else identical, same power supply and cable, and same monitor and HDMI cable and same USB devices, same everything... (swap those things between one PI and the other).
if the same card boots in one identical PI, and not in the other THEN, and IMHO only then you can assume the PI that doesn't boot is broken.
in which case you should return it under guarantee.


many "broken PI's" that are returned to the factory as broken, are not broken at all.

but if you are completely convinced the PI is broken, you should return it...


Have a look inside the sd-card holder, if you see a bent pin, or other damage...


obviously you already knew this as its also it the boot problem sticky....

So here we are, more than 48hrs later https://imgur.com/a/dfseIMq

Same PSU, Same SD card with Raspian, same HDMI, still no green light of hope on the old Pi but the new one does work!

[SurferTim]

Do you own a voltmeter? It is possible the PSU isn't working correctly. Have you tried another? Just a thought...

[HawaiianPi]

It sounds like the old Pi did, in fact, die. However, it's highly unlikely that pulling the power caused it. It was probably just one of those poorly timed unfortunate coincidences. Return the Pi if you can, and don't blame yourself.