Pink/purple screen after power on with Raspberry Pi 4 B 4GB

[kuroneko122]

Hello,
I hope you might be able to help me with my problem with my raspberry pi 4 b 4GB. When I try to boot it, it goes to a solid pink/purple screen, it flashes briefly to a solid black screen then back to a solid pink/purple screen and no matter how long I let it run it doesn’t do anything different than that. The microSD card reader flashes for the first minute or so of the process then nothing. Here are some more details of the setup and the troubleshooting I have done so far. This is my first pi so let me know if I’m missing important troubleshooting information.
I’ve tried several different microsd cards. A 64 gb samsung, an 8 gb sandisk. Always formatted FAT32 with sdformatter. I tried unzipping NOOBs (version 3.3.1) directly onto the sd card. I tried using balenaetcher to flash raspbian buster with desktop (February 2020 version kernel 4.19) onto the cards. I figured I was doing something wrong so I bought a 32gb microSD preflashed with raspbian desktop that is supposed to be optimized for the raspberry pi 4 from a third party seller and I still get the same results.
I tried using a generic USB C charger and a cana kit one. I tried using a generic micro hdmi cable and a cana kit one. I tried connecting it to two different hdmi ports on two different TVs. I’m using a generic usb mouse and keyboard that work on my windows pc, but even with those disconnected it still does the same thing. I e-mailed the retailer, and they said it sounded like a defective microsd card reader and they sent me another brand new board. I went through all the same processes with the new board and still get the same exact results. I am kind of at a loss. Either they sent me two defective boards or I am making some kind of beginner mistake somewhere. Anybody have any thoughts / ideas / suggestions? Thanks so much in advance for any help!

[FTrevorGowen]

Hello,
I hope you might be able to help me with my problem with my raspberry pi 4 b 4GB. When I try to boot it, it goes to a solid pink/purple screen, it flashes briefly to a solid black screen then back to a solid pink/purple screen and no matter how long I let it run it doesn’t do anything different than that. The microSD card reader flashes for the first minute or so of the process then nothing. Here are some more details of the setup and the troubleshooting I have done so far. This is my first pi so let me know if I’m missing important troubleshooting information.
I’ve tried several different microsd cards. A 64 gb samsung, an 8 gb sandisk. Always formatted FAT32 with sdformatter. I tried unzipping NOOBs (version 3.3.1) directly onto the sd card. I tried using balenaetcher to flash raspbian buster with desktop (February 2020 version kernel 4.19) onto the cards. I figured I was doing something wrong so I bought a 32gb microSD preflashed with raspbian desktop that is supposed to be optimized for the raspberry pi 4 from a third party seller and I still get the same results.
I tried using a generic USB C charger and a cana kit one. I tried using a generic micro hdmi cable and a cana kit one. I tried connecting it to two different hdmi ports on two different TVs. I’m using a generic usb mouse and keyboard that work on my windows pc, but even with those disconnected it still does the same thing. I e-mailed the retailer, and they said it sounded like a defective microsd card reader and they sent me another brand new board. I went through all the same processes with the new board and still get the same exact results. I am kind of at a loss. Either they sent me two defective boards or I am making some kind of beginner mistake somewhere. Anybody have any thoughts / ideas / suggestions? Thanks so much in advance for any help!

You are putting the uSDHC card in the slot on the pi and not trying to boot from a card in a USB card reader? (At least one person has tried to do that - which doesn't work)
What model/make of TV's? Do you know their display resolutions? (1366x768 displays can be problematic)
Trev.

[kuroneko122]

Hello,
Thank you for the reply. Yes, I am using the microSD card slot on the underside of the PCB of the Pi. The TVs are both older 32" Vizios (one is the smart version of the model the other is not) from ca. 2013. They are both capable of resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. For anyone else reading this, I managed to solve the problem by toggling on hdmi_safe mode in the config.txt file. I got raspbian configured, but the highest resolution I can change the display to in settings is 1024 x 768, is that a result of the hdmi_safe being toggled on? Thanks again.

[FTrevorGowen]

Hello,
Thank you for the reply. Yes, I am using the microSD card slot on the underside of the PCB of the Pi. The TVs are both older 32" Vizios (one is the smart version of the model the other is not) from ca. 2013. They are both capable of resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. For anyone else reading this, I managed to solve the problem by toggling on hdmi_safe mode in the config.txt file. I got raspbian configured, but the highest resolution I can change the display to in settings is 1024 x 768, is that a result of the hdmi_safe being toggled on? Thanks again.

I haven't (needed to) use HDMI_SAFE_MODE for a long time (and, IIRC, probably only with HDMI-to-VGA converters) so I'm not certain but that may well be the case. However, since you now have a working display if you run these tvservice commands & report back further advice may be possible (assuming HDMI_SAFE_MODE doesn't affect their output apart from the last one**):

Code: Select all

tvservice -n
tvservice -m DMT
tvservice -m CEA
tvservice -s

Trev.
** I'd expect tvservice -s to report a mode associated with HDMI_SAFE_MODE.

[kuroneko122]

Hello,
Thank you for your reply. I tried those commands and here are the results:

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -n
device_name=VIZ-E320i-A0
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -m DMT
Group DMT has 9 modes:
  (prefer) mode 4: 640x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:25MHz progressive 
           mode 6: 640x480 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:31MHz progressive 
           mode 9: 800x600 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:40MHz progressive 
           mode 10: 800x600 @ 72Hz 4:3, clock:50MHz progressive 
           mode 11: 800x600 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:49MHz progressive 
           mode 16: 1024x768 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:65MHz progressive 
           mode 17: 1024x768 @ 70Hz 4:3, clock:75MHz progressive 
           mode 18: 1024x768 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:78MHz progressive 
           mode 81: 1366x768 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:85MHz progressive 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -m CEA
Group CEA has 13 modes:
           mode 1: 640x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:25MHz progressive 
           mode 2: 720x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 3: 720x480 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:27MHz progressive 
  (native) mode 4: 1280x720 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
           mode 5: 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced 
           mode 16: 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:148MHz progressive 
           mode 17: 720x576 @ 50Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 18: 720x576 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 19: 1280x720 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
           mode 20: 1920x1080 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced 
           mode 21: 720x576 @ 50Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz x2 interlaced 
           mode 31: 1920x1080 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:148MHz progressive 
           mode 32: 1920x1080 @ 24Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -s
state 0xa [HDMI CUSTOM RGB full 4:3], 1024x768 @ 60.00Hz, progressive
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ 

I hope that is helpful. I'm pretty new to Linux.

[FTrevorGowen]

Hello,
Thank you for your reply. I tried those commands and here are the results:

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -n
device_name=VIZ-E320i-A0
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -m DMT
Group DMT has 9 modes:
  (prefer) mode 4: 640x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:25MHz progressive 
           mode 6: 640x480 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:31MHz progressive 
           mode 9: 800x600 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:40MHz progressive 
           mode 10: 800x600 @ 72Hz 4:3, clock:50MHz progressive 
           mode 11: 800x600 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:49MHz progressive 
           mode 16: 1024x768 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:65MHz progressive 
           mode 17: 1024x768 @ 70Hz 4:3, clock:75MHz progressive 
           mode 18: 1024x768 @ 75Hz 4:3, clock:78MHz progressive 
           mode 81: 1366x768 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:85MHz progressive 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -m CEA
Group CEA has 13 modes:
           mode 1: 640x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:25MHz progressive 
           mode 2: 720x480 @ 60Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 3: 720x480 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:27MHz progressive 
  (native) mode 4: 1280x720 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
           mode 5: 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced 
           mode 16: 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:148MHz progressive 
           mode 17: 720x576 @ 50Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 18: 720x576 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:27MHz progressive 
           mode 19: 1280x720 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
           mode 20: 1920x1080 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced 
           mode 21: 720x576 @ 50Hz 4:3, clock:27MHz x2 interlaced 
           mode 31: 1920x1080 @ 50Hz 16:9, clock:148MHz progressive 
           mode 32: 1920x1080 @ 24Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -s
state 0xa [HDMI CUSTOM RGB full 4:3], 1024x768 @ 60.00Hz, progressive
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ 

I hope that is helpful. I'm pretty new to Linux.

From the tvservice info. the "VIZ-E320i-A0" appears to have a very low "preferred" DMT (monitor) resolution. The native CEA (TV) resolution is higher than the 1024x768 (HDMI_SAFE?) mode the Pi's using. For now can you try "forcing" that native CEA mode by editing config.txt**
I suspect said TV is providing edid data in a "difficult to interpret" form for the parser - depending on whether that 1280 x 720 mode is usable or not that might be followed up later.
Trev.
** see here for more info. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... -config.md
and https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... t/video.md