Raspberry Pi 2 Model B keeps dying!

[ZanderMJW]

Hi all,

I have a feeling that my Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1) is on its last legs but I was just looking for some confirmation (or perhaps I'm wrong!).

I've had the Pi2B since December 2015 but I haven't had it running that long. I used it on and off for a while in early 2016 but it then basically sat in a drawer until this year when I discovered the wonders of PiHole

The Pi was running fine for a while but then one day it just stopped responding to DNS queries, I rebooted it but then it wouldn't boot at all. So I formatted the SD card, loaded the latest Pi OS and everything was fine again. Then after maybe a month I had the same issue, it stopped respondig to DNS queries, I rebooted but the device never came back online.

I did some Googling and realised that I was using some random old SD card rather than something a bit more 'heavy duty', so I purchased a new SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB. Again, I loaded Pi OS onto the card and got it all setup running PiHole, this was on July 24th. Last night I noticed when I logged in to the front end of PiHole that it's showing as "Offline" even though the Pi is responding to DNS queries. I believe this is the beginnings of issues starting to occur once more.

I logged into the Pi via SSH this morning and have discovered that with a lot of commands (tar, cp, vi, mv etc.) I am getting this error:

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mv: error while loading shared libraries: libc.so.: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

And when I try to run apt update I get errors like this:

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W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease: Unknown error executing apt-key

Obviously i cannot be certain that this is definitely the same issue as before but it definitely looks like it could go that way with PiHole showing as "Offline". I've not thought to properly troubleshoot before rebooting the last couple of times so it could be a different issue!
This is on two different SD cards but the same Pi2B.

Any help / confirmation of my assumption would be appreciated!

[davidcoton]

Sounds as though the SDCard is dying. Back up anything important IMMEDIATELY (You've done that anyway, of course.)

Try a new install of Raspberry PiOS on a new SDCard (A1 16GB recommended). If that doesn't work the SDCard can be used with a new Pi.

[ZanderMJW]

Sounds as though the SDCard is dying. Back up anything important IMMEDIATELY (You've done that anyway, of course.)

Try a new install of Raspberry PiOS on a new SDCard (A1 16GB recommended). If that doesn't work the SDCard can be used with a new Pi.

Hey David, thanks for the response

Luckily scp is still working so I've managed to back up the important files

The card is brand new and is supposed to be of good quality, plus I was seeing behaviour like this on a previous SD card too which is why I'm thinking there may be a wider issue. Obviously I can't rule out the new card having issues but it just doesn't sit right with me!

[pcmanbob]

I would suggest you test your new SD card using a program like H2testW https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows

make sure you have everything off the SD card that you want first as H2testW will over right the entire card while testing.

[drgeoff]

Is it running 24/7 or does it intentionally or unintentionally get powered down sometimes? Losing power before a software shutdown completes can corrupt the filesystem.

[ZanderMJW]

I would suggest you test your new SD card using a program like H2testW https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows

make sure you have everything off the SD card that you want first as H2testW will over right the entire card while testing.

Definitely a good idea to test the card for any issues, the program you've linked to looks to only test advertised storage vs actual storage. I'm aware that there are issues of counterfeit / dodgy cards being sold, is that what this program is supposed to look for?

[ZanderMJW]

Is it running 24/7 or does it intentionally or unintentionally get powered down sometimes? Losing power before a software shutdown completes can corrupt the filesystem.

Yeah, it's running 24/7 but has constant power so shouldn't be at risk of any filesystem corruptions. I'm monitoring it via SNMP 24/7 and cannot see any issues / drops that would indicate power loss

[ZanderMJW]

Does this been used in IOT ?

Can you expand on your question please?

[pcmanbob]

I would suggest you test your new SD card using a program like H2testW https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows

make sure you have everything off the SD card that you want first as H2testW will over right the entire card while testing.

Definitely a good idea to test the card for any issues, the program you've linked to looks to only test advertised storage vs actual storage. I'm aware that there are issues of counterfeit / dodgy cards being sold, is that what this program is supposed to look for?

H2testW will test every memory location on the SD card by writing to each location and then reading back from every location , so not only will it detect fake SD cards but also faulty or failing SD cards , as any failure to read or write would be detected.

[ZanderMJW]

I would suggest you test your new SD card using a program like H2testW https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows

make sure you have everything off the SD card that you want first as H2testW will over right the entire card while testing.

Definitely a good idea to test the card for any issues, the program you've linked to looks to only test advertised storage vs actual storage. I'm aware that there are issues of counterfeit / dodgy cards being sold, is that what this program is supposed to look for?

H2testW will test every memory location on the SD card by writing to each location and then reading back from every location , so not only will it detect fake SD cards but also faulty or failing SD cards , as any failure to read or write would be detected.

Ah, my apologies then! That makes perfect sense I just didn't want to do something for the sake of it!

[pcmanbob]

Ah, my apologies then! That makes perfect sense I just didn't want to do something for the sake of it!

It's ok we learn by asking questions,

We have to start somewhere in trying to decide if it's a hardware or software problem and a test of the SD card is simple and can be left running while doing other things.

[ZanderMJW]

Ah, my apologies then! That makes perfect sense I just didn't want to do something for the sake of it!

It's ok we learn by asking questions,

We have to start somewhere in trying to decide if it's a hardware or software problem and a test of the SD card is simple and can be left running while doing other things.

Please accept my apologies for the delayed response, life got in the way!
Small update: The Pi did what it has been doing with the older SD cards (ie. it ground to a halt)

I ran H2testw and got this output:

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Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 20.1 MByte/s
Reading speed: 15.4 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

So I'd assume that would mean that the root cause is most likely the Pi itself giving up the ghost?

[scruss]

Maybe it's your power supply. What are you using? Is it the one constant between the old and new card. If you can put a voltmeter across the board's test points and see ≥ 5.0 V, you're probably okay.

No other USB devices which could be drawing current?

[ZanderMJW]

Maybe it's your power supply. What are you using? Is it the one constant between the old and new card. If you can put a voltmeter across the board's test points and see ≥ 5.0 V, you're probably okay.

No other USB devices which could be drawing current?

I’m using the “Raspberry Pi Official Universal Power Supply”, it’s been a while since I bought it but I do remember it being in branded packaging etc. so should be legit. I unfortunately don’t own a voltmeter but I probably know someone who does!

No other USB devices, just the Pi2B with the aforementioned power supply and a CAT5E Ethernet cable going to my 24 port switch!