Can't boot new B+ (solved)

[donest]

The last time I formatted the MicroSD card, I chose the option to do the "full erase".

This time I picked the "overwrite" option.


Jeff

Yes, the 1st time I formatted I chose full erase and the 2nd time overwrite. It didn't seem to make a difference. I thought I saw on the site or in one of their videos to choose "overwrite"

[andrum99]

Hi all,

This is the original poster Landshark.

I have gotten it to boot. Here is what I did

The last time I formatted the MicroSD card, I chose the option to do the "full erase".

This time I picked the "overwrite" option.

Then loaded the NOOBS files again.

I also mashed down guard on the MicroSD bracket to make the card hold as tight as possible.

I'd like to say thanks for all the help, but all I got was "its in the sticky." I must be honest I heard the Pi community was very helpful...but I have not seen that yet.

donest, I hope you get yours working...

Jeff

Glad to hear you got it working. You got a lot more than "it's in the sticky", but I appreciate your frustration.

[drgeoff]

The micro-SD card plugs into an adaptor (looks like a larger version of the micro-SD card. THAT plugs into the reader, which in appearance could pass for a USB thumb drive. The whole thing plugs into the USB port on my PC and functions correctly there. Just doesn't seem to work correctly in the Pi. I may invest in a preformatted card that has NOOBS installed to see if THAT works. It's the only thing that I can think of at this point.

I make no apology for labouring this point. At no point have you said that you are inserting the micro-SD card into the micro-SD slot on the underneath of the RPi.

[donest]

Good news! The pre-formatted and pre-installed NOOBS (full size) SD Card came today! Put that sucker in the reader and plugged it into the Pi. Plugged in the keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable, and lastly, the power supply! Same thing...no boot. Just solid green and red lights.

[donest]

I make no apology for labouring this point. At no point have you said that you are inserting the micro-SD card into the micro-SD slot on the underneath of the RPi.

At this point *I* am the one who should be apologizing! I had repeatedly stated that the micro SD card plugs into an adaptor, that in turn plugs into a reader, that is inserted into the USB port on my PC for formatting and installing NOOBS. I figured that the whole assembly (card, adaptor, and reader) would then plug into one of the USB ports on the Pi!

Noticing your message tonight, I more closely examined the Pi. There is a slot for a micro-SD card, but was rather inaccessible due to the translucent case that i had mentioned. I had to pry the case apart and insert the card into the proper slot, and voila! All is working now.

The full size SD card that I bought with NOOBS installed is pretty useless except to save in case anything goes wrong, and I need to reinstall the os.

Thanks for all of your replies. They really did help!

[mahjongg]

"D'oh Face-palm..." never thought that anyone would NOT understand what to do with the Micro-SD card! (that is to stick it into the card holder of the PI).

Took the trouble to make the point extra clear in the Boot Problems Sticky!

Again, the SoC of the PI, has not a single byte of ARM code in it, except for the GPU which has just enough primitive code to read a single file from a FAT formatted SD card inside the card holder. It certainly does NOT have enough code to keep up a full USB stack to read such a card from an USB cardholder.

To be perfectly honest, it does contain some USB-hardware code, but that code is too primitive to read from memory devices, it uses another much simpler procedure which cannot even navigate through a hub, (that is why it cannot work on a B+, which includes such a hub. its not really USB compatible, but the compute module uses this method, as the card is replaced by an eMMC chip so it cannot be programmed otherwise.

[edited once]

[donest]

Yes, I saw that one little (ULTRA-important) line amongst all of the info, but since I was having problems accessing the slot, I incorrectly assumed that using the reader, I could just insert it into one of the USB ports. After all, other input devices work there...such as keyboard and mouse. I again assumed that since my PC can read and write to the card through the USB port, that the Pi should be able to as well.

I hope this thread may help others who are completely new to the Pi. Am I the first (out of what...hundreds of thousands?) to make this critical mistake?

[andrum99]

Yes, I saw that one little (ULTRA-important) line amongst all of the info, but since I was having problems accessing the slot, I incorrectly assumed that using the reader, I could just insert it into one of the USB ports. After all, other input devices work there...such as keyboard and mouse. I again assumed that since my PC can read and write to the card through the USB port, that the Pi should be able to as well.

The Pi can read and write to an SD card connected via a USB adapter, it just can't boot from it. If you were sold the wrong card for your Pi as part of a kit (i.e. you purchased a single item containing both a Pi and an SD card) then speak to whoever you bought it from - they should offer to give you the correct (micro SD) card. (even if it wasn't sold as part of a kit, you should be able to do a swap).

Glad you got it sorted.