Dead BeagleBone Black?

[dyngnosis]

I purchased two beagle-bone black devices 2 weeks ago. I believe the first one is dead. When I plug it in the blue PWR led quickly flashes and that's it. The other boots without issue.

Are there troubleshooting steps to follow or can I RMA this item?

[adafruit_support_mike]

Try flashing a new copy of the OS to the eMMC. Sometimes a BBB makes it through the functional tests with an OS image that won't boot, or has errors.

We have a tutorial showing how to do that over here: https://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone-b ... bone-black

[dyngnosis]

Same thing happens... I hold down the button as the article suggests and when I plug in the USB power I get one quick blue flash from the PWR led and then nothing.

[adafruit_support_mike]

That does sound like a hardware failure.

The makers of the BBB insist on handling all returns directly, and there are two of them (CircuitCo, who make the original BBB, and Element14/Embest who make the authorized clone). Which one do you have?

[dyngnosis]

Element14 and now I'm getting a bit worried.

If you look at thread this RMA thread:
http://www.element14.com/community/thre ... hread=true

Their support says:
) The RMA form posted above requires several fields eluding to the requirement of an account. There are two account creation links listed (iBuy & Credit Account). Credit Account leads to a Commercial Credit Account creation form. I would say most of us are using the boards for hobby and private development - not needing a commercial account.

2) Emailing support: Upon emailing support, they immediately require an Element14 "Invoice Number" and "Order Code". Great so what happened if you bought it from eBay, Amazon, or ADAFruit? These are retailers selling the board that purchased these boards in bulk for resell. These retailers are the ones that hold the "Invoice Number" and "Order Code".... we the consumer do not have these records! Even after explaining that I purchased the board through other means (not directly from Element14) _AND_ even placing in _BOTH_ my emails and RMA form application that I_AM_WILLING_TO_PAY_FOR_REPAIR, I get the following:

"Did you purchase the part from element14? We are not able to further assist if there isn’t any element14 invoice and element14 part number. With the given info below, these are invalid"

If this is in fact true it sounds like both of you may be refusing to take back dead boards!

Please note post #6 in the thread by "pitichai" is having the exact issue I am.
Also note post #15 by "Ricky Hariady" is having the exact same issue.

This seems to be a reoccurring issue. Who is going to take responsibility for the boards? If element14 really only takes back boards with an invoice that's YOU.

I've also emailed [email protected] and will update but I'd really like to hear back from you guys asap.

[adafruit_support_mike]

Embest (the manufacturing partner) handles RMAs: [email protected]

They've also given us the URL: http://www.embest-tech.com/technical-su ... t-support/

If you can't get any response from them, let us know. We won't leave you hanging, but if the standard methods work it saves us from having to resolve things behind the scenes.

[dyngnosis]

I've sent them an email and referenced this thread.

[dyngnosis]

They have asked that I do some HW troubleshooting and check the voltage at certain points. I can do this when I get home. They are not willing to deal with me directly though it seems. (see below).


Lydia Nie <[email protected]>
Attachments9:33 PM (11 hours ago)

to me, support
Dear Jeremy,
Sorry for hear that.
Please check the voltage points of BB-Black as the attachment shown.
And if the 3.3v or 5.0v is incorrect, please contact with Adaruit as he is our direct purchase. And we could deal with the issue boards from him.

Best Regards

[adafruit_support_mike]

Okay, time to solve this.

Send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and the folks there will get you a replacement Element14 BBB. (#1996)

I'll let them know you've tried the usual way and got bounced back to us, and will let our business manager start doing some warm-up swings with his vendor-negotiation bat.

[dyngnosis]

Support was incredibly fast. I've was given a number to use and instructed to place an order for a new BBB. The order is placed and I'm awaiting delivery.

Thanks!

[adafruit_support_mike]

Yeah, our support folks are awesome. ;-)

I'm sorry you had to deal with the back-and-forth, but glad to hear they got you what you needed.

[mattbush]

I also just received a BBB (element14 version) that doesn't boot up. Only USR0 and USR2 flash (USR1 and USR3 never light up after the first 2 seconds). I'll try flashing the OS tomorrow. Otherwise, how should I resolve this?

[adafruit_support_mike]

Same information as above: contact Embest Tech first. The information we have says that they demand exclusive support for RMAs.

[Ponchon]

Only USR0 and USR2 flash (USR1 and USR3 never light up after the first 2 seconds).

I'm pretty sure that's the intended behavior... from the BBB SRM:

USER0 is the heartbeat indicator from the Linux kernel.
USER1 turns on when the SD card is being accessed
USER2 is an activity indicator. It turns on when the kernel is not in the idle loop.
USER3 turns on when the onboard eMMC is being accessed.

In my experience only the heartbeat LED and the CPU LED (USER2) would be on after boot. What are you using to communicate with the beaglebone/how do you know it's not booting?

[mattbush]

I sent the following to [email protected]:

"I purchased an element14 BEAGLEBONE BLACK through Adafruit. When I try to boot the board, I receive a string of hardware errors and never reach a login prompt.

I tried updating the OS as per:

http://www.element14.com/community/docs ... lack-space

When I reach the "While holding down the 'boot' button, apply power to the board. Continue to hold the 'boot' button until the USER LEDs begin to flash", the LEDs never flash (even after holding the 'boot' button down for 5 minutes) and I never reach a login prompt.

There appears to be a hardware error. Please advise."