Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

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denish
 
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Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by denish »

Hi,

I was working with my Rpi only for some days when this problem occurred: When I try to boot it, only the red light is on and nothing else happens. I’ve already checked a lot of threads in the internet and in your forum but nothing helped: reflash the SD card, used another power supply, waited for several hours, disconnected all devices, …

What’s Adafruit’s replacement policy in such a case? Can I send it back and get a new one?

Order #304523

Best Regards,
Denis

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Have you gone through this checklist?: http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting# ... on_display

denish
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by denish »

Yes, I've already checked this list.
Unfortunately without success.

What's the next step?

Thanks,
Denis

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

How did you
denish wrote:Yes, I've already checked this list.
What did you find when you went through the list?
Do you know for certain that you have a valid, bootable image? How did you generate the image on the SD card?
Do you see a brief flash of the green LED when you first apply power, or does it continue to glow faintly?
What kind of power adapters are you using?
Is there anything else connected to the Pi?
Did you check the voltage across TP1 and TP2?
You verified that the pins in the SD socket are springy and not stuck at all?

denish
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by denish »

adafruit_support_bill wrote:What did you find when you went through the list?
Nothing eye-catching or broken.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:Do you know for certain that you have a valid, bootable image? How did you generate the image on the SD card?
The image worked once. After I have realized that the RPi isn't working I first checked the SD-Card on my computer and it worked without problems. Then I copied the image to the SD card a second time like I did it before when it worked. I even retried it a second and a third time...without success.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:Do you see a brief flash of the green LED when you first apply power, or does it continue to glow faintly?
The green LED glows faintly.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:What kind of power adapters are you using?
I've only used the power adapter that was included in my order until the RPi became unresponsive. It's a Motorola, 5.1V, 850mA. Afterwards I have also tested another one to make sure that the power supply is not the problem.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:Is there anything else connected to the Pi?
I've disconnected everything from the RPi. So for all of my test there were only the power cable and the SD card connected. Nothing else.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:Did you check the voltage across TP1 and TP2?
I can't check the voltage because I don't have the necessary equipment.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:You verified that the pins in the SD socket are springy and not stuck at all?
The pins on the SD socket are all fine.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

denish wrote:The green LED glows faintly.
The faint green glow means the RasPi can't find a bootable image on the SD card. Even though the card may work on your regular computer, the RasPi is having trouble reading it.

Have you tried booting from another SD card?

denish
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by denish »

I've just bought a brand new SD card from RadioShack, deployed the OS image to it like I did it the first time when it worked and tried it with the RPi: same result, only red LED.

To be honest... I'm not sure if the green LED glows faintly or if it's only a reflection from the red LED. I've attached a picture so you can have a look at it by your own. I've also added pictures of the SD card slot. For me it looks good.
Attachments
SD card slot without SD card
SD card slot without SD card
2013-07-13 18.06.14.jpg (754.95 KiB) Viewed 916 times
SD card slot with SD card
SD card slot with SD card
2013-07-13 18.05.36.jpg (908.73 KiB) Viewed 916 times
Red and green LED
Red and green LED
2013-07-13 18.04.44.jpg (808.14 KiB) Viewed 916 times

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Dead Raspberry Pi - only red light

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The green LED does have a faint glow. The photo makes it easier to see.

The problem is that you have a broken SD connector. If you look at the left side of it in the first photo, you can see a rough edge where the tab on that side broke off. The missing tab should hold that side of the SD card down on the pins that make the connection. In the second photo, you can see the SD card floating free on that side. The CPU can't find a boot image because connection that carries the data is probably too noisy to be reliable.


Update: I just checked with the folks upstairs, and we can do a straight replacement on this one. Send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and we'll get things going.

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