Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

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noahajac
 
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Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by noahajac »

Hello all,

I recently bought a 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 for a car stereo project. It was working well however there was an intermittent issue where the Pi wouldn't even attempt to boot. It initially did not occur often, but then the problem's frequency increased to the point where I had to pull power about 10 times to get the Pi booting. I had another Pi in this project before that did not have this problem and I eventually swapped this one out with another which works just fine. With this Pi outside of the project I attempted to reflash the EEPROM thinking something got corrupted. When flashing, the red failed screen appeared and the serial console printed chip errors (full log attached). Now the Pi isn't booting at all.

I believe there is unfortunately a hardware problem with this Pi. I didn't buy it directly from Adafruit, I bought it from eBay. However the seller provided me with the Adafruit invoice for warranty purposes.

Invoice #: 2862909
Bought 6/9/2022

Thank you!
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eeprom_update.log
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dastels
 
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Re: Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by dastels »

There are a couple problems as I see it:
1) See https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi ... ng/warning. Assumedly you had something connected to the GPIO header, and we don't know what who you bought it from did to/with it.
2) Even if it was decided to replace it, that's not very possible at the moment given the current unavailability of Pis.

What are you powering it with in the car? Pis can be picky about their power source.

Dave

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noahajac
 
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Re: Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by noahajac »

dastels wrote:There are a couple problems as I see it:
1) See https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi ... ng/warning. Assumedly you had something connected to the GPIO header, and we don't know what who you bought it from did to/with it.
2) Even if it was decided to replace it, that's not very possible at the moment given the current unavailability of Pis.

What are you powering it with in the car? Pis can be picky about their power source.

Dave
These are both good points and thank you for raising them. The Pi is connected to and powered by a Beocreate 4 from HiFiBerry. GPIO is connected to relays, a rotary encoder, and the Beocreate's own GPIO usage. When I attempted to reflash the EEPROM it was hooked up to a USB-C charger. I understand GPIO connections can fry a Pi. However, I changed nothing when I switched to the Pi following the one in question. and it does not have the issue. I recognize there is no way for me to prove this and that the eBay seller could've done something as well.

You're right on the availability of replacements. I figured I'd try to go the warranty route after some pushback received by the seller, but it seems like I will have to continue down the eBay refund path.

Thank you for the link, I will make sure to test Pis in the future before hooking them up to anything besides power.

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argonblue
 
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Re: Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by argonblue »

GPIO is connected to relays
Did you connect GPIO pins directly to relay coils without a driver? Inductive kick can kill an unprotected digital output. (and maybe an entire chip)

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noahajac
 
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Re: Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by noahajac »

argonblue wrote:
GPIO is connected to relays
Did you connect GPIO pins directly to relay coils without a driver? Inductive kick can kill an unprotected digital output. (and maybe an entire chip)
The GPIOs are inputs so the Pi is connected to the relay contacts. The coils are powered by the car's 12 volts. For example the Pi's 3.3v is connected to the COM, a GPIO pin is connected to the NO, ground is connected to the car chassis, and the coil input is connected to (for example) the illumination wire.

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dastels
 
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Re: Intermittently Dead Raspberry Pi 4

Post by dastels »

Static is the biggest problem when working with the GPIO header.

Dave

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