not booting; flashing error code
December 22, 2023, 17:42
i bought a "raspberry pi model b+ v1.2" from ebay, and on attempting to boot it seems to be flashing an error code that i haven't been able to identify by googling. i've attached a video; it looks like three short flashes, one long flash, two short dim flashes, and one long flash. even if that's just a three-short-one-long that's consistently repeating poorly for some reason, that combination didn't seem to be listed. does anyone know what this means?
> 3 flashes: start.elf not found 4 flashes: start.elf not launch-able (corrupt) See below: 7 flashes: kernel.img not found 8 flashes: SDRAM not recognized. You need a newer bootcode.bin start.elf firmware, or your SDRAM is damaged
this kinda looks like 4 flashes to me. don't worry about the length of the flashes just how many
wait how have you got a pi b+ v1.2? I've never heard of that before
actually nvm it is 3 I think
hm. i've tried running the imager program a couple of times for both 1 and 3 (the ones listed as having b+ models) and it still hasn't worked.
or alternatively it's just reading from the SD card but it's slightly corrupted or its realy slow
can you show me the listing of your pi?
this?
oh interesting
never seen that before
anyway what's your power supply like?
currently plugged into a usb port in my desktop while i try and set it up. i could see if plugging it into a usb plug fixes it.
you might need a better power supply
it seems to be flashing/illuminating not at regular intervals now, so that definitely did something. hopefully that means it's working?
your laptop USB port probably isn't supplying enough volts
you need a power supply that says about 5v 2a
it's actually 1.3a but nvm that
how do i tell if it succesfully boots, will the green light stay on?
or stay off, because it seems to be doing that now.
it will flicker then stay solid
or keep flickering if there's disk activity. either way you should know if it works
it is now occasionally flickering, so i'll wait and see, i guess.
if it's making a pattern like blinking 3, 4 times etc Tell us
that's a code
no, just occasional blinks.
now it seems to be flashing dimly at regular intervals with the occasional bright flash. the bright flash is not a consistent number of dim flashes apart.
ok it's not that then
which pi is this again?
"b+ v1.2".
oh yeah
ok I would suggest usb boot but you can't do that with yours
another micro SD card?
i have one in my old 2ds that i know works, i'll try that.
or apparently i won't, because it's only 4gb.
you can with 4gb I think
apparently not.
damn
I don't know what to do anymore
have you tried that different power supply?
that was the first thing i tried, yeah. i'm currently re-installing the image again just in case, and if that doesn't work... i don't know, i guess i buy a new micro-sd and see if that helps.
this one was just "whatever had good reviews and was cheap" instead of one of the reputable brand names, so for all i know it could be a bad card.
yeah
on the off-chance that it is actually working and i just can't tell: i have the impression there's some way to access it from one's other computer, but i can't seem to find the method to do that. is it a program or a webpage or what.
ssh?
it's pretty simple. find the IP of your pi (I can help you with this) or set the hostname and then in windows terminal type in ssh [user]@[hostname/ip]
i assume this means it's not, in fact, actually working.
correct. or you got the hostname wrong
that's the default hostname the imager put in, so it's not that. unfortunate.
for the record, in case of curiosity or in case this information might be useful in future, i realized i could plug it into my tv to see what was going on and apparently it was booting properly. so i guess this is just what its led does when it's on.
yes that's actually pretty useful
wait I just found out something
is your red led blinking?
just double checking
oh no it is not
check the CPU and see if it has a big M on it