Raspberry Pi Diary - Refuses To Boot

Getting Nowhere

I've wasted a lot of time over the last 24 hours trying to get my 32Gb SD card formatted correctly. Today I tried loading the raspbian image file (from http://raspberrypi.org/) to the card using the 'dd' command in a terminal window.

It all looks OK yet the Raspberry Pi fails to see the card when you power it on.

A Hint at What Was Wrong

I found a few web pages that stated some SD cards just didn't work, and set about reviewing the http://www.raspberry-pi.co.uk/2012/06/07/compatible-sd-cards/ list to see if mine was supported.

But my card is a cheapo unbranded card from ebay and I wasn't able to see a brand name. Though not really conclusive, I began to suspect that this was the problem.

I gave the card to a work colleague who promised to try it out on his Raspberry Pi tonight.

Lets Try Another

In the mean time I borrowed a Kingston 8Gb card from my son (who's also keen on getting this working), carefully backing up his contents before starting work. We did exactly the same as before:-

1. Format the SD card using SDFormatter (just a quick format this time).
2. Copy the contents of the NOOBS folder onto the root of the card.
3. Clean out the dot files that the Mac OS insists on adding (using CleanDisk).

Then we removed the card from it's adapter, slid it into the Pi's microSD slot and powered it up..... It started booting (whoop!!)

The NOOBS Install Menu

It takes about 20 minutes while it alters the partitions and then installs your selected OS.

Install the OS

I'm amazed how slick the process is after that. It runs fine on my TV, and the sound even works via HDMI. Next step is to get my bluetooth dongle working. :-)

Raspberry Pi Diary - There's power but screen is dead

We are Noobs

I ordered a Raspberry Pi B+ from Maplin last week and it arrived the other day. All the other parts had already arrived, and we'd downloaded NOOBS (which we definately are!!) and copied the files onto the micro SD card ready.

Rashberry Pi B+ in it's Pibow Coupé case

Tonight we put everything together, plugged it into our TV, borrowed the USB keyboard from the kid's computer and plugged the Pi into 5v power supply.

We got lights, but the screen remained blank!

Tried it on the monitor in the other room, still nothing.

Why Won't it Work?

The thing we noticed was the green ACT light wasn't flashing, which indicates that the Pi isn't booting. The two main causes of this are:-

• Power supply has insufficient current.
• The card isn't readable.

First I switched to my iPad charger unit as a power supply,.. but still nothing! (both LEDs still on solid)

After a little bit of googling it seems that the card isn't readable. If you format the SD card using SDFormatter using a Mac (which I did) then make sure you use the Full Overwrite method. Damn, that's gonna take some time.

Full Format The SD Card

The screen grab shows attempt number two, the first time (after about an hour) I brushed against the card in the reader slot and it crashed the software. Had to fix the format in Disk Utility and start again.

In the mean time I've re-downloaded the NOOBS software for when the card is ready. I'd like to rule out bad files too while I'm at it.

Overall - a disappointing start!