ROCKPro64 DOA

[Rocklobster]

I bought a ROCKPro64 about a year ago, but have only just taken it out of the box and tested it to find it DOA (Dead On Arrival). I contacted Pine64 sales about getting a replacement and although they replied quickly, they just told me to raise a support ticket, which I did. However, I've been waiting six days without a response and reading other messages here about ROCKPro's being DOA I'm concerned that Pine64 support is non-existent.

I also have a Pinebook Pro that was delivered with two ';' keys and a missing 'H' key - It took months to resolve that problem until they eventually sent me a replacement 'H' key and I managed to pries off the incorrectly positioned keys and replace them in their correct positions. Like everyone else here, I support the objectives of Pine64, but the lack of support and unwillingness to RMA faulty products seriously detracts from their stated objective to create good hackable hardware at affordable prices.

I've tried connecting a USB-TTL adapter to the UART pins on the GPIO connector of my ROCPro64, but nothing is being output: There is only one green LED illuminated on the board, but the NIC led's are on solid. It makes no difference if I have an eMMC chip or SD-card in, but I was hoping to see "uboot" output as I do on the Pinebook Pro over the UART serial lines. Has anyone got advice about how to check if my ROCKPro64 board is dead or not?

Thanks,

  Tony.

When you say your RockPro64 is DOA, when you apply power is there any activity at all. I'm using my board booting off Armbian Focal 5.10 kernel via an SD card. I've a beefy 12v 5a power supply attached, sourced elsewhere to avoid under voltage issues. Have you tried an alternative power supply just to rule that issue out. Keep the board as stripped down as possible before you attempt to boot it.