Boot Problems, LEDs lit continuously

[pfeerick]

I guessed that with your unusual led activity the problem was terminal as far as the board was concerned. I assume the manufacturer has taken this this on board and maybe that strange led activity is in fact a failed POST report.

Good luck with your replacement.

Depends on what you mean by 'strange'... since by default, even with no boot medium, the green light will always come one when you connect power since it is a power present indicator, and the white and red leds also are on by default. And generally none of the images control the led, although I'm told one of the exceptions to that is some of the 'artful' images.

Due to the nature of SBCs, it's hard to diagnose problems without having access to the serial console, and being able to ensure that good SD cards are being used (and the write is being verified) and that a good power supply is used. Then we can start pointing the finger at the board - which it seems Facecreator was finally able to do. As soon as that happens, I don't see the pine64 guys having any issues replacing the board as long as some basic diagnostic steps are taken to ensure it isn't a user or environment specific problem. It's the unfortunate nature of ARM systems... they're temperamental and not as easy to use an x86 based platform. It would be a bit easier if the SPI chip was flashed in the factory since the rock64 (and sopine and pine64 LTS) has it by default (unless it is now) and people were basically forced to also get a serial console cable - then you can always go "connect the serial console to your rock64, plug the usb into your computer, use putty|minicom|etc and connect to serial console, apply power to rock64, do you get any output -> yes, then the card is the likely problem -> no, the board is dead on arrival"

I'll stop ranting on now

[Rocklobster]

I guessed that with your unusual led activity the problem was terminal as far as the board was concerned. I assume the manufacturer has taken this this on board and maybe that strange led activity is in fact a failed POST report.

Good luck with your replacement.

Depends on what you mean by 'strange'... since by default, even with no boot medium, the green light will always come one when you connect power since it is a power present indicator, and the white and red leds also are on by default. And generally none of the images control the led, although I'm told one of the exceptions to that is some of the 'artful' images.

Due to the nature of SBCs, it's hard to diagnose problems without having access to the serial console, and being able to ensure that good SD cards are being used (and the write is being verified) and that a good power supply is used. Then we can start pointing the finger at the board - which it seems Facecreator was finally able to do. As soon as that happens, I don't see the pine64 guys having any issues replacing the board as long as some basic diagnostic steps are taken to ensure it isn't a user or environment specific problem. It's the unfortunate nature of ARM systems... they're temperamental and not as easy to use an x86 based platform. It would be a bit easier if the SPI chip was flashed in the factory since the rock64  (and sopine and pine64 LTS) has it by default (unless it is now) and people were basically forced to also get a serial console cable - then you can always go "connect the serial console to your rock64, plug the usb into your computer, use putty|minicom|etc and connect to serial console, apply power to rock64, do you get any output -> yes, then the card is the likely problem -> no, the board is dead on arrival"

I'll stop ranting on now    

In fairness the SBC world is still in its infancy and many of these teething problems will in time be sorted out no doubt. Its just a little frustrating when youre having to try alternative periphals which you may or may not have to hand to rule out a faulty board. 

The SPI option would be the obvious route to go here. In fact it reminds me a little of the boot to the old ROM Basic on the IBM PC that used to allow you to boot the machine in the event of a floppy disc drive failure.

Ironically the old 5.25 inch floppy is bigger than the Rock64. Now there's progress for ya.

[pfeerick]

Ironically the old 5.25 inch floppy is bigger than the Rock64. Now there's progress for ya.

Nah, I call the 512GB MicroSD progress 512GB in less than a square inch... now THATs progress!

Yup, SPI is certainly the way to go since some of the smarter SBC manufactures are starting to include them as standard... thanks pine64!