No HDMI output (don't think the boards are dead)

[thegooddoctor]

First of all, hello. My Pine64's (x3; 2GB wifi?BT models) arrived yesterday! and I can't seem to get HDMI output (initially I thought the devices were not booting so the info below reflects my booting attempts)

I have tested x2 Pine64's to no avail
          a) Pine 64 2GB, wifi/BT module not installed
          b) No other peripherals connected (ie. keyboard or wired network)
          c) Used generic (fully tested) 8GB microSD cards, as well as 16GB ADATA microSD cards
          d) Used supplied power supplies, as well as 2.1amp USB outlet based adapters (Targus & Philips; reputable quality that work perfectly with higher amperage requiring devices such as tablets and other SoC's).
          e) Tested on LG 49UB8200 and LG 65UB9300 (both are 4K units); Also tried Onkyo TX-NR636 to pass HDMI through to 65UB9300.
          f) Also tested on HDMI capture card (1080p resolution limit).
          g) Used PhoenixCard 3.1.0 for phoenix based images, and Rufus and imageUSB for DD images (images from http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...re_Release and use of PhoenixCard and Rufus based upon http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=1146)
          h) each time allowed 5-10 minutes to elapse once plugged in - only red LED was on with no other feedback from Pine64 nor televisions/receiver
          i) good quality HDMI cables with no previous issues with 3D use.
          j) I handled the Pine64's appropriately
          k) files were MD5 checked
          l) used 2 different Win7Pro units for writing of images to microSD cards
          m) Tested the following images: android-rooted-ver5.1.1-20160505-pine64-8GB, remix-v2.0-20160415-pine64-16GB, Pinea64_android_lollipop_db1000_20160216, debian-mate-jessie-20160501-lenny.raposo-longsleep-pine64-8GB, remix-v2.0-20160415-pine64-8GB, pine64-image-debianmate-310101bsp

This is not my first endeavor, as I have multiple Raspberry Pi units as well other computers, servers, and an advanced network in use.
After all these attempts the devices have failed to output HDMI.

I cannot think of any further testing that I can perform. The only other monitors that I have access to do not have HDMI inputs and unfortunately HDMI to DVI adapters are known not to work with the Pine64.


additional
Reading some of the threads, one person commented that there are a lot of HDMI issues.
I booted up the OpenHAB microSD (well couldn't really tell if it booted up or not as I had no HDMI output, but as in every case the red LED remained lit) and plugged in the ethernet cable about 5 minutes later and there was network activity (good sign).


I then loaded an android microSD card, and I checked my DHCP server on my router and there was an IP assignment to a new android device!!!!!!!!!!!

So how does one fix this HDMI problem (thinking that this is my most likely problem)?

Thank you.

[xalius]

I would say that the HDMI out should work with your 4K displays no problems, at least from my experience... I have two Pine 2GB and they work with any TV that can do 1080p in my house, and even with a normal DVI adapter on my old EIZO TFT when set to 720p... can you try the new Debian release image from lenny's site:

https://www.pine64.pro/download.php?opti...ptionid=41

just unzip that archive with 7zip or something, use win32diskimager or dd to write it to a card, you should see HDMI output and get a ssh login right away...

[thegooddoctor]

I would say that the HDMI out should work with your 4K displays no problems, at least from my experience... I have two Pine 2GB and they work with any TV that can do 1080p in my house, and even with a normal DVI adapter on my old EIZO TFT when set to 720p... can you try the new Debian release image from lenny's site:

https://www.pine64.pro/download.php?opti...ptionid=41

just unzip that archive with 7zip or something, use win32diskimager or dd to write it to a card, you should see HDMI output and get a ssh login right away...

Tried that Debian release and still  no dice.
Even tried a HDMI to DVI cable to my Dell 2007FP with nothing (but that monitor is a 4:3 and I don't know if it can appropriately take a 720p input).

Great ... I have 2 really new televisions (4K) that don't work and old monitors that don't work.
I'm surprised that this bug made its way this far as sounds like many users have the same issues.

As for burning images ... thanks but I've burned a lot with my testing with PhoenixCard, Rufus, and win32diskimager.

Anyone from Pine64 support would like to chime in/???????/

[MarkHaysHarris777]

I was finally able to catch the PineA64 hdmi in the act... (its taken me four weeks to get it to fail !)

... I  finally got it to fail so I could watch it, using lennyraposo's base img.  (the xfce img does not fail, nor does the mate img fail; because the timing for how the PineA64 negotiates with the hdmi is different)

The new base img (lenny's site) has a timing issue where it fairly reliably will not negotiate a connection with the hdmi and the PineA64 goes into an infinite loop... black screen, red light, and nothing... sound familiar ??  but, its NOT nothing... its looping like crazy forever (which you can't see unless you have a serial cable attached to the exp header so that you can watch it) !  It spits out a gazillion tables of hex digits and other debugging data and then pauses for 15-20 seconds, then repeats over and over forever.   black screen, red light... and nothing ...   the board is NOT dead !

The solution is timing... resetting the display monitor (input source select) and then pressing the reset button on the PineA64 board will cause the hdmi monitor to synch up with the pine and the machine will bootup. Of course, the base img was designed to run headless, so it boots into a cli signon / and the user may also signon to the serial console as well. 

I noticed one more interesting phenomenon with the base img / and that is that the hdmi is not the only looping culprit that results in a black screen , red light... and nothing... and that is the blue tooth module. It from time to time picks up stray signals and tries desperately to lock onto them... the blue tooth module driver loops infinitely preventing the machine from booting up.  Again, you can see this happen with a serial cable attached to the exp header pins during the bootup.


Allwinner needs to fix the hdmi issue asap. There needs to be an open driver for the video; no blobs. The hdmi video has the potential for killing this whole project. We need to be able to configure the hdmi_group, as well the hdmi resolution (whatever that is) with appropriate overscan as needed. Without a video driver the hdmi is hit or miss... 

If anyone is interested in seeing the output from the loop, I can provide it. If you need detailed instructions for reproducing this loop, let me know. oh, by the by, this loop can be reproduced almost reliably by booting the base img wihtout the hdmi plugged in and with a serial cable attached to the exp header. It will looop almost every time and the developer can see what is going on. 

I suspect that the other OSes are experiencing a very similar phenomenon. Again, the board is NOT dead... its just not useful in an infinite looping state !

marcus

[thegooddoctor]

The new base img (lenny's site) has a timing issue where it fairly reliably will not negotiate a connection with the hdmi and the PineA64 goes into an infinite loop... black screen, red light, and nothing... sound familiar ??

I have no infinite loops - just a constant red LED lit.

MarkHaysHarris777

---

Allwinner needs to fix the hdmi issue asap. There needs to be an open driver for the video; no blobs. The hdmi video has the potential for killing this whole project. We need to be able to configure the hdmi_group, as well the hdmi resolution (whatever that is) with appropriate overscan as needed. Without a video driver the hdmi is hit or miss...

Agreed
(thank you for the info MarkHaysHarris777)

[MarkHaysHarris777]

The new base img (lenny's site) has a timing issue where it fairly reliably will not negotiate a connection with the hdmi and the PineA64 goes into an infinite loop... black screen, red light, and nothing... sound familiar ??

I have no infinite loops - just a constant red LED lit.

Have you watched with a PL2303 serial TTL cable plugged into EXP header pins (7)Rx  (8)Tx and (9) Grnd ?

... I think if you monitor the serial port you too will notice the loop I'm talking about...

marcus

[manthis]

I'm also having a constant red light and nothing on my hdmi display

[Luke]

I'm also having a constant red light and nothing on my hdmi display

Which image did you use? / how did you burn it? / what PSU are you using and whats the AWG of the cable?

[sanverm]

I also only have a red led on the board and no output through HDMI. Just used the Android image provided by Pine (Android pre-installed on microsd), connected everything, but nothing.

[mrv]

Here the same..... I have 2 pine boards, both don't have HDMI output on any of the monitors/TV's I have.

They work well as headless servers, so there is nothing wrong with booting/SD etc, but no HDMI output visible in android or Linux images I tried.
There are many Allwinner TV sticks out there without this issue, so I assume this is solvable with the right attention to the software side.