PBP won't power. Charge light solid orange/red but turns off.

[cmicallef]

Hello,

Not sure if anyone has experienced this problem before.

I was working on my near new PBP (3rd or 4th use). It suddenly turned off during use. I haven't been able to turn it back on.

It doesn't turn back on after a short or long press of the power button. Power light doesn't come on at all.

If I plug in the barrel charger, the red/orange light comes on solid but turns off after a minute or two. USB-C charging does the same.

The eMMC seems to be mounted properly. Checked the eMMC switch too.

Reset switch does nothing.

Disconnecting and reconnecting the battery also does nothing.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

[KC9UDX]

I would measure the battery voltage. It sounds to me as if the battery voltage is too low for charging.

[cmicallef]

@KC9UDX Thanks for the suggestion. Haven't measured it. The fluke is at work. Will do it on Monday evening.

Disconnected trackpad. Disconnected sdcard daughter board (after trying multiple distros on sdcard).

Battery disconnected and bypass cable connected. Keyboard still connected.

On plugging in barrel power, power light turns on. It lights up orange. Board squeals a little bit then turns off.

If I leave it alone after doing that, nothing more happens. No display. CPU remains cold.

Open to suggestions

[KC9UDX]

The light turning orange suggests code (U-boot) is running. Maybe boot fails after that? (Bad boot code?). Maybe turn the eMMC off and try to boot to SD card with the bypass connected. But it's starting to seem more like the battery is too low.

[cmicallef]

The light turning orange suggests code (U-boot) is running.  Maybe boot fails after that?  (Bad boot code?). Maybe turn the eMMC off and try to boot to SD card with the bypass connected.  But it's starting to seem more like the battery is too low.

@KC9UDX Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried booting from SD Card with eMMC off. No luck.

But I'm not sure how the battery is relevant given that I'm using the bypass.

[cmicallef]

I would measure the battery voltage.  It sounds to me as if the battery voltage is too low for charging.

Found an old multimeter. The battery is 4.34V. Seems like the battery and charging is fine.

[KC9UDX]

I surmised that the battery was too low because you had activity without the battery that you didn't have with the battery. But maybe I misunderstood.

Do you now get the same results without the bypass, with the battery installed?

[cmicallef]

To clarify, on plugging in the battery or plugging in the barrel power result in the power led turning on orange for a few seconds.

If the battery is connected, I cannot get the power led to turn on at all. I have to disconnect and reconnect the battery.

Thanks again

[KC9UDX]

Okay, this really sounds to me like U-boot runs, and hands over control to the operating system, which crashes early.

Lets leave the eMMC turned off for now.

1) What operating system image are you trying to boot from Micro SD?
2) Have you tried a different Micro SD card?
3) How are you writing the image to the SD card?
4) Do you have a UART cable (beware there are "right" looking cables which can cause damage)?

I highly recommend the original PBP operating system image, "Debian Desktop" which can be found in the wiki, for these situations It seems to be the most likely to work in these situations. There have been many reports of SD cards that do not work properly, even a few reports of SD cards that once worked, which now do not. I only ever write SD cards with `dd`. I am not familiar with other methods, but many people report having other preferences.

It may sound ridiculous, but it is pretty common to have a buggered eMMC and an SD card that won't boot, at the same time. Usually after trying relentlessly, the PBP will just suddenly work with a particular SD card; and then you can rewrite the eMMC and get back to normal business. I hope this is your case.

If you should have a UART cable, and a way to use the serial console, this may give you more insight to what's actually happening.

[cmicallef]

Okay, this really sounds to me like U-boot runs, and hands over control to the operating system, which crashes early.

Lets leave the eMMC turned off for now. 

1) What operating system image are you trying to boot from Micro SD?
2) Have you tried a different Micro SD card?
3) How are you writing the image to the SD card?
4) Do you have a UART cable (beware there are "right" looking cables which can cause damage)?

I highly recommend the original PBP operating system image, "Debian Desktop" which can be found in the wiki, for these situations  It seems to be the most likely to work in these situations.  There have been many reports of SD cards that do not work properly, even a few reports of SD cards that once worked, which now do not.  I only ever write SD cards with `dd`.  I am not familiar with other methods, but many people report having other preferences.

It may sound ridiculous, but it is pretty common to have a buggered eMMC and an SD card that won't boot, at the same time.  Usually after trying relentlessly, the PBP will just suddenly work with a particular SD card; and then you can rewrite the eMMC and get back to normal business.  I hope this is your case.

If you should have a UART cable, and a way to use the serial console, this may give you more insight to what's actually happening.

YESTERDAY
=========

**For reference purposes only, feel free to skip to TODAY section below**

eMMC off.

Without UART cable!

1) Tried the following-

- Debian Desktop image by mrfixit (via wiki link)
- Archlinux image (via wiki link)
- Ubuntu Bionic LXDE image (via wiki link)
- NetBSD (via wiki link)
- Chromium (via wiki link)
- Manjaro KDE (via wiki link)
- Manjaro eMMC installer 20.04 (via osdn.net)

2) Yes, three of them. I've also checked whether they work on other devices. Able to boot from them on other SBC boards.

Samsung EVO Plus 128GB
Verbatim 8GB
Verbatim 4GB (where the image could fit)

3) dd

The only other tool I've *ever* used for writing SD cards is bmaptools.

4) Could not try. UART at work.

Observed as stated in previous posts.

TODAY
===

eMMC off.

UART cable delivered by work courier this morning (can't go to work today because of COVID19 restrictions).

1) Tried-

- Debian Desktop image by mrfixit (via wikilink)

2) Samsung EVO Plus 128GB

3) dd

4) UART pl2303 chipset being used. PL2303 is OK'd by the wiki (https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinebook_Pr...g_the_UART). When UART is connected (via screen with baud rate of 1500000), u-boot shows.

Stops on 'Starting kernel ...'

If I spam the boot sequence with 1 and Enter keystrokes, so that there is no delay in loading the kernel, the display flicks for half a second.

I'm guessing this is some progress!

UPDATE

Other distros are, e.g. debian official, are finding CRC errors with the SPIFlash.