New RockPro64 Power Up Problem

[TRS-80]

Am I correct in assuming that the board should at least attempt to power up with nothing connected but power? What can I research and check?

Your old x86 hardware instincts are serving you well here. In fact I was going to suggest removing everything and trying the board by itself.

Yes it should power up, but without a serial cable, you have no way of really knowing what's going on. Lights are inconsistent between manufacturers and even software implementations. The fan may or may not start to turn.

Unlike x86, on SBC there is no standard hardware interface (like BIOS on mobo). Everything low level is in kernel, bootloader, device tree, etc. Which is totally different from x86 you are used to.

In SBC world, good power and reliable brand name SD card from a reputable source (which do not include eBay nor even Amazon nowadays) are the most common problems. More basics here:

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Basi...eshooting/

Burn a good copy of a system image (I recommend Armbian) to a good SD card, using exactly the methods proposed there is probably the easiest way. It will either work or it won't. Beyond that, you probably need a serial cable to know more (which you should have anyway (and probably more than one), if you are going to start playing with SBC).

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.