PinePhone won't boot, no LED, nothing.
#1
Hello,

I think I have broken the PinePhone I got for my 17th birthday. But I don't know, I'm not good at systems stuff, I'm just a simple programmer.

What I did:
I wanted to boot from an SD-card, but it didn't let me boot; it just booted from the internal storage. So I did something I now extremely regret: I tried to make the OS that I installed on the internal storage un-bootable by writing from /dev/random to the /dev/*Whatever the eMMC was*. At least, it doesn't boot the Manjaro ARM with KDE Mobile (which I didn't like), which the Desktop of has just... gone away... some time ago ?!
But the problem is: It doesn't boot anything anymore.

What happens:
Nothing. Nothing at all. The LED on the outside doesn't light up, it doesn't boot, it does as much as a clay brick that I could buy in a building supplies store.

Please help.
  Reply
#2
If I understand what you did, uboot has been over-written on the eMMC so there is no way for the phone to boot off it. (I'm pretty sure that uboot turns the power light on.)

You'll need to boot up on an SD card, maybe try re-writing an OS image to your card or try a different card.
  Reply
#3
(04-21-2022, 10:56 AM)Anthragon Wrote: Hello,

I think I have broken the PinePhone I got for my 17th birthday. But I don't know, I'm not good at systems stuff, I'm just a simple programmer.

What I did:
I wanted to boot from an SD-card, but it didn't let me boot; it just booted from the internal storage. So I did something I now extremely regret: I tried to make the OS that I installed on the internal storage un-bootable by writing from /dev/random to the /dev/*Whatever the eMMC was*. At least, it doesn't boot the Manjaro ARM with KDE Mobile (which I didn't like), which the Desktop of has just... gone away... some time ago ?!
But the problem is: It doesn't boot anything anymore.

What happens:
Nothing. Nothing at all. The LED on the outside doesn't light up, it doesn't boot, it does as much as a clay brick that I could buy in a building supplies store.

Please help.

It's unlikely to be actually broken, you will just have to boot something from the microSD card. Is that question regarding the regular PinePhone ot the PinePhone Pro?
  Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Pinephone visibly losing power while plugged in Hiraghm 6 3,880 10-17-2025, 09:48 PM
Last Post: Labinkled
  How can I record video on a Pinephone? kk22 22 13,659 10-08-2025, 01:29 PM
Last Post: Kevin Kofler
  Does PinePhone support long-term battery health optimization? roseblack 5 811 10-06-2025, 09:05 PM
Last Post: Kevin Kofler
  iso pinephone for sale (USA) elwoodb25 0 3,572 09-24-2025, 09:25 PM
Last Post: elwoodb25
  Why projects like PinePhone matter – feedback and encouragement Gary2003 13 17,133 09-16-2025, 01:13 PM
Last Post: Gary2003
  Can use PlayStation on Pinephone? willharper 7 8,555 09-13-2025, 12:30 AM
Last Post: ChaiLetters
  Pinephone Pro Neural Processing Unit biketool 1 5,087 09-01-2025, 02:05 AM
Last Post: biketool
  Want to buy second hand PinePhone 3G version rudi.timmermans 2 4,621 08-31-2025, 07:18 AM
Last Post: Fish
  Pinephone Pro not in store? bubulux20c 1 2,960 08-08-2025, 02:12 AM
Last Post: P. Siera
  PinePhone Pro EU no warranty P. Siera 0 2,439 07-21-2025, 12:08 AM
Last Post: P. Siera

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)