The 6 most common reasons why Pine64 won't boot

[Ghost]

Just got my board and all I have is a red light when I plug it in. Nothing else. Had a bitch of a time trying to get Phoenix Card to NOT error out. I have a USB cord from my tablet. Do I need a better one? I have tried this every way I can think of and this is not booting.

What is the voltage and amperage of your power supply?

[martinayotte]

I've received my PineA64 2GB two days ago ...
I've tried first boot yesterday, I was seeing the boot logs on HDMI in text mode until it start X11.
Then, with a blank screen, I wasn't able to figure where it was hanging during boot up.
Seeing all those threads about power supply, I change the one I used, 5V 1A, to another one, 5V 2A, and it finally succeeded to boot up !!!

[tkaiser]

I change the one I used, 5V 1A, to another one, 5V 2A, and it finally succeeded to boot up !!!

As usual. If the Pine64 folks would start to collect the many simple reasons users run into troubles in a quickstart guide they would save not only most of the disappointed posts here but also their users hours of hours of wasted time.

[tllim]

I change the one I used, 5V 1A, to another one, 5V 2A, and it finally succeeded to boot up !!!

As usual. If the Pine64 folks would start to collect the many simple reasons users run into troubles in a quickstart guide they would save not only most of the disappointed posts here but also their users hours of hours of wasted time.

We will focus on this week to organize a QSG.

[Darkover]

After several tries still no luck to get it working.

2GB model
Power: Patona 5V 2.1A microUSB
Memory: Samsung micro SDHC 32GB Class 10 EVO
OS: various unix I found on this forum

Pine is working by my opinion, mouse and keyboard LEDs start glow, internet port is blinking, red power LED is ON. But my monitor is like No Signal Input. I'm using HDMI 1.4 cable, monitor type ASUS MW221U, older but I'm still using it regularly. I have no clue how to troubleshot HDMI.

[tllim]

Since this thread has been unpinned in the meantime obviously the forum admins and/or Pine64 people think all issues have been successfully resolved in the meantime.

Puh, time to leave this place...

Sorry about the unpinned, it is done by mistake. I just check and already been pinned back.

[tkaiser]

I change the one I used, 5V 1A, to another one, 5V 2A, and it finally succeeded to boot up !!!

As usual. If the Pine64 folks would start to collect the many simple reasons users run into troubles in a quickstart guide they would save not only most of the disappointed posts here but also their users hours of hours of wasted time.

We will focus on this week to organize a QSG.

You need printed warnings/instructions inside the package. For both sensitivity to electrostatic discharge (some users will kill their Pine64 right after unboxing) and a quickstart guide (can be short but has to point to a web location you should also link to from the forums and your other pages).

Isn't it frustrating also for you when you see your users suffering from all the well known and well understood problems again and again wasting hours of their time? That constantly wrong information is spread in the forums that doesn't really help? 

And why do you provide OS images that do not receive updates (the Arch image)? Your OS image (which is based on longsleep's) has problems with your hardware unlike any of the community provided OS images since you refuse to update it. That's just weird.

[yourhighpriestess]

The order of the reasons is not intentional, it's just the order things come to my mind based on Forum posts:

1. The official Android and RemixOS images can't be burned the usual way to an SD card (dd, Rufus, WinDiskimager) but need Phoenix Card instead (Windows only and causing all sorts of troubles for users that do not use this strange operating system). Burning an Android image the wrong way will result in the Pine64 waiting endlessly while showing already a red led lighting.
   
2. Data written to SD card got corrupted either because you unfortunately bought a counterfeit SD card or the card is faulty. Another common problem are SD card readers that start to overheat when used with a fast card and corrupt data 'on the fly'. Checking for both problems is simple: Never use any flash based media without verifying it before.
   
3. Insufficient power supply: unfortunately Pine64 uses Micro USB for DC-IN, many USB cables have a resistance way to high (leading to severe voltage drops) and this combined with crappy PSUs (the old phone charger you found in the drawer) will lead to the Pine64 crashing in early boot stage
   
4. HDMI issues: You connected a screen but Pine64 and display disagree about settings (no idea whether EDID is implemented in Allwinner's 3.10.x Android kernel that is currently also used for all available Linux images)
   
5. The Pine64 boots fine but you don't notice still staring at the red led indicating 'error'
   
6. You use either the RemixOS or an Android image and have Ethernet connected at first boot. This will prevent the board from doing so, so please consider disconnecting Ethernet after burning an Android/RemixOS image and only connect it back when you already see the desktop.
   

What to add?

Important to know: 

• pre-production samples were equipped with a green led, the production batch replaced this with a red led. So red doesn't indicate failure but 'power available' instead. Unfortunately you get no other feedback whether the Pine64 actually boots or not. The red led will light even if the A64 waits patiently for a bootable OS available on a SD card an hour or endlessly.
  
• combining 'smart USB chargers' with devices that are 'dumb' on the other end of the cable might not work: If you use a 'charging hub' to power your Pine64 then chances are pretty high that the charger only provides 500mA (max. current defined by USB2.0 specs) which might be not enough to allow the Pine64 to boot (5.1V/2A!). Most 'smart chargers' will only provide more than 500mA if the device in question implements any of the USB power specifications (Pine64 implements none of them since it's just DC-IN)
  
• 2GB boards suffer from crashing or rebooting loops when Ethernet is connected since there's a integer overflow present in older kernel variants. Fixed by longsleep in early April, so Linux images can be updated using the instructions from "Linux Development" forum an a new RemixOS release should fix this also.
  

how do I get around the timeouts I get with Phoenix?

[gottifour]

Why is this board such a clusterfuck to boot?! Every other board, computer, wall, picture, gameboy, tv, apple, orange etc is a cake walk compared to this? WHY is such a simple task such a pain in the ass?!?!?!?!?!?!

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Not bashing the developers at all here either. I know they are going through some shit with rabid crazy supporters. I just can't for the life of me understand the problem here. VIVA la PINGA.

[tkaiser]

Data written to SD card got corrupted either because you unfortunately bought a counterfeit SD card or the card is faulty. Another common problem are SD card readers that start to overheat when used with a fast card and corrupt data 'on the fly'. Checking for both problems is simple: Never use any flash based media without verifying it before.

how do I get around the timeouts I get with Phoenix?

You should read the posts you're answering to. Check the card you want to use first since it's easy and a prerequisit for burning Android images (Phoenix Card will fail pretty early when used with a counterfeit card, will stop right after the "[Boot]Burn success" message since writing the system partition beyond the card's real capacity is obviously not possible)