PBP not powering up (anymore)
#1
Hi there,

after waiting for such a loooong time, I finally got my PBP on Friday.

Over the weekend I played around a little bit with Manjaro and then wanted to try a different OS. After repartitioning the eMMC, I accidentally pressed the false delete key (i.e. the power button) and the system shut down. Since then I can't get the PBP powering up anymore. Neither a USB stick (the one I used for the interrupted installation) nor an SD card with the Manjaro KDE image does the job.

I don't really understand what's wrong since at least the SD card should do the trick. A hardware failure just in that unfortunate moment would be a big coincidence. But what else could it be and most importantly: how can I get it fixed?


Anyone got a lifesaving clue?

Thanks!
Criena
#2
write an sdcard with a known-good uboot, like danielt's debian installer. just do a minimal install and see if that boots... if not, disable emmc and boot again. if nothing works you'll want to buy that emmc usb adapter. there are some other options like writing to SPI, but you probably don't want to entertain those, yet.
#3
(05-31-2020, 08:15 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: write an sdcard with a known-good uboot, like danielt's debian installer. just do a minimal install and see if that boots... if not, disable emmc and boot again. if nothing works you'll want to buy that emmc usb adapter. there are some other options like writing to SPI, but you probably don't want to entertain those, yet.

Hi there,

thanks for the hint. I had a look at the Debian installer, but you have to build the image first - on the PBP (which doesn't boot). I didn't see anything mentioned about cross-compiling.

The Manjaro image should work. I double-checked the SD card, there's two partitions, one MANJARO_BOOT and the other with the root filesystem. But it has no effect.

I didn't mention this explicitly, but just to make sure we're on the same page: when I press the power button, nothing happens at all. No orange (or even green) light turns on - nothing. I'm starting to think that it maybe is indeed a hardware failure.
#4
I just opened the case, disabled the eMMC, no luck. I also disconnected the battery and used the bypass cable, also no success.

Anyone with the same problem (and possibly a solution)?
#5
Almost the exact thing is happening to me.

First, I dropped my PBP, breaking off the inside corner plastic pieces, but it still powered on and booted (corner of the screen that hit the concrete first is now dark - very sad-face...).

Then I erased the eMMC (sudo dd blahblahblah).  Powered off, and now I cannot power it back on.

I've tried my old MicroSD card that I booted from when I erased the eMMC.  Nope, won't boot.

I've pulled the back cover off and disabled the eMMC, pressed reset, still nothing.

I've even unplugged the battery and connected the bypass cable, still nothing.

Help??

BTW, I love my PBP - got it last Christmas before the ANSI keyboard was available.
#6
prepare danielt's installer on another computer, preferably with debian. once we confirm anything can boot you can rewrite the uboot on the emmc.
#7
i'm not sure how manjaro handles uboot, which is why i suggest using the debian unofficial installer with a known-good solution. i have an "emergency" sdcard that i have used more times than i'd like to admit.

use another computer to write the new sdcard.
#8
(06-02-2020, 12:40 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: prepare danielt's installer on another computer, preferably with debian. once we confirm anything can boot you can rewrite the uboot on the emmc.

Hi,

I tried to use danielt's installer on a different computer, but I have no alternative arm64 device available. And on my x86 laptop the script fails since it tries to chroot into the debootstrapped environment, which understandably has arm64 executables.

I also tried an image from mrfixit, but I get the same result, nothing boots. The only improvement was, that the power LED flashes green for a millisecond when pressing the power button.
#9
Well, this only costs a minute of your time
Try an "extra long press" of the power button,, ~20 seconds (complete power off), then a normal start press
mrfixits in SD slot
Otherwise, try physically removing emmc
#10
(05-31-2020, 05:00 PM)Criena Wrote: Hi there,

after waiting for such a loooong time, I finally got my PBP on Friday.

Over the weekend I played around a little bit with Manjaro and then wanted to try a different OS. After repartitioning the eMMC, I accidentally pressed the false delete key (i.e. the power button) and the system shut down. Since then I can't get the PBP powering up anymore. Neither a USB stick (the one I used for the interrupted installation) nor an SD card with the Manjaro KDE image does the job.

I don't really understand what's wrong since at least the SD card should do the trick. A hardware failure just in that unfortunate moment would be a big coincidence. But what else could it be and most importantly: how can I get it fixed?


Anyone got a lifesaving clue?

Thanks!
Criena
Can you share the OS dsitro image you were trying to flash when you accidentally powered off the device? This is give us a better understanding on what the uboot is trying to do.

Also the last option would be to enable uart and get uart logs, this will need uart cable used for pinebookpro.

As everyone have already advised you about booting from SD card then you might have to try a different sd card. You should try all the major os images like debian from mrfixit should definitely work as it is using bsp uboot. 

Try different sd card and report back.

Good luck.
Manjaro ARM Team.
Devices: Pinebook Pro & PinePhone.


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