I am looking for advice from anyone who has recovered from a similar issue or if this should be treated as a hardware failure.
The Issue:
I recently purchased a Radxa Q6A. On day one, I confirmed it was working perfectly by booting Radxa OS from a MicroSD and Armbian from an NVMe. I then stored it back in its original box.
A week later, I reconnected everything, but the device entered an infinite boot loop. It displays the BIOS/splash screen, but automatically resets after about 10 seconds—before the OS starts loading. This 10-second window is too short to perform any operations.
Troubleshooting steps taken:
Isolated Storage: The issue persists even with the MicroSD and NVMe removed. This rules out OS or drive corruption.
Firmware Recovery (EDL Mode): Suspecting a firmware issue, I attempted to follow the “Flashing SPI Boot Firmware” guide. I installed the necessary drivers/tools and connected the Q6A to my PC via the OTA port using a new USB A-to-A cable.
The Critical Failure: Even in EDL Mode, the Q6A continues to reset every 10 seconds. This drops the connection to the PC, making it impossible to complete the flashing process.
Environment Check: I have tested multiple AC adapters(45w,60w), different USB cables, and different USB ports(also USB2, USB-C). I also tried the process on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines. The behavior remains identical.
At this point, it seems clear that the cause lies within the Q6A hardware itself, but I am stuck as I cannot maintain a stable connection long enough to reflash the firmware.
Is there any “hard reset” method or a way to bypass this 10-second watchdog/reset cycle? I’ve just started using this board and would hate to see it bricked so soon.
Missed this post. I just posted about an almost identical issue. I wonder was there an update to an armbian package that broke something? I managed to get into the BIOS after many attempts. After about a minute or so coloured lines started streaking across the screen and it then rebooted.
I have also ordered a serial connector along with a male to male USB 2 to see if I can update the firmware.
In my case, the system fails to boot and gets stuck in a reboot loop.
The system enters the boot sequence, displays the BIOS screen, and then immediately restarts, so I can’t do anything. After attempting a firmware update, I’ve reached a point where even the BIOS screen won’t appear.
I’ll share the logs here once the serial cable arrives.
I also updated the firmware and get the same thing. Black screen (nothing registering over hdmi on the tv) I get a solid green light but the white/blue light does not flash at all. I fear something has burned out on the unit. GPU maybe? I can connect through the serial connector but don’t get any login screen.
The green LED stays lit but blinks/flashes every 10–15 seconds, and the device hard-resets along with it. There is no HDMI output signal, and the serial console（UART) remains completely blank with no output whatsoever.
On my PC, the Device Manager briefly recognizes both the USB-Serial and the OTA USB connection, but the connection drops and resets in sync with the LED blinking cycle.
Hi there,Sorry to hear your Radxa Q6A is stuck in an infinite boot loop even in EDL mode. Based on your detailed troubleshooting, this is very likely a hardware issue.Could you please share your order number so we can assist with warranty replacement?
Hi just to confirm I don’t think it has an infinite boot loop even in EDL mode. EDL mode seems totally functional. but after flahsing spi image provided from radxa, at least these two version that I tested:
260120
251013
I see it failing. not sure if it’s a hardware issue or a new SPI Boot Firmware will fix the issue.
Update: bought from Arace Order #ARA15902
@Lezy Could you confirm if this issue is being looked into? Looks like @chenchongbiao may be looking into it. I’m reluctant to go down the warranty process given this board was purchased while I was in China and am back in Europe now where no stock of 12 models appear to remain at the moment.
Granted only 3 of us appear to be affected by the issue (yet), it seems there is a training issue with the 12Gb ram modules. My issue presented after a crash so only a matter of time before other 12Gb owners affected I suspect.