Rock 5b+ dead or not?

#1

Just received my 5b+ and it will not boot and no image from HDMI. The green light is just on, not other colors not blinking happening.

What I have done:

  • used one sandisk 64gb pro card , also tested with second sd card. Tried with 3 different armbian images. I made the images with mac dd.
  • I’ve tested 3 different chargers, one is macbooks charges, one is raspberry pi 5 official charger
  • i connected usb-c to usb-c cable to 5b+. First is took sd card away, took all other usb and power cables off and tried multiple times to press the maskrom button when connecting to my mac. Didn’t get usb devices listed
  • tried all hmdi and dp ports with 2 different monitors

The only thing that the 5b+ does is that there is just the green light on, no blinking nor any other colors.

Is there something else I should try or is the 5b+ dead? I just have one memory card, the card has been used earlier in other sbc’s and there was no problems in the dd-operation.

#2

A UART output would probably tell us something

#3

You need to hold that button before powering up device:

In docs it’s said to use usb-c to a cable, but it works on my computer with usb-c to usb-c, this is not general rule (some computers have weird usb-c ports). You may have charge only usb-c cable too. To enter maskroom mode You need data cable for sure.

Maskroom is first thing to try. for windows rockchip drivers are needed to use right tool in this mode, but without them unknown device should appear.
If You confirm maskroom working then UART is next step to debug boot process.

#4

Thank you.

I have tried with 2 different cables and one is 100% sure data cable. I have been holding the maskrom button and there is green light on the device after connection but no usb-devices are listed. I think this confirms that the device is somehow dead, because I understood that the maskrom is good initial test to check that the device is somewhat functioning.

#5

did you try the other usb c port (the one that stands alone and not the one next to other I/O)

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#6

I had a similar problem with the rock 5B. I read the message about power being the issue. I fed it a 12 volt connection and all worked well, except for running a bit hot. I could also boot and use the device at 9 volts. Traditionally usb type c output from a computer runs at 5 volts. This is too low to power the board.
I have just tested a rock 5B+ with 9 volts. All is well.

#7

What is happening is sellers of this stuff that sell on the online market places are forced to take returns. Then they resell it as open box / and even as new condition. More than likely you are the proud recipient of blown up board that was returned to them. Also, so many buy returns from the big online market places and use label remover to remove the labels and resell it as new.

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#8

It works perfectly on 5V/2.4A with no accessories (mainly with no nvme) and really simple cellphone charger but at same time it can bootloop on modern GaN charger with bunch of power and some weird logic and protections. 5V is not a problem, bare 5B needs 1.5W-8W and default USB params can easily deliver that.
@geerlingguy just posted on his second channel about his bench charger that has few interesting features (8 port, clear LCD status display) and most important one is that it will not disconnect any other device when something new is connected (most my chargers will do that). If maskroom is not working on that particular computer I would just try on different one or via usb hub. If there is still a problem something is wrong, I would try with another 5B to be 100% sure, I know that require another SBC…

This is not the product like TV or cellphone, it requires some skills to get it up and running,
check out ameridroid return policies, they tried the best to have that fair and for sure they always try to help their customers also taking responsibility for faulty products (for sure they don’t resell those, but others of course may do that). Just note that law on many countries allows to return products (sometimes including shipping cost) and probably it’s hard to test everything on such boards and of course some small amount of boards may be damaged or broken on delivery.
For sure its worth to validate sbc as soon as possible and maskroom mode is easiest path for that.

#9

I am getting the same issue with radxa rock 5B +
rock 5b+ is not booting from sd card
tried 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB sandisk ultra class 10 micro sd cards
used rock-5b-plus_bookworm_kde_b2 from https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock5/rock5b/download
used 3 charges 18W mobile phone charger, 33W mobile phone charger and 65W apple macbook charger also
checked with 2 different working hdmi cables
checked both hdmi ports of rock5b+
checked with 2 working monitors

tried to get in maskrom mode also by holding the maskrom button and then plugging the usb c to a cable into my pc and then releasing it
but didn’t get any device in device manager of my pc
RKDevTool_v2.96 tools also says no device found
installed the drivers also from this https://wiki.radxa.com/Rock5/install/rockchip-flash-tools
checked both usb c ports of rock 5b+

now what should i check so that i can conclude that the board is working or not?

#10

Maskroom is easiest thing to check, You should get USB device, with no/bad driver just unknown usb device.
You need to have right cable (data cable) and usb port that can deliver 2A, most modern laptops have no problem with that, on ROCK5 it’s as easy as connecting usb-c to usb-c.

As always - You should get LED light (meaning board is powered) and UART output. This requires UART adapter of course, but it’s cheap thing.

#11

Yes, so I bought a usb to ttl module connected
TX of module to RX of radxa rock 5b+ at pin 10
RX of module to TX of radxa rock 5b+ at pin 8
GND of module to GND of radxa rock 5b+

Opened putty set baudrate to 1500000

But the putty is not showing anything

I tried booting up with microSD card while connected to uart

I tried getting maskrom while connected to uart

Nothing comes up in putty

and the status led of radxa is solid green

Any suggestions what do i do next?

#12

What module are You using? Some have troubles with 1.5M baud rate,
do You have any other rockchip board to confirm that its working?
Also You can swap rx and tx and retry (this is common mistake)

This is correct, some bootable device is needed to get UART output.

Maskroom mode will not output anything as far as I remember. This is realy simple mode to handle basic stuf, it’s boot device independent and usually easy to get some valid response from soc (meaning listed usb device).

Can You please make photo of this setup?
have You used balena to burn image?
wait at least 5 min with this green light and reset board, still no output?
Solid green means that board gets power, but cannot boot. I seen this with no valid boot device, at same time maskroom worked perfectly.

#13

I am using CH340G module
and its working cause I have used it for uploading the code to esp32 and monitoring it
and it worked perfectly for that
and yes I have swapped and check also still no output in putty

yes maskrom is easy and basic but i am not getting the usb device also in the device manager of windows10 and I also followed the process of getting in maskrom mode from radxa wiki and done it 4-5 times also with 3 different charges also

i used balena etcher as well as usbimager
yes i also thought that maybe the sdcard will be not compatible with the board so i tried maskrom also but i didn’t get that also

also tried an armbian image for radxa 5b+ also but that also didn’t work

and we have waited for more than 5 min also and then reboot also but nothing comes up

i have also checked the voltage at VUSB pin of the TYPE C connector it is showing 12.1 volt
and my charger is of 33W so it can provide about 2.75 A

#14

I ordered second identical device (and also made reclamation to the seller that the first one is broken). My symptoms were that the led stayed green all the time and no life in maskrom, and no life in booting.

I received new device today and it started working immediately! The first device was just broken.

Thank you everybody for help. I almost though that I cannot just do it :slight_smile: (have had dozens on raspberrys, arduinos, build tens of computers, started using linux last millenium, so things weren’t totally new)

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#15

ESP32 doesn’t use the crazy 1.5 M baud rate.

#16

If You tried all those and board still is unresponsive then it may be damaged of course
I would inspect it carefully for any visual damages or broken components,
was it working at any point?
nobody knows what have happened to Your board earlier, with some bad luck You could kill board by ESD
If You have second board then it’s easy to compare, nobody will ask about right cable or UART controller if its already checked.

#17

I never had any problem with CH340G, this one should be ok,

#18

Maskroom test is easiest way to talk with SoC and confirm that it’s working. On ROCK4 series this requires right cable, did not work with all ports. On R5 it’s bit easier because all USB-C data cables should work. This is nothing weird in small devices, ie. I still need to use usb2.0 hub to connect some android phones for ADB.

Great,
as always there are some faulty devices, some damaged in transport and some by inexperienced users.
If You have anything else to compare - then it’s really easy to judge :slight_smile:

#19

Can you take a picture of the serial connection? Does the board LED light up when you connect the power to it?

EDIT: I see you have 2nd board to confirm that your setup is working. In that case, please contact the original seller for warranty.

#20

we just received if from the seller and first thing we did was connect it with hdmi
burn the image using balena etcher
and insert the sd card and connect the usb c for power
and the image didn’t show up in monitor we waited for 15 mins
but it didn’t work so then we tried maskrom also by removing hdmi and sd card and then pressing the maskrom button then connecting the usb c data cable with the pc
but that also didn’t work
then we contact the seller, the seller told to connect to radxa forum or community or support
so now we are here

so basically the board was never working
and also we are actively working with esp variants esp32 esp32s3 esp32c6 make our own hardware and firmware also
we also have worked on raspberry different versions also

hence we know what esd is and how to handle a board
regardless of that wouldn’t the board have to be esd safe

there are no visual damage in board
also the led working 5v coming, 3.3 volt coming and 12v coming in the vusb pin of usb c socket

and no we dont have another radxa rock 5b+ board