Rock 5B dies during boot

#1

I’ve been lurking here a week now, reading up on all the posts, but I haven’t found a solution to my boot problem yet.

I initially booted with Ubuntu and played around a bit with the Rock 5B, but after about an hour, it randomly stopped working (HDMI died). Since then, I can’t get past the post. I see about half a page of Ubuntu boot messages (maybe 1 second worth), then the HDMI stops, and all I have is a green LED on the board.

So far I have tried the following:

  • 3 different SD cards
  • the 64GB eMMC from Allnet
  • 5 different USB C power supplies + multiple USB C cables
  • a Barrel-jack to USB converter, and 2 different 12V power supplies, 3A and 5A
  • 3 different distros
  • SPI flashing and erasing

The board is not dead, as I can flash the SPI from my Linux box over USB. It just won’t finish booting!
Does anyone have any tips/tricks/ or just advice on returning this thing?

#2

Welcome to the club :frowning:

Tho i guess you are doing better than me. you got something. i got nothin

#3

OK some updates:

I put the new Armbian image on an SD card, and used the barrel adapter. I saw the boot last way longer this time, maybe 20 seconds of booting, before a green screen of death. Attaching the device to ethernet, and rebooting I see:

Request timeout for icmp_seq 50
Request timeout for icmp_seq 51
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=52 ttl=64 time=34.432 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=53 ttl=64 time=4.018 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=54 ttl=64 time=5.848 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=55 ttl=64 time=3.730 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=56 ttl=64 time=4.020 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=57 ttl=64 time=5.598 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.3.94: icmp_seq=58 ttl=64 time=4.421 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 59
Request timeout for icmp_seq 60
Request timeout for icmp_seq 61
Request timeout for icmp_seq 62

so, it was alive for a short time!

On a hunch, I removed the HDMI cable, and it booted!
I can SSH into the system, and run a CPU benchmark etc.

  • This only word on one of my microSD cards, a cheap old 8Gb card. On my good SanDisk ExtremePro 256Gb, I have the same crash a few seconds into boot (as seen by pinging the board)

  • On the eMMC, I don’t even get that far. Pinging the board never gets a response :frowning:

But now I have more weirdness…
If I have keyboard plugged in (I have tried 2 different ones), and I touch any key, at any time, the system crashes instantly!

As I want to use the board with a camera/keyboard, this is a big problem

#4

Anyway of getting Console access and running a ‘dmesg’ ? Just a thought

#5

no, it’s dead at that stage. I’m sending it back to be replaced.

#6

I noticed that boot stuck for several minutes at this point in log

DDR Version V1.08 20220617
LPDDR4X, 2112MHz
channel[0] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[1] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[2] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[3] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
Manufacturer ID:0xff 
CH0 RX Vref:29.7%, TX Vref:22.8%,21.8%
CH1 RX Vref:28.7%, TX Vref:21.8%,21.8%
CH2 RX Vref:26.7%, TX Vref:20.8%,21.8%
CH3 RX Vref:29.7%, TX Vref:21.8%,21.8%
change to F1: 528MHz
change to F2: 1068MHz
change to F3: 1560MHz
change to F0: 2112MHz
out
INFO:    Preloader serial: 2
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.3():v2.3-405-gb52c2eadd:derrick.huang
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 11:23:47, Aug 15 2022
INFO:    spec: 0x1
INFO:    ext 32k is not valid
INFO:    GICv3 without legacy support detected.
INFO:    ARM GICv3 driver initialized in EL3
INFO:    system boots from cpu-hwid-0
INFO:    idle_st=0x21fff, pd_st=0x11fff9, repair_st=0xfff70001
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[0].freq_mhz= 2112MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[1].freq_mhz= 528MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[2].freq_mhz= 1068MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[3].freq_mhz= 1560MHz
INFO:    BL31: Initialising Exception Handling Framework
INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services
WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader, Booting device without OPTEE initialization. SMC`s destined for OPTEE will return SMC_UNK
ERROR:   Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast
INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    Entry point address = 0x200000
INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9
#7

Solution: Samsung 45W Aka Super Fast Charger 2.0
Works like a leaf for everything u plug it in.
Otherwise Pi Hut page sells the Pi 4B PSU 9€$£.

#8

Wish i could send mine back. I got it early bird, and with all the problems people had, i assumed it was PD related. So i waited.

But no, its hosed. expensive door stop now.