21

Out of nowhere my pi stopped booting. The red led lights up, they a long flash of the green led and then a cycle of 4 green blinks. HDMI screen shows nothing. I tried this with two different SD cards, the seconds one is brand new, flashed with vanilla "2013-09-25-wheezy-raspbian"

this page says that 4 blinks mean "start.elf not launched" and that "If start.elf won't launch, it may be corrupt." but the image I'm using seems fine. I've also tried replacing start.elf with the one from github with the same result.

Multimeter between tp1 and tp2 shows 4.91V

tried setting hdmi_safe=1 in config.txt but nothing changed.

Have I bricked my pi? what else can I try?

syb0rg
  • 8,178
  • 4
  • 38
  • 51
shoosh
  • 327
  • 1
  • 2
  • 8

6 Answers6

10

The answer to another question:

Won't boot after removing and inserting the SD Card?

That answer suggests that four green flashes indicates that that loader.bin failed to launch, rather than start.elf. Have you checked that for corruption?

Community
  • 1
Chenmunka
  • 620
  • 6
  • 17
  • 28
2

For me the problem was caused by my removing of the line start_x=1 from /boot/config.txt file, and in my firmware there is the file /boot/start_x.elf and not /boot/start.elf.

I solved removing the SD card, load it in an adapter and restore with my laptop the line in config.txt file.

Zac
  • 130
  • 4
1

I don't think that you have bricked your Raspberry Pi, it's very resistive to misbehavior.

I had this same behavior on one of my Raspberry Pi's. Do you use two different SD cards? If you do try an older image (before 2013-09-25). Also try the newest version.

Are you using a Raspberry Pi made in UK? If you do it might have these problems you describe.vAre you using a Raspberry Pi with a Samsung or NOOBS SD card adapter? If so, it might have these problems you describe.

I think the best way to fix this (without buying new stuff) is to find an image before 2013-09-25.

You may find this post interesting.

syb0rg
  • 8,178
  • 4
  • 38
  • 51
syss
  • 173
  • 2
  • 8
1

The problem is your sd card corrupted after doing some type of update to the system. Happened to me when i updated an addon then cancelled it. Just reformat it then reinstall the os.

TR3X
  • 11
  • 1
0

The solution: go to the store I bought it, get a new board :)

shoosh
  • 327
  • 1
  • 2
  • 8
0

4 flashes means that loader.bin not launched

TheRealToast
  • 31
  • 1
  • 5