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White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2020 7:49 pm
by mythicninja
I had recently finished my project, and I was able to get the mintypi to work just fine. After not touching overnight, I decided to check again just to see if it's still working fine. I found that the pi wouldn't boot, and plugging in a power adapter just gave me a white screen.

I know each pin was soldered correctly because I made sure to do a continuity test after soldering each GPIO pin. I have tried re-flashing the SD card with the software from this website, but that was to no avail. I have also tried readjusting the ribbon cable to the pcb and the display, but that didn't help either. Any suggestions?

I guess it's also good to mention that I used a USB-C laptop charger on the power board, but I don't know if that could also have affected the pi. I remember that the pi didn't stop working after using the charger because I was still able to power up the pi using the battery and micro-usb charger.

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:55 pm
by Helder
Yup the laptop charger likely killed the charging chip or some other parts but best way to know is to plus a usb-c cable into something like a usb port of a computer and see if the lights come on to show it's charging the battery.

You can also test the voltage of the battery to see if it has a charge or it might have gotten damaged too and the the PI should still work if you power it directly through the micro usb on it and if you give it enough time to boot it should be working.

If it does not come on test continuity from the Pi to the LCD using this image below.

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:25 pm
by mythicninja
I tried out all of your suggestions and here are my results:

1. I plugged the USB-C cable into a computer and I can confirm that the light was turning on to indicate that the battery was charging
2. I checked the voltage on the battery and received between 8.0 - 8.4 volts each time
3. I checked the continuity test on the pi to the screen and everything checks out

The only thing that wasn't going to plan was plugging the micro usb into the pi. I plugged in the cable and waited for more than 20 minutes hoping for the pi to boot, but I ended up with the the same result.

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:13 pm
by Helder
That battery reading is so wrong that you are either not using the multimeter properly or somehow you doubled the voltage output of the battery which is impossible.

Other than that and you not showing us any pictures of your soldering can't suggest anything else other than the soldering could be bad and you are using the multimeter wrong which leads me to believe if your continuity checks are even accurate.

White Screen

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:16 pm
by mparr86
Good afternoon,

Im almost done with my build. But Im having troubles with my screen. I checked the soldering it was good...the connection is good... What else should I try?

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 4:50 pm
by Helder
Looks like the wrong image on there, are you using the mintyPi Lite image? and not the V3 image?the Links to the right software are on the video guide's description.

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:08 am
by mythicninja
Hello again! (Follow up)

You were right with the voltage, I accidentally wrote 8 volts when it should have been around 3.4 v for the battery. Also, I did read up on continuity again to make sure I was doing it right. After finishing up the continuity test, it wasn’t doing anything, leading me to believe the pi itself probably died. Though unfortunate, I did have fun while it lasted. Thanks once again for your effort, support, and advice!

Below I have an attachment of the GPIO pins:
image.jpg
image.jpg (2.21 MiB) Viewed 5219 times

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:12 am
by mythicninja
Do you think it would be better to try and restart, or is there a good method of switching the pi? Btw this is more of a hobby for me so anything helps!

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:24 am
by Spyder
If the pi is dead, Helder just put a youtube video on how to remove it. Does the pi still light up if you have an SD card in it and plug in a micro USB?

Re: White Screen and no boot (dead pi?)

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:05 pm
by mythicninja
Unfortunately it doesn't, so I'm assuming it's dead? I'll definitely check out the video. Thank you!