Raspberry PI 3 Dead

As per Shabaz's comment  you will definately need the latest release of  Rasbian (Download it and check the checksum!!) , program this onto a known good SDcard then verify the contents.

I realise it's frustrating and boring but unfortunately it's the only way to reasonably check each part of the overall system rather than just switching it on and the thing not working .

As usual More questions than answers... lets here back from you when you have done that ...Cheers

Well guys,  I've got it running somewhat.  Here are the issues I have found.

the wi-fi is flakey.  Pings from my Mac to the Pi3 are all over the place from 5 ms to 125 ms.   and it drops out often, meaning I have to sign back in to the router.

trying use Tightvncserver is also problematic.  Sometimes trying to connect will cause the wi-fi on the PI3 to  drop out.

None of my other PI's are like this.

What happens if you ping from the Pi to the router, does that temporarily fix the problem?

i.e. when you observe that the pi is no longer pingable from the Mac, then if you ping from the pi to the router, are you then able to ping from the Mac to the Pi again?

Try this to update firmware to latest level:

1. sudo apt-get install rpi-update     (Maybe already there)
2. sudo rpi-update

Clem

I've done all this and I'm still having issues with the wi-fi dropping out.

I've tried pinging both ways to and from the Mac and the PI3.  Still get way too large of times.

Also, when I try to ping from the PI3 I get the following:

ping:  icmp open socket:  Operation not permitted

I have to go to sudo ping to make it work.  I've never seen this before on any of my other PI's.

It is difficult to help if you are you not more precise with your problem description unfortunately. You have mentioned WiFi 'dropping out' what does this mean? Lost packets? Is it intermittent, and once packets begin to be dropped are all packets dropped or does it recover? You also mention round trip times being high. Is that a separate issue, or is this what you meant by 'dropping out'?

Sorry that we don't speak the same dialect of English.  By dropping out, meaning, that the WI-FI connection is lost.  It will do this for several seconds at a time.  Sometimes requiring to reconnect the wi-fi at the panel in the top left of the screen.

There is some sort of issue here, as the ping times should be less than 10 mS and no packet loss.

One question I would ask... do you folks replying to this post have a PI 3 running.  If not say so.  I have several PI 2's and do not have such issues.

The environment is very important. how far are the machine and router? walls in between. The power of the radio signal? Do you have many other AP's nearby? I know how to try some things.

Clem

Silly question (almost) but I have to ask - is the Pi in an enclosure? If so, what type of enclosure?

What is the power rating of the supply you're using - I understand it worked fine on the Pi 2, but the Pi 3 consumes more power.

A photo of your setup might help too. We don't know how you've installed your pi, and it is difficult to diagnose as a result.

http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/wifimobileconnectivity/tp/troubleshoot-wire  especially changing channels at the router end.

Clem

Added this: http://www.cnet.com/news/diagnosing-and-addressing-wi-fi-signal-qua  Try closer to router to see if it may be power issue.

Added more: Metal enclosures are not recommended since they shield the wireless.

the pi is 10 ft from the router.  It is is in the bottom half of a abs plastic (3d printed) housing, top housing off.

I have a 4 amp power supply that the noise is very low (I'm a retired Electronics Engineer (RF) with a scope).  Power is the first thing I always look at.

Reading your pi3_wifi_test.tiff screenshot you're transmitting at 1496dBm which as you know a 5V 4A supply cannot achieve.

So I'd say there are driver or some other build issues in the software currently that somehow you have hit. Did you make any unusual modifications to settings that perhaps the driver is getting confused with? Anyway for now, I suggest to use an external 802.11 USB adapter as with your Pi 2.

I have seen other issues with the 802.11 on the Pi 3, but not the one you have seen. It looks like the 802.11 capability is not fully ready for prime-time in the software, so it might be worth waiting for an update or two.

EDIT: For what its worth, I configured from the command line (the instructions are on the raspberrypi.org site). I did not use the graphical desktop environment. Perhaps there is an inconsistency between what the GUI displays and what it configures, leading to some error with a config register which causes it to configure itself to an impossible power level. This is speculation of course.

EDIT2: I just compared, and my Pi 3 (which does not suffer the wireless symptoms that you mention) also displays 1496dBm. So it seems a (possibly [not sure] cosmetic) bug in the driver. An external 802.11 USB adapter correctly showed the configured transmit power to be 20dBm. I cannot see anything else unusual in your iwconfig output.

Reading your pi3_wifi_test.tiff screenshot you're transmitting at 1496dBm which as you know a 5V 4A supply cannot achieve.

So I'd say there are driver or some other build issues in the software currently that somehow you have hit. Did you make any unusual modifications to settings that perhaps the driver is getting confused with? Anyway for now, I suggest to use an external 802.11 USB adapter as with your Pi 2.

I have seen other issues with the 802.11 on the Pi 3, but not the one you have seen. It looks like the 802.11 capability is not fully ready for prime-time in the software, so it might be worth waiting for an update or two.

EDIT: For what its worth, I configured from the command line (the instructions are on the raspberrypi.org site). I did not use the graphical desktop environment. Perhaps there is an inconsistency between what the GUI displays and what it configures, leading to some error with a config register which causes it to configure itself to an impossible power level. This is speculation of course.

EDIT2: I just compared, and my Pi 3 (which does not suffer the wireless symptoms that you mention) also displays 1496dBm. So it seems a (possibly [not sure] cosmetic) bug in the driver. An external 802.11 USB adapter correctly showed the configured transmit power to be 20dBm. I cannot see anything else unusual in your iwconfig output.

Yes, 1496 dBm is not even close.   20 dBm is = 100 milliwatts at 50 ohms.  I knew 1496 dBm was bogus.

Seems like there are still issues. and we will be looking for a update to fix.

thanks for your help

Probably the power output of a small sun so most likely wrong

You can't imagine how fast the "expressable numbers" grow. IIRC there are about 10^80 atoms in the universe (apparently give-or-take a factor of 100). 1496dBm would be on the order of 10^75 W, or on the order of 10^49 "small suns" (counting ours as "small" and using 4*10^26 W as its power output.)