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Raspberry Pi Forum Pi Desktop very disappointing
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  • Replies 28 replies
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  • raspberry_pi_space
  • pi desktop
  • raspberry pi 3
Related

Pi Desktop very disappointing

masterplumber
masterplumber over 8 years ago

I had high hopes for this but it doesn't appear to be very good.  The build quality seems fine and it looks good - just a shame it doesn't actually work.  Or doesn't actually work yet.

 

The instructions aren't up to much either.

 

I have a perfectly working Raspberry Pi 3 that boots up into Raspbian (latest version 2017-04-10).  I downloaded the image this morning and flashed it to a Class 10 16GB card using etcher.  Everything works fine.

 

I then built the desktop using the enclosed instructions and finally snapping the lid onto the case.  Pressed the button and I got a nice blue light - nothing else.

 

Had to disassemble the thing to see what the problem was.

 

Dismantled everything and booted up the Pi without the Pi Desktop Board.  All worked fine.  Switched off.  Attached the board (didn't put it in the case this time - lesson learned) along with the usual mouse, kb, monitor.  Pressed the button.  Blue light and nothing.   Noticed that the light on the Pi was solid red - no sign of the usual flickering green light on the Pi indicating activity.

 

Held in the button on the desktop board until the blue light went off (5 seconds).  Removed the power supply (it's the R Pi official one) and the SD card.  Reinserted the card.  Reinserted the power supply.  Pressed the button.  Voila.  Blue light AND booted into Pixel.  Pressed the button to power down.  Worked fine.  Pressed the button to power up.  Worked fine.  Rebooted into Pixel.

 

So switched everything off.  Dismantled everything (I bet you know where this is going...) and started from scratch.  Fitted everything into the case but didn't fit the lid on.  Pressed the button.  Blue light came on.  Nada.  Back with the solid red light.

 

Took everything apart again to check and exactly the same thing happened.  Tried again with a fresh install of Raspbian on a different SD card - exactly the same problem.  

 

Completely unusable in its current state.  The thing will work sometimes without the case but it requires a power down and the SD card to be reinserted.  Won't work in the case and there's no way to get the card out to try reinserting it without dismantling the whole thing.

 

Looking through a couple of posts on here I see that others are complaining of the same thing ie thing wont boot and light on Pi staying red.  So have I got a duff board or has this thing not been tested properly or is it just a waste of time and money.  Not impressed.

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  • joerg_reuter
    joerg_reuter over 8 years ago in reply to willianr

    I do not believe that the change of the Sd-Card manufacturer something to the problem changes.

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  • slootweg
    slootweg over 8 years ago

    Similar problem. My Pi3 is working fine. It'll boot/reboot etc no problem.
    I have installed the desktop extra code, but when powered through the mSATA HAT it doesn't get past the red LED.

    The HAT will shutdown if I hold for long enough, it seems to power up when I press the button. But it doesn't seem to boot the Pi3 correctly. (And that's BEFORE I try to boot off the SSD!)

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  • cstanton
    cstanton over 8 years ago in reply to slootweg

    Is this with or without an SSD connected?

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  • joerg_reuter
    joerg_reuter over 8 years ago in reply to cstanton

    with SSD

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  • engineer_brown
    engineer_brown over 8 years ago in reply to masterplumber

    Thanks all, a lot of good info. I will be doing so voltage tests as how the designers are switching the power to the Pi on and off could be the problem. It would not take too many junction drops to adversely affect the Pi or the SD.

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  • cstanton
    cstanton over 8 years ago in reply to engineer_brown

    It's also came to my attention that there are counterfeit Sandisk SDCards available on eBay which have been affecting the capability of certain models of Raspberry Pi to boot, and since a number of people comment on having problems with Sandisk branded SDCards I wonder if it's related.

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  • cabanil
    cabanil over 7 years ago

    Went though same thing, when first got it went though couple rebuilds then go to working joy joy. Put aside starting another project. Got it out to give to Granddaughter and guess what no boot. I took out case and messed with it for days. Got another micro ssd and bam working turn around tried the old one sinceit had 30 more gigs worked two days later not working. I tossed it aside built her a real computer. Running Ubuntu

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  • redcreed
    redcreed over 6 years ago in reply to willianr

    Hi Paul, I'm using a SanDisk card and was having same problem. I found if you jump the last two pins near the ON/OFF switch with a small resister, it boots. Without the resister it boots, then crashes in just a few minutes.

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