I’ve been running Ropieee XL on a 3b with 7" screen for ages. Just recently, it’s started having a problem. After a reboot, it works fine for a while, and then, maybe the next day, when I look at it the screen is mostly black but sort of pulses, with areas of white sweeping across the screen. In this state, Roon no longer sees it, and I can’t access it via web browser. The LED on the back near the power port is red. I’m using the official Raspberry power supply. Any ideas?
You might have a corrupt image. The first thing I would try is to reflash the image on the SD card.
Is it possible the RPi is overheating?
Also, you say you’re using a official RPi power supply. Is this the 1 or 1.5 amp version? When you have a 7" display attached you should have a power supply with more current, like 3 amps (specially if you also have a HAT). Did you ever see the yellow lightning bolt appear on the screen when it was working (that’s the under-voltage warning)? Do you have another power supply you can try?
Thanks very much for the suggestions. I’ll have to check the power supply. But I’ve been using the same one for months (but I do understand they can go bad). I don’t think temperature is involved - the Pi is mounted open to the back of the display, and has always been like that. I’ve never seen the lightning bolt. I didn’t think it could be an image problem, since it works OK for hours at a time, but anything is possible!
Working OK for a while then stopping can be a sign of a thermal issue. You may think your PSU is up to it but if it is working at max output it will likely be under stress and a component on its way out will stop working under thermal stress. Similarly, the Pi/Display boards will be warmer as the hours go by and could show up a dry joint or other bad contact that goes open circuit when it gets hot.
Top tip; to simulate this get a hairdryer and warm things up a bit (be careful!) to try and induce the fault shortly after switch on from cold. You will need to warm up the PI and PSU separately.
Other than that, substitution of components one at a time (reflash to a different SD card) is the only way to go unless anything shows up in the logs.
Thanks. I’ll embark on the process. How can I see if there’s anything in the logs? Of course, once it’s failed I can’t access the system at all. There is no green flashing led, just the solid red one at that point.
On the info page you can view the temperature of the unit.
Right now, it’s showing 47.2. I’ll check in the morning if it’s still running then.
Well, I’ve tried a complete flash and install, and also a brand new official 2.5a power supply. No change. After a variable amount of time, the system just seems to crash. Screen can be white, then fades to black, then back to white etc. I’m sure it’s not a thermal issue. The maximum I’ve seen the board get to is 57 degrees.
Does anyone have any other troubleshooting steps, or am I just up for a new Pi? I’m guessing a faulty screen couldn’t really cause the whole system to crash.
You could try running it without the display. I think you would have to reflash without the display connected. But, it might tell you if it is the display causing the system to crash. If it still crashes without the display, then I think it looks like you may need a new RPi.
I think your Pi is dying, and yes it can still be a thermal issue. I had this happen to me recently with an old Raspberry Pi 1 that had been working Pi-Hole duty for me for months. And then, it began freezing up…first occasionally, then daily and finally, after only a few minutes of operations. I discovered that sitting it on an ice pack would lengthen its ability to operate but it was clear that the Pi needed to be replaced. In the end, I bought a RP 4 and used it to replace a RP 2 I had doing other work in my house. The RP 2 is now the one doing Pi-Hole duty.
Thanks all. I tried running without the display, and it lasted a day. Just trying another SD card now, and if that fails, I’ll get another 3B+.
An update on this problem. I tried another SD card, then another RPi. Still failed! Then I remembered that the USB connection to my DAC utilised an iFi iUSBPower. This is an older device that you connect your USB cable to, and it splits power and data into two separate cables, before combining them again at the DAC. It’s supposed to eliminate any AC-induced noise. Whether it does or not and whether it’s needed are, of course, debatable. It has its own power adapter, so I unplugged it, and plugged it back in again. The new RPi then ran for days without problem. So I put the original RPi back again, and it’s run for days now too. I wonder if somehow the iFi device was feeding something back down the USB cable to the RPi and upsetting something. Anyone got any theories?
So now I have an extra RPi, power adapter and SD card! I’m sure I’ll figure out a use for it some day…