Topic: Raspberry Pi 5 failure to boot, read SD card

[DaleReid]

I didn't find much about the Rasp Pi 5 except the announcement discussion on this board, so I will post this question and experience.

When it was announced for order, I got on the list for  a spanking brand new Rasp Pi 5, 8 gig onboard memory unit.  It came a few days ago, along with the factory special power supply for the 5, the cooling fan and case.  I have set up many Rasp and have the lastest imager to produce the SD card as required.

All set up, choose a new SanDisk 64 Gig card, told imager to prepare it for use in a 5, chose the recommended setting for 64 bit OS and away it went, making and verifying the card.

With great expectations I slid the card in, plugged in the power and away the green blinking light went, and after about ten seconds it briefly blinked red, and went back to green and blinked for another couple minutes and finally slowed down but zippo on the monitor.  I plugged the micro HDMI end into another Pi nearby and it displayed on the monitor just fine.  So cable and monitor were good.

I reinstalled the OS on the card.  Again, same behavior without success.  I pulled the 64Gig card and started preparing a 32 gig card since I'd try that option next, and while doing so, without an SD card in the Pi, it showed an error screen on the monitor, saying NO SD card, and nothing on the USB ports to boot from.  Huh.

Well, 32 Gig card did the same thing.  Nothing.

8 Gig card, same thing.

Chose the 32 bit system rather than the recommended 64 bit OS, nothing and nothing with that choice for a 32 or 64 Gig card.

A Google and DuckDuckGo search found a couple of hopeful message threads, one including the teaser (SOLVED!) related to a Rasp Pi 5 failure to boot.  Despite reading that thread, they left out WHAT they did to 'solve' the problem.  Another thread made it sound as if the help end of the messages got bored or PO'ed about the failures and just told the asker to go to his normal sources for more help, which is very odd.

Anyway.  I then went to image a USB stick I had with all these options, and it starts up, flickers like crazy and flickers for another hour while waiting for it to boot.  Nothing.

I see that on the Rasp OS official page there is the imager option, but also says there are images for manual installation, but I am missing HOW to get that image onto the SD card or USB stick.  The usual hand holding for idiots like me instructions are not obvious as to what to do with the block of binary once I download it. 

I cannot find any useful threads with Google-Is-Your-Friend approach, and none of the places I usually order from seem to have a clue.

I'm wondering if anyone here has:
a) gotten a Rasp Pi to boot after imaging an SD card (proving it works).
b) had my problem with getting this to boot, and solved it with something that I might try.

Thanks for any thoughts for me to try to resolve this and enjoy all that horsepower.  Dale

[mcrossley]

My 5 booted from an SD card. I later changed it to USB boot and now boot from a USB SSD without an SD card inserted. It also defaults back to the SD card if I unplug the SSD.

I created the initial SD images (I created a few) with the rPi Imager, make sure you have the latest version.

[DaleReid]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I have the latest imager off the Foundation site and also did find the bootloader update and loaded that, to no avail.

I'll keep trying, and thank you.  Dale

[Storm017]

Dale

Just curious, did you download the following:

https://downloads.raspberrypi.com/raspios_arm64/images/raspios_arm64-2023-12-06/2023-12-05-raspios-bookworm-arm64.img.xz


Rich

[DaleReid]

No I did not, but I sure will.  How do I load that image onto a chip or USB?  Usually such stuff has a loader but I didn't find one earlier when looking about.

I thought initially I could move it to the chip, but Windows won't recognize the chips that the imager has written and says that I must format the chip to make it recognizable to Windows, so I can't use file manager to just drop it on.

Thanks for the suggestion, and I'll pursuit it .   Dale

[gszlag]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I have the latest imager off the Foundation site and also did find the bootloader update and loaded that, to no avail.

I'll keep trying, and thank you.  Dale

I don't have a rpi 5 but the flashing proces should be the same. I haven't flashed a SD card in 2 or more years ago but I recall using the raspberry pi imager. It did not work for me .

Possibilities might be:

1. defective card. replace it with another brand eg, Samsung

Edit: I can't read. Looks like you've done that.

2. do a last chance final "do-over" and try reformatting the card. Yes, Windows won't recognize a Linux card but try reformating with the Windows Rufus imager. If Rufus works then Windows will recognize it and you can try flashing again.Be careful and don't reformat your Windows machine! I recall I used Balena etcher with success.

3. If nothing works, you could purchase a ready-made pre-loaded SD card that has already been flashed.

[Storm017]

No I did not, but I sure will.  How do I load that image onto a chip or USB?  Usually such stuff has a loader but I didn't find one earlier when looking about.

I thought initially I could move it to the chip, but Windows won't recognize the chips that the imager has written and says that I must format the chip to make it recognizable to Windows, so I can't use file manager to just drop it on.

Thanks for the suggestion, and I'll pursuit it .   Dale

1. Install the RPI imager on your desktop. (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/)
2. Select Raspberry Pi 5 under Raspberry Pi Device.
3. Choose the Operating System (Raspberry Pi OS (64 Bit)).
4. Select the Storage (your microSD card). Make sure to select the microSD card .
5. Click Next.  The image should now be written to the microSD card.

I usually get the Windows Format Message, in which I ignore.

Rich

[DaleReid]

Once again thank you for the suggestions, especially the advice on reformatting the card and trying again.

I also will try a different card reader on the Windows machine (it is getting that weird) along with the other suggestiions.  I have used the latest imager to first write an SD card, then a USB SSD, then do a boot update on the Pi.

As suggested, I'm about to see if I can find a fast turn around place for getting an already imaged SD card. the odd part is the whole thing used to be so very reliable.  AS one general said in WWII, Nuts!
I'm sure it was short hand for something more salty.

Dale

[bchwdlks]

Last summer I was working on a project with a  RPi4 and I had about 5 different OS variants that I had to flash  (Raspian, Chrome,  DietPi, MotioneyeOS and others. ) I was working with memory cards  and USB sticks both.  I found that Balena etcher imager  (https://etcher.balena.io/) would create a bootable device when the Raspberry imager software would not. 

It probably won't solve your issue but I found it easier to use when making multiple boot cards.