Did I kill my board / display?

uConsole
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1

I’ve been using my uConsole for a few months now and I’ve never really had any issues until recently. After trying out Ubuntu I decided to go back to Raspberry Pi OS, this time using the lite version. I flashed the SD Card as usual, booted up my system, then I saw a “Enter Username” prompt, then… nothing.

The display just turned off? Since then I haven’t been able to get anything to work.
I’m currently using an 8GB CM5 Lite in my system, alongside a uEther add-in card.

This is what I’ve tried so far:

  • Reflashed the original SD Card with Rex’s bookworm lite image,
  • Flashed 2 different SD Card with the bookworm lite Image,
  • Flashed the regular bookworm image on all 3 SD Cards,
  • Swapped out the CM5 Lite for another CM5
  • Reseated the compute module adapter
  • Reseated the display’s ribbon cable
  • Tried booting without the add-in card

So far nothing I’ve tried yielded different results. I get a solid green light when I turn it on, but the display remains dark (I don’t even see it light up), and I get no HDMI signal from the integrated port. I can also feel the CM5’s chip getting hot while the device is turned on.

I’ve looked around online and most similar cases were related to the compute module not being properly inserted, but it doesn’t seem to be the case for me.

Anything I should try before I reach out to support?

Thanks in advance!

2

Have you edited the EEPROM so the CM5 works better with sd card? Without editing it it might work for a while then not. The edit stays with the CM so you can switch cards after.

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3

I have, yes. Could it have any negative impact in this situation?

4

No, you’re just slowing down the SD during the bootloader start up. The fact it’s doing it with 2 CM5s tells me it might be clockwork hardware, especially with no HDMI out. Can you verify the CMs work in a IO board? Do you have a CM4 to test?

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5

I do have a few CM4 lying around. Let me give that a try!

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6

Did some additional testing, and it looks like my CM5 lite might be dead :melting_face:

I was able to make it boot up with my CM4, and my CM5 with EMMC had another image flashed on it. That one worked fine on the IO board so I assume it didn’t work because of the image the first time.

I never got anything out of my original CM5, even on the IO board, so it’s probably dead :face_exhaling:

7

That sucks, at least a CM5 is faster to get then a new uConsole. how old is the CM5 lite you might be able to RMA it.

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8

Can’t be more than a few months old. I’ll look into it.

Thanks!

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9

It’s alive!

I emailed the support team at Pishop.ca and they were able to walk me through reflashing the bootloader using Raspberry Pi Imager.

I am now able to boot the CM5 using my original SD Card.

Thank you for suggesting going the RMA Route :slight_smile:

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