Black Screen

Riverstorm

If you had a previous image on the SD card (Win32 Disk Imager will fail) or just to be sure it's entirely erased you might try Diskpart before formatting it with SD Formatter. You would need to run it from a Command Prompt. I always use Diskpart before SD Formatter and then Win32 Disk Imager.

Run a command prompt
diskpart
list disk
select disk # (# is the disk you want to erase)
clean

Belum

@Riverstorm Thanks for the suggestion. Tried it, but still no difference. So I just ordered a new SD-card, to see whether that is the problem....

edmaul69

@Riverstorm i use EaseUS partition master to format cards for pi. It also fixes the partition problem retropie img creates. Really easy to use.

Just know that windows cannot format an sd card that has been formatted for retropie with the built in windows program.

Riverstorm

@edmaul69 said in Black Screen:

Just know that windows cannot format an sd card that has been formatted for retropie with the built in windows program.

Exactly my thought when she has posted she attempted a Windows format. I figured Diskpart is just part of the OS and no need to look for 3rd party software. Thank you I do keep a copy of EaseUS Partition Master handy. It's a nice program. :)

Belum

@edmaul69 I used MiniTool Partition Wizard 9.1 afterwards - Is that in the same range as Easy US?

edmaul69

@Belum if i am overwriting one pi img with another i dont even format and never have a problem. so anything that can undo the partitioning should be fine.

Riverstorm

@Belum said in Black Screen:

@edmaul69 I used MiniTool Partition Wizard 9.1 afterwards - Is that in the same range as Easy US?

Yes, that one should work fine too.

@edmaul69 It's almost out of habit to format and align the partition. :)

Belum

Well I guess I am waiting with excitement on my new SD-card... fingers crossed!
Its weird though that this SD-card functioned properly when Raspbian was still on it.

A Former User

Are the power lights on the raspberry?

Even though you have a black screen, does it flicker when you turn the device on? (as in the TV has detected something plugged in has been turned on)

Belum

@KiloPIE No, getting the red light. So no flickering and nothing green :(.

edmaul69

i did get a bad raspberry pi that did the same as not recognizing data on sd card. red light but nothing. returned it, put the card in another one and it booted right up..

dankcushions

make sure you extract the downloaded image (it's in .gz zipped format) before attempting to write it. i say this from experience...

edmaul69

@dankcushions i would never have thought of that. I have seperate programs that are linked to different file types so they show different icons for each file type. But if you only had something like winrar they would all show the same icon so i can see how that could happen.

A Former User

@Belum Just a word of warning, be carefull buying SD Cards online, there are lots of fake capacity ones flying around. You can always test the SD Card with H2testw to make sure It's legit and has no bad sectors.

edmaul69

@KiloPIE amen to that. I got a fake 128gb samsung that was only 16gb and all fakes ive seen crash after you install a certain amount of data.

Belum

@KiloPIE Thanks! I tested the SD-card and it is fine, no bad sectors.

Belum

Bought a new SD-card.... works like a charm!!!

Riverstorm

@Belum said in Black Screen:

Bought a new SD-card.... works like a charm!!!

That's always a good feeling when things come together and work. :)

mediamogul

@Belum

I was just about to recommend checking to see if your Raspberry Pi was located atop an ancient Indian burial ground, but I couldn't remember if you're supposed to walk toward or away from the light to troubleshoot that problem.