Pi not starting at first try

P71Ryan

Pi Model or other hardware: 3
Power Supply used: 2.4 A USB
RetroPie Version Used: 4.1
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Button/Joystick controller
Controller used: Keyboard
Error messages received: None
How to replicate the problem: Powering down system, attempting to turn power back on.

Hello all, I recently built my brother a tabletop arcade setup using RetroPi. It works great and I'm very pleased overall. My biggest issue is when I turn the system off I have to manually pull out the USB power cord and plug it back in for some strange reason. I attempted to search for an answer in the forums but couldn't find anyone with a similar issue.

In list form,
I power on the systems main power
Monitor, Pi (LED) shows, speakers and buttons turn on.
The monitor shows no HDMI 1 (only 1) signal message.
I unplug the Pi power and plug it back in.
The Pi and RetroPi boot and work flawlessly.

I believe this more so to be a Pi issue but was wondering if anyone could help me out please.

Thank you.

mitu

@P71Ryan said in Pi not starting at first try:

I believe this more so to be a Pi issue but was wondering if anyone could help me out please.

That's how a Raspberry PI works - it doesn't have a power switch. If you stop it (shutdown), then in order to start it again you have to re-insert again the microHDMI power. There are other methods so you don't have to do that - either a toggle switch on the power line or a shutdown/startup dedicated switch connected to the the PI's GPIO pins (I'm sure there may be other options).

NOTE: I advise you to not yank the power in order to turn the PI off, you risk corrupting your SD card - use the EmulationStation menu to shut it down.

Also, why are you using an old version like 4.1 instead of using a current (4.5.x) release ?

P71Ryan

@mitu I'll double check the version, it should be the latest.

I'm shutting it down but the outlet it gets plugged into losses power completely when I turn off the mast switch. So when I give it back power should't it automatically turn back on? It currently comes back on, meaning the led turns on, but doesn't display anything.

cyperghost

@P71Ryan said in Pi not starting at first try:

@mitu I'll double check the version, it should be the latest.

.... So when I give it back power should't it automatically turn back on?

Usually, yes!

quicksilver

@P71Ryan you need to add hdmi_force_hotplug=1
to your /boot/config.txt

Sounds like your pi is booting up before your monitor and it's not detecting the HDMI display so it's switching to composite video output. The above command prevents this from happening.

Alternatively you can make sure your monitor is powered before turning on your pi.

P71Ryan

@quicksilver Thank you very much, after removing the # in the config, it boots perfectly now.