You can't copy your games directly to the SD card from your Windows system. What you're seeing is just the boot partition, there is 2nd Linux partition on the SD card which is not readable by Windows - this is where the actual OS is installed. To transfer your games over use one of the methods supported - see the documentation.

@exitkioskmode Looking at the video you posted, seems like you're not using the 1st HDMI port - the one next to the USB-C power port. I also don't see the bootloader diagnostic screen, specific to the Pi4.
Just to make sure, you're using the latest RetroPie version (4.8.2), written from scratch ? Note that the 1st boot will not start EmulationStation, since it will resize the Linux partition on the sdcard and then reboot.

Sorry, we don't support 3rd party images or pre-sold 'consoles' . You'll have to ask the vendor/seller for support.

@kitaek27 Glad you got it working.
One advantage when using the Raspberry Pi Image is that you don't need to download the image, the program will do it for you and automatically check the image file against its checksum.

How many games and files do you have on the external drive ?

Once EmulationStation creates the gamelists for each system, you can turn on the 'Parse Gamelists Only' option and on the next restart it will not re-scan the disc/folders.

hdmi_safe will set the resolution to 640x480, if your monitor supports a higher resolution, you can set it by using hdmi_group=2 and hdmi_mode set to one of the values detailed in https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md. You'll probably have to add hdmi_ignore_edid=0xa5000080, my guess is that your monitor supplies a wrong EDID and the Pi tries to set the video resolution to an unsupported value.

@mitu
Ah, got it. I thought my method might be out of date but I'm new to digging this deep, and it's a frustrating but fun learning process. Thank you a ton for the help, I'll check that out once I get the chance today.

sure! didn't want to imply that, it just was a major roadblock for me yesterday and today and a lot of searching around just showed that a bunch of people had the same problem. the solutions with manually editing the config file sure help but it would have been just so much easier if I could have set it in the menue. not because editing the file is difficult, more like you don't think of it because everything else just works like it should (well, beside the playstation classic controller not working despite being a simple USB device) and the config tool just blanking out is confusing. honestly if the whole system wouldn't crawl around at around 10 - 15fps at 4k you wouldn't even notice the problem is there to begin with. I'll search if the problem is known at Raspbian.

yes, with the official image it works after your help. Now i have a similar problem (with an unofficial image) and i was hoping you could help me. Sorry for the inconvenience, thanks anyway.

@mitu I do apologise, I didn't know it was against your licence but I can see why.

Thank you for your help, I will start over and hopefully it will fix my problem.

@GonzoPi said in Prebuilt retropie images not booting:

@wmarcio my apologies, I only included the specific images to be as precise as possible, if I deleted the post and reposted without reference to those specific images would that be more appropriate?

It's not about appropriate; it's about the fact that those are not official RetroPie products. They are repackaged with with copyrighted material and violate the user license. Unless you are trying to install an official image, you won't get help here.

@bpcervantes We don't support 3rd party images. Use the image from https://retropie.org.uk/downoad and then add your own games as described in the docs.

Hello and welcome to this forum.

Please provide us with all of the information that is asked for in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first to help us pinpoint the problem.

It was the bloody power source! I didn't bother hooking it up to a decent power brick because I figured the Pi zero didn't need as much juice as my Pi 3... Idiot... Thanks for your inputs guys.

@mitu said in Raspberry Pi4 Image:

@geekinchief As it was explained in the other topic you opened a few days back and is also explained here, the Pi4 is not supported at the moment by RetroPie.
There's more than just Emulationstation than needs modification and testing for it to make it work, so just bypassing the front-end would not be enough.

OMGzorz the Pi4 has been out for OvEr a WeEk NoW!!! Where's my support?? I wanna play PS3 games!!!

</sarcasm>

@KobeT Looks like a damaged SD card or improper power source - see https://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Coloured_splash_screen for reasons why this might happen and maybe try the config.txt modification suggested on the page.

So, I have mounted the PowerBlock and I have tested it for some days. It works almost as expected, spordically it shows unexpected behaviour. I will create a separate thread explaining my observations.

Anyway, thanks for supplying me with a replacement device.

Hi there!

I extract all the roms, configs, images, gamelists, themes, etc... and build a new sd card now with Stretch.

Now, scraper work properly.

You can close the thread. Thank you very much!

@lawarmotte no worries, you're not the first person to make this mistake. :)

@kingcraze Hi, first, post the details requested here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

How did you write the image? Is your card genuine?