RetroPie won't boot on Raspberry Pi 3

rak7145

I'll preface this with the announcement that I am a complete novice.

I purchased a Raspberry Pi 3 (and all the compatible cables, cards, controllers, etc.) with the intention of making an emulator. Specifically, I'm trying to make an NES Classic Edition using RetroPie. SO - I find a tutorial for how to make one. It says install the appropriate image of RetroPie onto the micro SD card. I followed those instructions, put the micro SD card into the Raspberry Pi 3, turn on the TV and....nothing. Literally nothing happens. All I have is a red light, which tells me that it's on, but nothing else happens.

What am I doing wrong? Should I have installed something else before RetroPie? This is driving me crazy. Please help!

herb_fargus

@rak7145 said in RetroPie won't boot on Raspberry Pi 3:

It says install the appropriate image of RetroPie onto the micro SD card. I followed those instructions

Please be explicit with the exact steps you've taken in order for others to help troubleshoot your issue, otherwise everyone just wastes time guessing.

There is a list of requested info on the read me first page linked at the top and perhaps we can help narrow down your issue, so eg exact image installed, software used to flash the image, steps taken to install, peripherals plugged in etc.

Common culprits might be : janky SD card, corrupt download, corrupt image write, bad cables/connections, insufficient power supply... List goes on

rak7145

Sorry - the more specific information would be:
I'm following this tutorial and these set of instructions: http://mashable.com/2017/07/06/how-to-snes-classic-edition/#qR0WA5SBnaq3

I went here: https://retropie.org.uk/download/#Pre-made_images_for_the_Raspberry_Pi
and downloaded the pre-made RetroPi image for Raspberry Pi 3.

I flashed it to the microSD with Etcher. I encountered an error numerous times that said Etcher couldn't locate the disk. After 5 attempts, it finally added RetroPie to the microSD. I then connected the Raspberry Pi 3 to its power source, plugged in the HDMI cable, plugged in the controller, and inserted the microSD. I turned on the TV and....nothing.

Given the issues that Etcher had, I'm wondering if maybe (like you said) a bad SD isn't to blame. The power supply should be fine - I ordered the exact Canakit power supply specified. I suppose another issue could be the HDMI cable. It was an Amazon special, so who knows whether it's decent or not.

herb_fargus

@rak7145 said in RetroPie won't boot on Raspberry Pi 3:

I encountered an error numerous times that said Etcher couldn't locate the disk

I haven't had this happen myself though it's possible there's something up with your SD card/ SD card reader. There are lots of shady eBay SD sellers, I try and stick with reputable sources, if you have another microsd laying around might be worth trying and if for some reason it's etcher you can try win32diskimager instead to rule that out as well though I personally have never had issues with etcher.

If above fails also try diff HDMI if possible but I wouldn't necessarily go buying all sorts of new hardware until I've tried every software fix.

Beretta9

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