Retropie freezing on RPi0
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I've been trying to set up Retropie on a pair of Raspberry Pi 0 v 1.3 units, and have only had 50% success so far. The first unit works fine and has hundreds of hours logged on it already. The second unit freezes consistently once EmulationStation is accessed. The time frame is random, but be it 5 seconds or three minutes, it will freeze. If you can get a ROM loaded, everything is fine, but EmulationStation will freeze when you exit from the rom.
I've tried multiple power supplies over 2 amps, multiple short usb cables, multiple usb hubs, straight connecting with a no frills keyboard, multiple speeds, classes and sizes of micro SD cards, multiple reinstalls and re-images and at least in my own mind I've got it narrowed down to either Retropie, EmulationStation, or a defective Pi. A post on the Adafruit forum (where the latest Pi came from) suggested that the newest Pi 0 units have had a hardware tweak that renders older images unusable, but I haven't found anything else to confirm or deny this.
I'm not particularly well versed in Linux, but would getting a wifi dongle and updating the Pi that way perhaps solve my problem or is it something that will require some more work?
The unit in question is a Raspberry Pi 0 v 1.3 running Retropie 4.1 on a 16gb (expanded) class 10 micro SD card by Sandisk. Power supply unit is 5v @ 2.1a with a short, fairly heavy usb cable. All hardware is exactly the same as what I set up the first unit with (in most cases, it's the same physical components), so I don't think the problem is there, but any suggestions would be appreciated!
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Do you still have the first unit (i.e. have TWO Pi Zero's in your possession)? If so, it's best to switch out the memory cards, boot both up, and see if the same thing happens on the other system (and if the known-working system's card works on the Zero you're having issues on right now). - always best to eliminate hardware. Also use the known-working Zero's power supply and cable as well (just in case - again, eliminate ALL possible problem areas - no matter how far fetched they seem).
Besides that, I've had bad luck with Sandisk Ultra 16GB cards (I know you said you tried a few brands though). I know people like them, but I've had so many problems I stopped using them and completely switched over to Samsung EVO 16GB cards. Like whenever one of my cousins I built these for has a problem, and I open up their Zero inclosure, 80% of the time it's one of the few Sandisk cards I used when NewEgg was out of the Samsung's.
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I've got the original Pi here and run the exact same hardware in it (right down to the same slot on the power bar) and it works just fine.. no lag, no stutters, and certainly no freezing. As soon as attach the same setup to the new Pi it freezes every single time. The only difference between the two is the older one came in a bag marked 2016-11-26 and the newer in a bag marked 2016-12-28. I'm waiting for another couple of Pi's to arrive (one from Canakit and one from Aliexpress) so I can just dump in the exact same components and see what happens. I still haven't been able to find any confirmation that the hardware in the Pi 0 was changed, though I did note that Raspbian has been upgraded fairly recently....
Would installing Raspbian and then going through the steps to layer Emulationstation over top of it perhaps solve the problem for this deranged little machine? I'm certainly willing to get a wifi dongle and make the effort as needed, but I until more Pi's arrive I can't tell if the problem is the board or something software related :(
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Hum... I may have inadvertently fixed the problem? I found a mirror for the 4.0.2 build of retropie so I figured that it was worth a shot as 4.1 wasn't doing me any good, and lo and behold it works! Every system is running properly with no freezing issues so far (~25 mins, which is 10x longer than I was getting with 4.1)... so the question becomes why? Why 4.1 on one zero and 4.0.2 on what should be an identical one?
(Correction.. it just froze, so the issue is still here, just less frequent)
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@pelmen so an older build seemed to fix the issue? Wierd. I had a similar issue with my pi0 but just threw in the towel and used my pi0 it for something else. Maybe i'll dig up a copy of 4.0.2 and retry it again.
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4.0.2 freezes just as often as 4.1 now, so it wasn't much of a fix :( It seems to be something related to graphics output as raspbian is fully stable and I can tinker around in it for hours, but it will freeze once I reboot back into emulationstation. I'm waiting on a wifi dongle and powered hub so I can try an update first, and if that doesn't work, install a new image and then build retropie on top of it via wifi. I'm very strongly starting to suspect this is a defective board though, because there are occasional mentions of it freezing across the forums and youtube, but they are few and far between, and you'd think it would be more common if it was something broken in the build.
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More testing today, as various goodies still haven't shown up... installed a stable Lakka build, and it has an even stranger bug occurring. Every minute or so even if the system is just sitting idle at desktop, the screen blacks out, and it recovers a few seconds later, but reinitializes the connected gamepad, almost like a high speed soft reboot. No errors generated, and no indication that anything is wrong. Emulators work, but I don't know how to force hdmi output without accessing it through ssh (which I don't have because of no wifi yet.. heh) Going to try a recalbox boot and see if it gibbles up as well.
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Resurfacing this thread in case the O.P. had any solution.
I am having this same issue with my RPi0 and cannot find help anywhere. I have gone through the rigmarole you've been through with swapping out hardware. It has a fresh install of Retropie on a brand new memory card and freezes in E.S. when idle. I have done NO configuration and have yet to even add any ROMs. Once it's frozen at this point, I am not able to SSH into it to reboot.Did you find any kind of fix to this?
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