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Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:27 pm
by Murderface1982
Only getting a blue lights, none of the other lights are blinking. Any ideas what this could be? All of my devices connected seem to be powered such as external hdds and what not... I don't have a clue as to what could be going on here...

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 3:32 am
by Newsdee
Could be a loose SD card, or you havent setup the SD card properly

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:19 am
by zerohimself
I would start with removing the sdram, io board, and hub, and see if it boots via hdmi by itself.
If so, it's likely one of those devices causing an issue.
If it doesn't boot at that point, it's likely the sdcard, or (even more unlikely) the power supply.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 5:23 am
by Murderface1982
So I've used it previously... Shouldn't be any issues with the setup as it's always worked fine. Sd card seems like it's seated perfectly. Would that not cause it to power up though???

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 12:10 pm
by Newsdee
The behaviour you describe happened to me when there was a problem with the SD card. Sometimes it gets loose but it is not protruding.

Try removing it and reinstering it just in case. If that srill doesn't work then try reading the card from a PC and see if it needs fixing.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 2:00 pm
by redsteakraw
Murderface1982 wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 5:23 am So I've used it previously... Shouldn't be any issues with the setup as it's always worked fine. Sd card seems like it's seated perfectly. Would that not cause it to power up though???
Yes it would, it wouldn't load anything and would sit like a brick without the SD card. So remove it and put it back for good measure. This has happened to me a bunch of times myself.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:36 pm
by MostroW
yes i also had a few times where i picked up or did something with the DE10 in my hand and then the SDcard wasnt seated properly leading to a system that wouldn't boot for me.
reseating the SDcard did the trick.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:36 am
by Murderface1982
Just an update... Turned out somehow my SD card got corrupted, had to run a fresh install. Thanks for the help I would have probably tried to send it in for repairs had you not mentioned the SD card having a connection to power.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:37 pm
by aberu
The MicroSD Card slot on the DE10-Nano is probably the worst MicroSD slot I've ever come across in my entire time of a decade or so messing with things like this... It fails so often on the 3 DE10-Nano's I've used, it's very sensitive, and doesn't behave as expected for push-and-click like all the others I've used. Ah well, it's such a bargain for the whole board, beggars can't be choosers, but still...

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:56 am
by WolfgangBlack
aberu wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:37 pmAh well, it's such a bargain for the whole board, beggars can't be choosers, but still...

Scotch tape it firmly in place and use the console to transfer files?
I've put my card in and out many times without a problem but now
just use the console and Midnight Commander to transfer files.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:06 pm
by aberu
WolfgangBlack wrote: Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:56 am
aberu wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 5:37 pmAh well, it's such a bargain for the whole board, beggars can't be choosers, but still...

Scotch tape it firmly in place and use the console to transfer files?
I've put my card in and out many times without a problem but now
just use the console and Midnight Commander to transfer files.
Maybe you haven't experienced what I mean by problems with the microSD slot. Most other microSD slots of this kind you push in and you can feel it audibly click and the card very slight moves back out. Then it should be pushed flush against the contacts in the slot. With all 3 DE10-nano's I've used, sometimes it won't boot, and just barely pushing up against the microSD card from underneath and then power cycling fixes it (meaning the contacts are not flush). This audible click does not happen on any of them, and they don't "pop out" slightly. In short, the spring retention system they use in the microSD slot they assemble these with sucks.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:24 pm
by jca
aberu wrote: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:06 pm ...
Most other microSD slots of this kind you push in and you can feel it audibly click and the card very slight moves back out.
...
I remove my SD card only in extremely cases but I am almost certain that mine does just that. I will double check later. One thing for certain I never had a problem with the SD card; once inserted it is ready to go.

Re: Brand new MiSTer, Have barely used it. Won't power on?

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:39 pm
by aberu
Yeah, once mine boots after inserting, it's great. It's just sometimes reinserting it, it won't boot, and i have to push up slightly vertically from the bottom :P

Get what you pay for, the DE10-nano is sold at a 100+ dollar loss, so not something I'm super frustrated by lol, just a constant observation.

As to why I remove them sometimes, I have upgraded my MicroSD's size sometimes, I have done rebuilds of the whole thing after messing around with it's settings in ways that are not easily fixed, so had to reimage, and I have built a couple for other people. Additionally, the network transfer on it is super slow over wifi (painfully slow) with 3 out of 4 of the officially recommended wifi adaptors, and wired ethernet is slow also (often IOPS related) in comparison to my USB 3.0 SD reader. Like 10x faster or greater over USB. Plenty of reasons to do it on the computer directly rather than over the network, for me at least.