Raspberry Pi SD card error

I recently received my Raspberry Pi kit from CPC, along with RISC OS Pi and Nut Pi cards from the Wakefield show.

The first time I used them everything was fine, the next day the RPi started OK then reported one of the memory maps was faulty. On checking (on my brother's Pi) it turned out that there is a broken directory in SparkFS dir tmp on the card. I shut down and then tried to boot up again only to find that the Raspberry Pi was dead, with only the power light on. No signal to monitor or anything else working.

I will contact CPC to return the Pi but is there a way of repairing the SD card?

Any advice greatly received, TIA.

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Peter Campbell-Banks, 
Ramsgate.
Reply to
Peter Campbell-Banks
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Why not just format it and see if it will install a new OS? Or buy a new card and install one on that. They are less than a tenner for 16GB from Rymans.

I have Wheezy but the first thing I did was copy the OS to another card and use that to play about with. Then I found the downloads page and used those every time I screwed it up. Several time so far. Its one of the things I like about the Pi. Being able to just shove another OS on.

formatting link

Reply to
AlanG

Before returning the Pi it might be a good idea to set up an SD card with a current image and try again. Your problem could be nothing worse than a corrupt image and nothing to do with the Raspberry Pi.

Coupled with that I cannot see anything in your description which could have caused damage to the Pi itself. It was working when you shut it down.

James

Reply to
James Harris

Have a look again at your powering arrangements.

I have two RPi. For ages, both worked satisfactorily, back-powered from the USB hub. One day recently, one of them suddenly looked as dead as yours. I found a micro USB cable and plugged it in along with the existing power+data cable, and was rewarded with a back- from-the-dead RPi.

Dave

Reply to
Dave Higton

Obvious question: did you shut down cleanly, i.e. stop all programs, shut down the OS and *only then* power off the RPi?

I don't know how RiscOS or Nut handles its filing system, but its entirely possible that it doesn't flush all data in RAM back to the SD card just because you've closed a file: i.e. you can only guarantee that all data has been written after all programs have exited and the OS has been shut down.

Yanking an SD card out of any device running Windows Mobile 5 or 6 while its still powered up and/or powering the device off with programs still running is guaranteed to cause tears[*] sooner or later.

[*] 'tears' may mean a corrupted data file but it can also mean a corrupted card which can only be revived by formatting it.

DOS/FAT partitions are particularly easy to damage this way - and remember that the RPi's boot partition is a FAT filing system.

as its just a temp directory, you should be able to fix it be deleting and recreating the directory, but make sure you validate the SD card afterwards using the fsck/chkdsk equivalent to make sure that nothing else was corrupted.

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martin@   | Martin Gregorie 
gregorie. | Essex, UK 
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Reply to
Martin Gregorie

I had that problem with RISC OS Pi that I purchased at Wakefield. It booted fine at first, but after doing a package update the PI seemed completely FUBAR at teh next boot. It was showing nothing at all, no monitor, lights (apart from power) all off.

In desperation I tried anothe Pi. Exactly the same results. Tried my linux boot card -- OK.

Tried linux boot in original Pi -- OK.

Flashed another card with RIC OS Pi image -- OK on both Pis.

Try another card flashed with the Pi image from the ROOL website. It'll probably work.

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  BD 
  Change lycos to yahoo to reply
Reply to
<me9

My guess is that most problems reported with PIs and broken SD cards and dead PIs is not about defect or incompatible SD cards, not even about corrupted data on the SD card, but simply mechanical defects.

In my experience, the contacts of the SC card against the card slot are generally not good and instable. Just try to press the SD card against the contacts of the card reader, and see if you get some more responses when booting the system.

Hope that helps, Kurt.

Reply to
Kurt Stege

Right.

The side flanges pressing the card against the contacts are far too flimsy. I had two units with broken side flanges.

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Tauno Voipio
Reply to
Tauno Voipio

We just destroyed one that way. Probably leverage against the SD casing while the Pi was in a backpack. Probably best to take the chip out when you're carrying a Pi around. Raises the question of whether anybody makes a case that encloses the SD chip when it's installed.

Mel.

Reply to
Mel Wilson

CPC sell a Deluxe Berry Case, Part No. SC12822. Price £7.19p inc. VAT & a SD Card Guard for above, Part No. SC12868. Price 95p inc. VAT With Free Delivery

Find them at:

formatting link

Works for me.

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Peter Campbell-Banks
Reply to
Peter Campbell-Banks

Yes that looks pretty good. Thanks

Mel.

Reply to
Mel Wilson

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