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Raspberry pi 3 not Booting Red Light: Fix in 4 Steps
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Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
If you are reading this article, you are most likely experiencing Raspberry Pibootissues. Your Raspberry Pi can stopbootingor refuse to turn on due to several reasons. The device may be experiencing power issues, SD card issues. the operating system is not properly installed and otherhardwareissues.
In this article, we explore a few troubleshooting steps to help you fix the Raspberry Pi notbootingissues. Follow the steps one by one to get your device up and running.
What to do if Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 is not booting?
1. Check for power issues
Check if the OS is installed.
2. Check for SD card issues
Most of the time (If not all), the Raspberry Pibootingissues are associated with a faulty or corrupt SD card. When the expensive cards are not necessarily better than the cheap SD cards as they tend to fail as well but are usually considered more reliable.
Eject the SD card and insert it into your Windows computer to see if the computer detects the card. Windows will prompt to scan and fix the card if it detects any issues with it. Click onScan and fix the erroroption to repair the card.
If Windows fails to repair the card, use thedosfscktool using a Ubuntu running computer to repair the card. If the issue persists, you may have to format the card and reinstall the OS to make it work. In case the formatting fails, you may need to replace the SD card.
Check the Raspberry Pi’s LED indicators.
If you are still not sure of the card being corrupt, your Raspberry Pi can help. The device comes with a built-in Red and Green LEDs. While the Red LED indicates the PWR status, which is the power status, the Green LED indicates ACT that is the activity status of your SD card.
If the SD card is not faulty, the green LED will flash without any issues. However, if the Green LED is not on, it means there is an issue with your SD card. The SD card again may require repair, reformatting, or replacement, depending on the situation.
You can try theSD card formatting utilityto reformat the storage. Also, consider reading ourhow to fix a corrupted SD card on Raspberry Pifor detailed troubleshooting steps.
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3. Check for issues with the HDMI cable
The Raspberry Pi comes with an HDMI port that is used to connect the computer to a display like a TV or a monitor. If Red and Green indicators are working on the Pi, make sure the HDMI cable is working as well.
If the HDMI cable is working, try forcing the HDMI detection by editing the config file. Here’s how to do it.
4. Check if your Raspberry Pi is DoA
If you are using a Raspberry Pi A, A+, and Zero device, you can connect it to your Windows computer and open the device to manage to see if Windows detects the connected device. You can connect the Pi to your Windows computer using a USB cable.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do other than ask for a replacement if the Pi hashardwareissues. So, follow the steps in the article to diagnose the Raspberry Pi notbootingissue and hope it is the usual suspect (SD card) that is causing the issue.
More about the topics:Raspberry Pi errors
Tashreef Shareef
Tashreef Shareef is a software developer turned tech writer. He discovered his interest in technology after reading a tech magazine accidentally. Now he writes about everything tech from Windows to iOS and streaming services to IoT at WindowsReport.
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