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Raspberry Pi touchscreen not working? Fix it fast in 5 steps
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Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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What do you do if you find out that your Raspberry Pitouchscreenis not working? This issue is common and a really tricky one to tackle. Raspberry Pitouchscreenproblems come in different forms.
Thetouchscreenmay only work randomly or it may work always but not displaying correctly. Other users complain about their displays fading during reboot or shut down.
Read this guide to the end to learn how to fix your Raspberry Pitouchscreenwhen it’s not working.
How do I repair my Raspberry Pi touchscreen? It is not working
1. Update Raspbian
The quickest way to resolve issues related to the Raspberry Pitouchscreennot working is to update your software. Most times, the Raspberry Pitouchscreenissues come from outdated software or an unstable update.
Below is the command you must run in order to update Raspbian. This command will also undo any possible update that was unstable.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install –reinstall libraspberrypi0 libraspberrypi-{bin,dev,doc} raspberrypi-bootloader
2. Confirm that the Raspberry Pi detects the touchscreen
After updating Raspbian following the guide in the previous step, if the Raspberry Pitouchscreenis still not working, the problem may be that the device fails to detect thetouchscreen. Run the following command to confirm thetouchscreendetection:
dmesg | grep -i ft5406
If you see results looking like the lines below, then you can be sure that the Pitouchscreenis being detected.
[ 5.224267] rpi-ft5406 rpi_ft5406: Probing device[ 5.225960] input: FT5406 memory based driver as /devices/virtual/input/input3
Also, if thetouchscreenis detected, you will notice in/proc/cmblinethat the values offbheightandfbwidthwill be equal to thescreen resolution(480 x 800). To confirm this, run the following command:
cat /proc/cmdline | grep bcm2708_fb
3. Disable overscan
4. Fix upside-down Raspberry Pi touchscreen display
If the display of your Pi blacks out when you reboot or power off the unit, then, first of all, confirm that it’s running on the latest software update.
The next step is to check that an SD card is inserted into your Pi properly. This Raspberry Pitouchscreenissue may also come about when the ribbon between the display and the Raspberry Pi isn’t seated firmly.
Alternatively, if the Raspberry Pi display turns all white, then the usual suspect is that the ribbon cable between your driver board and the LCD is not firm.
Raspberry Pitouchscreennot working could be a result of different software and hardware problems.
In this guide, we’ve explored the most common Raspberry Pitouchscreenissues and proffered working solutions to fix them quickly.
Are you facing a Raspberry Pitouchscreenissue that we didn’t address here? Let us know in the comments below.
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More about the topics:Raspberry Pi errors,Touchscreen issues
Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology.
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.
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Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s specialized in Windows errors & software issues.
