RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

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BobRooney
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2018 03:55

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by BobRooney »

Hello. First off, I want to say that I love the RetroStone when it works. It is so much fun. Quite frustrating when it doesn't work, though, which is why I'm here.

I had some issues with it from the start, but it seemed to be more of a software/operating system problem and the folks over at the retrorangepi forum helped me getting that straightened out. But even after I got the retrorangepi boot problem fixed, I was probably still only at about a 50-60% success rate on getting past the blue/white screen. Once I was past it, it would boot fine almost every time, but I would often have to power it off an on again a few times just to get it past the blue/white screen.

Now the issue is that it NEVER gets past the blue/white screen. And I've probably powered it on and off at least 50 times by now, not a single time has it gotten past the blue/white screen and I've let it sit for several minutes. On the very first start up today (when the problem first started), it did get past the blue/white screen but it came up with an error that there were no games installed and it froze, so I had to hard power it down. Ever since then, it's never gotten past the blue/white screen. I tried booting it without the sim card installed, just to see what would happen, and it still just stayed on the blue/white screen. I did see the other thread about the resistor soldering, and I wasn't entirely sure if this was the same thing or not, so I figured I'd post here first.

Here are my survey answers:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. No
6. Etcher
7. Yes
8. No
9. Yes
10. RetrOrangePi_4.2_FULL_Armbian_5.59_Retrostone_Debian_jessie_default_3.4.113_desktop-1
11. I try to. Unless it gets frozen and I have no other option.
12. Not since this issue started, as it never even makes it to the RetrOrangePi screen.
13. No, but it doesn't seem to be an SD card problem since it does it whether or not it has an SD card installed
13b. Also no, for the same reason.
14. Can't even make it to that point.
15. Seems to be a hardware problem, since it will never go past the blue/white screen.
16. Backer number 1475

Thanks in advance for your help!
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Admin
Administrateur du site
Posts: 505
Joined: Sat 10 Dec 2016 13:12

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by Admin »

irishpride2606 wrote: Sun 25 Nov 2018 19:26 1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. No
6. Win32diskimager
7. Yes
8. No
9. Yes
10. Full "slim plus" version
11. Yes
12. Yes
13. Yes and Yes
14(Updated). Yes, does not help
15. Retrostone randomly crashes and goes into a black screen with white wording or blue screen. Other times it will not load retrorangepi at all and just a has a steady stream words filling the screen or other times nothing but blue screen.
16. Backer 818

Love this product, but I just wish it would function correctly. Please help!
Got it,
I just sent you an email
User avatar
Admin
Administrateur du site
Posts: 505
Joined: Sat 10 Dec 2016 13:12

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by Admin »

BobRooney wrote: Mon 26 Nov 2018 04:18 Hello. First off, I want to say that I love the RetroStone when it works. It is so much fun. Quite frustrating when it doesn't work, though, which is why I'm here.

I had some issues with it from the start, but it seemed to be more of a software/operating system problem and the folks over at the retrorangepi forum helped me getting that straightened out. But even after I got the retrorangepi boot problem fixed, I was probably still only at about a 50-60% success rate on getting past the blue/white screen. Once I was past it, it would boot fine almost every time, but I would often have to power it off an on again a few times just to get it past the blue/white screen.

Now the issue is that it NEVER gets past the blue/white screen. And I've probably powered it on and off at least 50 times by now, not a single time has it gotten past the blue/white screen and I've let it sit for several minutes. On the very first start up today (when the problem first started), it did get past the blue/white screen but it came up with an error that there were no games installed and it froze, so I had to hard power it down. Ever since then, it's never gotten past the blue/white screen. I tried booting it without the sim card installed, just to see what would happen, and it still just stayed on the blue/white screen. I did see the other thread about the resistor soldering, and I wasn't entirely sure if this was the same thing or not, so I figured I'd post here first.

Here are my survey answers:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. No
6. Etcher
7. Yes
8. No
9. Yes
10. RetrOrangePi_4.2_FULL_Armbian_5.59_Retrostone_Debian_jessie_default_3.4.113_desktop-1
11. I try to. Unless it gets frozen and I have no other option.
12. Not since this issue started, as it never even makes it to the RetrOrangePi screen.
13. No, but it doesn't seem to be an SD card problem since it does it whether or not it has an SD card installed
13b. Also no, for the same reason.
14. Can't even make it to that point.
15. Seems to be a hardware problem, since it will never go past the blue/white screen.
16. Backer number 1475

Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi,

About blue/white all the time issue :
Can you try to boot while connected on HDMI? I think sometime the unit can get stuck on HDMI mode. So the LCD will stay white/blue forever.
If you can check with HDMI if you have signal, or if you have error messages?
If you have signal then switch back to LCD in retrorangepi and reboot.
If you have error messages I think the SD got corrupted. Then you might have to try to clean the SD and reinstall the system.

About the blue/white 50% of time you had before :
This is the problem described in the other topic. Removing the resistor will solve it.

Please let me know if that fix your problems
BobRooney
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2018 03:55

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by BobRooney »

Admin wrote: Mon 26 Nov 2018 10:54 Hi,

About blue/white all the time issue :
Can you try to boot while connected on HDMI? I think sometime the unit can get stuck on HDMI mode. So the LCD will stay white/blue forever.
If you can check with HDMI if you have signal, or if you have error messages?
If you have signal then switch back to LCD in retrorangepi and reboot.
If you have error messages I think the SD got corrupted. Then you might have to try to clean the SD and reinstall the system.

About the blue/white 50% of time you had before :
This is the problem described in the other topic. Removing the resistor will solve it.

Please let me know if that fix your problems
Ok, I will try hooking it up with HDMI tonight and see what that does. How do I switch back to LCD?

As far as the resistor goes, I can give that a try, but what happens if I screw up and ruin the device? Will you replace it free of charge?
BobRooney
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2018 03:55

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by BobRooney »

Ok, so I tried booting with the hdmi cable connected, and it's no different. The display on the retrostone is still just the blue and white, and I get nothing on the tv display that the hdmi cable was connected to. It did seem to recognize that I had something connected because as soon as I powered up the retrostone, the tv switched to that input. But I had nothing on the tv display. Tried several times, same result. What next?
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Admin
Administrateur du site
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Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by Admin »

If you have nothing on HDMI then it means probably the SD card is corrupted. However it could also just be the HDMI screen that does not work with RetroStone (I have one at home that do not recognize RetroStone for some strange reasons).

Ok so you tried to clean the SD, format in FAT32 and try reinstall retrorangepi and you still have this screen?
Then it's probably hardware issue. I'll contact you by email after you confirm previous question.
BobRooney
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2018 03:55

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by BobRooney »

Admin wrote: Tue 27 Nov 2018 15:48 If you have nothing on HDMI then it means probably the SD card is corrupted. However it could also just be the HDMI screen that does not work with RetroStone (I have one at home that do not recognize RetroStone for some strange reasons).

Ok so you tried to clean the SD, format in FAT32 and try reinstall retrorangepi and you still have this screen?
Then it's probably hardware issue. I'll contact you by email after you confirm previous question.
Ok. So first thing, I tried booting it with the HDMI to a different TV, and I actually did get display on it. It appeared to have quite a few errors, including "Loading Environment from EXT4... ** File not found /boot/boot.env **" and "** Unable to read "/boot/boot.env" from mmc0:1 **". There was a whole bunch more lines of information, but it ended with "Starting kernel ..." and just froze there.

So based on your suggestion, I reformatted my SD card, downloaded the latest full version from retrorangepi, and installed it on the sd card using etcher. Here are the power ups that followed:

1. Blue/white screen for 5+ minutes. Powered down.
2. Got to the "installing orangepi" screen, where it says it will reformat the sd card and reboot, screen went dark, stayed there for 10+ minutes. Powered down.
3. Blue/white screen for 5+ minutes. Powered down.
4. Blue/white screen for 5+ minutes. Powered down.
5. Got the "installing orangepi" screen again, screen went dark, appears to have rebooted, got the blue/white screen again, stuck there for 10+ minutes. Powered down.
6. Actually got the normal retrorangepi startup screen, system then booted like normal. I configured the inputs since the A and B were still switched, then went to desktop mode to load games. Loaded games, restarted, booted back up no problem. Started playing a game for testing purposes, made it at most about 2-3 minutes in (half of an inning in RBI Baseball) and the game rebooted completely on it's own. Just the game, not the device. Exited the game, powered down the device properly, powered back up, once again stuck on the blue/white screen for 5+ minutes. Powered down.
7. Retrorangepi booted up normally. Tested game again, didn't even make it 30 seconds in before it kicked me completely out to the main menu (the retrorangepi menu, not the game menu this time). Started the game again and made it through a whole game this time without issue, approximately 15 minutes.

At this point I don't even know what to say. By any normal standard, this would be considered a defective product. I've had problems with it since day one. Even once I finally got it up and running, it would still only boot up properly about half of the time, which I'm assuming is due to the resistor problem, which again should mark this as a defective product.

On one hand, I'm happy that mine appears to be up and running again because I absolutely love it when it works. But on the other hand, I'm nervous to even use it because who knows when this will happen again and I'll lose all of my saved games and have to restart from scratch?

What do I do from here?
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Admin
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Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by Admin »

About your game saves, I suggest backing up your roms. So you are sure not to lose them.
The system is not stable indeed. It needs to be replaced. I'll contact you by email to organize the replacement of it.
peeterliik
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue 25 Dec 2018 21:52

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by peeterliik »

1- Yes
2- Yes
3- Yes
4- Yes
5 - No
6- Etcher
7 - Yes, several times.
8- Battery is full.
9- Have used different chargers.
10- RetrorangePi 4.2 FUll and Supreme Retrostone v1.3
11- Haven't been able to get as far as shutting down the Retrostone.
12- Yes, have downloaded several times, all times size has been correct.
13- Have tried with another SD card and another computer. Same.
14- Can't test it
15- First the system seems to boot up but it crasher after some seconds (10 for example) and after that it's only black screen with a small blue dot on the right side of the screen. Nothing else happens. After restart I only seem to have black screen with the blue dot. After reflashing the drive the system boots but crashes again in 10 seconds and doesn't boot anymore.
16- Order nr 4001.
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Admin
Administrateur du site
Posts: 505
Joined: Sat 10 Dec 2016 13:12

Re: RetroStone not booting/crashing/freezing - Hardware issue - Please post here.

Post by Admin »

Indeed your unit seem unstable. We'll have to replace it. Can you please submit a ticket on my website so I can arrange replacement of it?
https://www.8bcraft.com/submit-ticket/

Please say that you come from the forum with your order number.
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