RPi Lights but no boot

Lights but no boot (this wiki post is the first draft excuse typos)

Ok you have a fresh RPi and you have plugged in and as a noob your super cautious that’s understandable.

You have all your lights on your RPi and you have your HDMI plugged in then you realise your TV (Monitor) has gone to standby (not uncommon) so you switch on your TV to HDMI nothing blank screen.

OK here’s what’s probably happened the RPi at start-up has checked the HDMI for a feedback signal and when it does not sense one it’s activated the composite as the default monitor.

What to do well your understandably cautious because your precious RaspberryPi is fresh out of it’s box and your worried you will royally screw it.

If you have a composite login on your tv and the required phono lead you can get it kicked off that way or if you have looked at the ssh Blind Login option that’s another route.

Now it’s worth noting the memory on an SD card is reasonably stable as long as it is not in the process of being written too.

So get your TV off of standby make sure your HDMI cable is connected kill the power and restart (yes switch off and switch on again).

If you do screw the image on your SD card this early in the game you probably don’t have much in the way of changes written to the card. Probably nothing.

So power down and power up and if it does not work then think about re imaging the SD card.

I have my RPi in a Lego constructed box (I had the Lego any ways). On one occasion I tried three times to get it to boot when I went to remove the SD card I found it was not inserted correctly.

Give your self a chance while you have few changes experiment with wiping the image and re-starting you will gain confidence and it’s worth exploring the blind login option if nothing else it will teach you a little about command line.