I think my Pi Zero HDMI port is defective

Support
1

Hi all,

Just tried to set up my first Pi (a Zero) today. I waited three weeks to the day to get it and was super excited, but…

No matter what cable I use, I can’t get a picture out of the thing. I am using a Sandisk 32GB MicroSD formatted using SDFormatter and with NOOBS unzipped onto it as per the instructions.

I hoped it was the adapter Pimoroni sent, but I bought a miniHDMI to HDMI cable and it doesn’t work either. I noticed even before I ever tried to boot it that the miniHDMI connector was crooked (looking from the side) on the board, which really bothers me.

The Zero is recognized (though it doesn’t install) when connected to a PC, and the indicator light would seem to indicate that it is booting up as it comes on and flickers a little before becoming stable.

Can anyone provide any more troubleshooting steps? Or is this thing DOA? Am I going to have to wait another three weeks for a replacement? :(

2

Could you possibly post a photo of the wonky HDMI port you describe?

Is there any way you can verify that it’s not the SD card at fault- since that’s the most usual cause of this kind of problem.

3

I really advice against using NOOBS… it boots into a graphical interface that you need to interact with before the SD is populated with a bootable Raspbian.

… that’s even if it gets there, and since you can’t verify this without a signal on your HDMI, this is a catch 22 in your case.

On the other hand, using the latest Raspbian image, it is possible to directly splice a spa_supplicant filed possibly access the Pi via ssh from another computer, which may help you determine where the weak point is (hardware or software).

4

Hi, thanks for your response. I shared some photos here: Pi Zero crooked HDMI I can always upload them directly if I failed to read a forum rule against linking.

The second photo doesn’t really show anything, but the first and third show how slanted to one side it is.

At this point I think the telling thing is that anything I’ve plugged it into doesn’t even recognize that there is an HDMI cable connected. A couple monitors at work and a HDMI switcher at home just show no cable. I don’t know if this is normal for a Pi but I thought most HDMI devices could tell if the cable was plugged in at both ends even with one end device unpowered?

I will try another SD card and get back to this with the results. I reflashed to Raspbian using the instructions and I saw a lot more activity on boot. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work with any of the USB network adapters I have on hand. I’ll see if I can get ahold of one that works…

5

Thanks for your response! As I mentioned to gadgetoid:

I will try another SD card and get back to this with the results. I reflashed to Raspbian using the instructions and I saw a lot more activity on boot. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work with any of the USB network adapters I have on hand. I’ll see if I can get ahold of one that works…

6

Quick update:

I’ve been able to ssh into the Pi without changing the SD card, so I think the SD card is fine. I’ve tweaked config.txt as per http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Display “No HDMI output at all” section, saving and rebooting each time and so far have no change.

I’ve tried all options mentioned as well as several combinations and nothing has worked yet. This is with a miniHDMI to HDMI cable I bought yesterday at NCIX. The monitor still just reads “No HDMI Cable”. I still have a few combinations of tweaks left to try. Any other thoughts would be much appreciated!

Could the SD card still be at fault if the system is up and running?

7

Well, I think I found the problem…

My Nexus 6 can’t do close up very well, but it looks like the pins on the connector aren’t contacting the board at all. The far right one is actually sitting on top of that black component.

Please correct me if they aren’t supposed to be? The ones on the USB connectors are.

8

I think your connector is clearly borked :/

… where are you located? just wondering why it took a while for your original order to arrive.

9

Phew. Glad something really is wrong, even though it sucks… Bork bork bork! :(

I am located in the Vancouver, BC area in Canada. The day I checked the policies and saw they wanted me to wait three weeks, it was actually three weeks and it arrived. I ordered from here instead of somewhere closer because you were the only site with stock.

Anyways… Back to the main site to lodge a complaint I guess? Thank you kindly for your help! I wish I’d noticed this sooner. Getting back into electronics for the first time since high school about 7 years ago, so I’m a bit rusty at how things should be.