Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Hardware related problems and workarounds

Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Postby aolofsson » Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:00 pm

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Board is not booting?

Reason:
- Is the micro-SD card inserted
- Do you have the correct SD card image for your board? (https://www.parallella.org/create-sdcard/)
- Did the SD image get burned correctly (make sure it's synced before ejecting card from your laptop/desktop)
- Is the board powered with a high quality 2A/5V power supply? (board will not boot properly with an under powered supply)
- Does the LED on the board come on? (if not, the board is not getting power, check the power supply)
- When does the boot stop? (connect a serial cable to get more information, https://www.adafruit.com/product/954)
- Make sure you have nothing shorted in your setup (for example, if you have a case or fan connected)
- Remove SD card and look at /var/log files, including boot.log, dmesg, and syslog (sometimes this could give a hint, but serial port debugging is much easier)
- Did you wait long enough? (boot will take > 30 seconds)

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Ethernet is not working?

Reason:
- Is the light on the ethernet port blinking orange? (if it does, the board boots and you have a connection)
- Does the board register on your network through DHCP? (check your router,fallback address is 10.11.12.13)
- Did you try to "ssh parallella@parallella" (password is parallella)
- Does the board boot at all? (verify with serial port cable)

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Serial port is not working?

Reason:
- Did you connect the right cable (the cable should be 3.3V, a higher voltage cable will likely fry the serial port)
- Is the cable connected correctly to the 3 pin header next to the ethernet jack (connection order with adafruit cable should be white, green, black https://www.adafruit.com/product/954)
- Are you using the latest SD card image? (https://www.parallella.org/create-sdcard/)
- What program are you using? We recommend putty.

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HDMI is not working?

Reason:
- Have you confirmed that the board is booting? (with serial cable or by ssh'ing into the board)
- Are you using a HDMI-->DVI converter (this has proven problematic in some cases)
- What screen size are you using? (see shodruky's guide to setting hdmi resolutions http://elinux.org/Parallella_Speed_Up_U ... e_devtmpfs)

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USB is not working?

Reason:
- Unsupported USB device (Is the driver for the device included in the Parabuntu distribution?)
- Some boards have shown USB initialization issues at power up. (one workaround is to power down the board, wait for 30 seconds and to power on again, USB is stable once it's initialized)
- A higher success rate has been seen with powered USB hubs (like a Belkin USB 2.0 4-Port Travel Hub (F4U019vBLK))

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I connected a 9V (or 12V) supply to my board. Did I fry my board?

Reason:
-The Parallella only works with 5V supplies. Connecting higher voltage supplies will fry the board.

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My board worked, now it doesn't?

Reason:
- Most likely reason is that board was not properly cooled or suffered and ESD event or excessive voltage spike
- There is now a thermal daemon running to protect against high temperatures, but the board is sensitive to ESD events and high voltages like most advanced boards. Many of us are still working with the original boards that were built years ago.

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aolofsson
 
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Re: Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Postby AlanAltman » Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:10 pm

I recently purchased an Adapteva 16-core coprocessor motherboard system for 150USD. However, the HDMI display does not come up or cuts out after about one minute. If the Parallella Troubleshooting Guide does not solve this problem what do you suggest I try next?

Thanks newbie to Parallella.
AlanAltman
 
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Re: Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Postby sebraa » Tue Jan 10, 2017 4:12 pm

If HDMI is not working, one very important additional question is:
- Are you using an HDMI-enabled image?
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Re: Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Postby AlanAltman » Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:39 pm

I'm not absolutely certain what HMDI-enabled image means, but this is how I am watching the HDMI output from the Parallella computer. It is connected to one of the built-in inputs to my VIZIO smart TV. I have observed the same behavior on two different inputs. A small cyberspace character appears, blinks slowly at first, then usually blindly quickly, then usually stops blinking, then no change. Sometimes, a Debian screen appears, occasionally I am able to login and the Parallella Logo appears, but within one minute the HDMI output cuts out. What can you tell from this behavior?
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Re: Parallella Troubleshooting Guide

Postby sebraa » Tue Jan 10, 2017 6:46 pm

You are using an HDMI-enabled image, otherwise you would not see anything at all. I have not used the HDMI since 2014, but back then it worked reliably for me on a Dell screen. The only advice I have is to try a different screen and a different cable and to check whether the problem persists. Also, the kernel logs might tell you what is going on, but this thread is not about debugging problems.
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