Bpi R3 stopped working and can't boot anymore

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R3/R3 Mini(MT7986)
1

Hi I recently purchased a BPI R3, my third device, and it stopped working all of a sudden. The board is brand new with no visible signs of damage.

I used it only once, it booted, leds PWR and G turned on, I connected to it over the WAN port. A few seconds later the connection dropped. Now, everytime I power it on the led PWR turns on but it does not boot and I do not messages on the debug UART.

The configuration I am using: Boot Pins 1111 Sd card: Ubuntu 22.04 from Frank. I am ready to test other images. Power supply 12V 5A capable. Tried from both power jack and JSP connector.

When I was testing it, I was using a 4G module. I found a similar issue in this post:

Could you guys help me troubleshoot the issue? Thanks

2

Hi @userk88,

in order to get more details you’d need to connect via UART. In this review you find some details about that:

Important to know is that you have to cross the RX and TX wires so, on your PC, RX is connected to TX on the BPI and TX is connected to RX on you BPI.

3

Make sure your uart-adapter is 3.3v only…no 5v.

Without seeing anything it is hard to find rootcause and limits possibilities on power-supply and reflashing card. Disconnect all peripherals (usb,pcie,sfp,…) So you have only board,uart-adapter, sdcard and power-supply and then try to replace latest 2 parts. If you have try another uart adapter (ftdi is suggested for r3/r4)

4

I suppose the UART is connected and was working previously, correct @userk88?

And if that stays completely silent now the SoC either doesn’t get power or it’s completely fried. As a first thing, I’d try swapping the power supply.

Even if the SD card is broken or can’t be read for what ever reason you will still see some messages on the UART.

5

Sometimes, after re-inserting the sd-card, my board also seems totally dead.

Then it takes me a couple of attempts of re-inserting the sd-card, before it comes to life again…