My BPI-R4 went DEAD

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4/BPI-R4 Pro(MT7988)
21

IMG_1441
IMG_14411284×978 254 KB
Hello, The Banana Pi BPI-R4 has never booted since first unboxing.

Current state:

  • Power LED red solid
  • Green LED solid
  • All LAN LEDs off
  • No Ethernet link
  • No serial output at all (completely silent)
  • Board appears powered but does not boot

Tested:

  • Multiple power supplies
  • Correct UART wiring (115200 8N1)
  • Boot with and without SD card
  • Multiple SD cards
  • Different OS images: Debian, OpenWrt, Ubuntu, Armbian

Result is always the same: no boot and no UART output.

22

How exactly have you connected uart? On photo it is not connected. Rx/tx need to be crossed,3.3v and gnd are necessary.

Afaik green led is only lighting when system booted to some state (based on image used).

23

HI @frank-w UART wiring is confirmed: TX/RX crossed, GND connected, 3.3V USB-TTL adapter. Terminal: 115200 8N1, no flow control.

Tested again with NO SD card inserted. Still absolutely no UART output (not a single character).

LAN LEDs remain off. Green LED stays solid regardless of image or no SD.

This suggests the board never reaches BootROM stage.

24

You use the debug uart connector next to usb port? On photo this is not connected

25

I removed it to take a picture

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26

Holding the board like this i(specially at wintertime) you can kill it with static electricity.

27

I just received my BPI R4 and it has the same condition. It’s dead. Can you check if a component underneath gets too hot as soon as you connect the board to power?

Screenshot_20260108-171032
Screenshot_20260108-1710321080×2436 141 KB

28

HI The component’s temperature is not normal.