Greetings;
I got a DragonBoard410c as i was interested in the coursera IOT course, and when i first tried plugging it in (with a 2A 12V adapter), a blue LED flashed, then nothing.
I checked everything, but it simply isn’t booting up. when i reconnect it to the adapter, nothing.
I tried later, different adapters (but all same amp/voltage), still not booting, and sometimes the blue LED flashes.
any help? is the board faulty? can it be salvaged?
Thanks in advance.
Did you look here:
Basic Kit: Getting Started
I assume you have the Basic kit, since it doesn’t come with a PS.
The Basic kit is supposed to have Android pre-installed.
Do you know if your board is on Android or Debian Linux?
(For me right now, user LED #4 is blinking green, but I re-flashed to Debian Linux)
BTW, I’m also taking the Coursera IoT classes.
Quickly powered through course #1 (powered through in 3 days since no on-hands, the last module was entertaining).
Course #2 (where I’m at currently), needs a little updating and some minor corrections, but still useful.
Alex M.
Ok, I just re-did the SD install of Android build #99 (Lollipop 5.1.1).
I did not flash the latest Android build #118—it failed when I did it the first time.
I see none of the LEDs come on when Android boots.
Note: it takes a little less than a minute for Qualcomm’s logo to appear, then it goes black, then about 2 minutes later, the Android screen pops up.
Then that will go back to black in a minute if there is no mouse/keyboard input—Android screensaver set to 1-minute timeout.
The blue LED only comes on when I turn on the Bluetooth–a steady blue, not blinking even when scanning for other BT devices.
You might want to try an SD card install of Android or Debian (at least it blinks a LED).
Or drop it into fastboot mode and see if you the fastboot tool “sees” something.
Just note: I ran into a problem when I re-used the uSD card I had used to do an SD image install of Debian. Even though I re-flashed it with an SD Android image, when I put it in the DB410C it said it was re-flashing Debian again. I did it twice, making sure I picked the right image and checking the write protect on my SD adapter carrier was off.
I eventually did a ‘dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0 oflag=sync bs=1G count=8’ to zero it out.
Re-flashed SD Android image onto it again, that finally worked. Weird.
Alex M.
One final thing (I need sleep), I was shutting down Android by holding down the power button (S2) for ten seconds, which seems to do reboot instead, I did see the green LED (user #4) flash for a little bit.
#4 eventually went dark after Android came back up, then blue BT LED came on (since I had left Bluetooth turned on in the Android settings, default is off).
Alex M
Thanks guys for all the help, but this was the first time booting it. I never got anything to appear on the screen. I tried plugging/unplugging the keyboard/mouse. I made sure the switches were all set to zero. I nearly tried anything. (I even hooked it to a computer, with the right switch configuration but not with fastboot, nothing. Didn’t even light up the leds)
Also, when I said the blue LED flashes, I mean it lightens up once for less than a second, then goes dark.
I only got the board, not the basic kit.
I just wish it’s a software issue or something, I fear the hardware is damaged… How can I test for that?
What display device are you using? The Android builds use a fixed video mode and are pretty fussy about what display devices thay will support.
IIRC Android doesn’t have any blinking LEDs lit up by default so the board going dark is normal, and if your display cannot lock on the signal from the board its very hard to figure out what it might be doing.
Another trick is to try re-installing Android from SD card (note that the installer uses the same GFX stack as our debian images and supports a much wider range of monitors):
http://www.96boards.org/db410c-getting-started/Installation/README.md/
hi guys, thanks for the wonderful comments.
Unfortunately, i researched a bit and came across this:
this is exactly what happens (with the exception that the BT LED only blinks instantaneously instead of being on)
it seems that i need to return it, which is almost impossible since i got it a while ago (last august), and i don’t live in the US.
I honestly have no idea what to do…
I’m not clear if if you have tried and failed to recover using an SD card or if you are reaching a judgement solely going upon the behaviour of the BT led and absence of display?
frankly i haven’t tried recovering from an SD Card, it’s next on my to do.
is there any other way to provide power to the board without the adapter?
Make another quick control:
Be sure your power circular plug is of the correct size and diameter. I, as well as other, ran into that problem in the past.
The plug MUST be the right size otherwise it may make a sporadic contact.
See link below:
Jean-Marc
Thank you so much. i am actually using A DVI to HDMI cable.
I tried many variances of the power circular plug, none worked. i will try to get the plug specified exactly.
i am actually using A DVI to HDMI cable.
Are you able to try connecting the device to a “real” HDMI device such as a TV? When I said the Android build is pretty fussy about display devices I do mean it… some DVI-D work but most don’t!
To avoid confusion: I am talking about the circular plug from the power supply and should be 4.75 x 1.75mm and nothing else. If this one is not exactly the size you might have a bad connection.
I am not talking about the HDMI 
Hello,
@danielt I am having issues with doing anything on my dragonboard since a couple of days ago, when the bluetooth and wi-fi light turned on and since then, whenever I power the board, the light automatically turns on. Not only does it turn on almost immediately, but the board begins to get pretty hot to the touch, and there is nothing displayed via the monitor. The bluetooth and wi-fi both light still turns on every time, without display and no used led turned on .
Has anyone had a similar problem? Please let me know!
Thank You in advance !!!
I’m having the same issue.
Did anyone find an answer to this? Does it really mean the board is damaged at a Hardware level?
It may mean its damaged at a hardware level.
I have one that has this problem, but I definitely shorted out some pins on the LS connector. Actually did it a few years ago. Now I use that board as a mezzanine assembly jig.
Would be nice to have serial debug output to check if it’s not related to software.
Additionally did you try all the different recovery methods?
Generally speaking SD card recovery is best (because it eliminates many variables, including user error) however IIRC there are states that the eMMC can get itself into where SD card recovery doesn’t work. Specifically in early versions of the OS one of the eMMC power supplies was set a bit weak (and was corrected a long time ago by a software update). However if that supply it browns out the eMMC gets confused in a manner the kernel cannot correct. In this situation recovery via USB is required.
