Olimex Support Forum

OLinuXino Android / Linux boards and System On Modules => A20 => Topic started by: buntubaby on July 26, 2026, 06:53:12 PM

Title: My Micro won't boot from MicroSD cards any more
Post by: buntubaby on July 26, 2026, 06:53:12 PM
Hi everyone,

My A20-OLinuXino-Micro does not boot from MicroSD cards any more.

I've tried 2 different cards (both SanDisk Ultra 16GB) and 2 Olimex images;
* A20-OLinuXino-bookworm-base-20260323-113959.img
* A20-OLinuXino-bullseye-base-20241121-172551.img
The images I wrote to the cards using Ubuntu's Disks app (restore disk image option) and when inserting the cards into my laptop they display the uboot.env file and the other folders as expected.

When powering on the Micro, the red power LED turns on, but no other sign of life.

* No power on USB ports (more precise; my wired mouse's tracking LED will not light up, my wired keyboard's capslock will not turn on; but perhaps there is power to USB),
* no ethernet port LED activity,
* no HDMI signal.

However, when I power the Micro WITHOUT a MicroSD card in it, the ethernet LEDs immediately come to life (both power and activity).

I've disconnected the Olimex SATA connector going to an SSD but that doesnt make a difference.

Any advice or things to try?
Title: Re: My Micro won't boot from MicroSD cards any more
Post by: LubOlimex on July 27, 2026, 09:50:32 AM
1. Check if the voltage applied to the power jack is sufficient. The A20-OLinuXino-Micro requires between 6V and 16V DC, maybe test with 12V DC.

2. Test the SD cards. Good software for testing the SD cards is either f3 (fight flash fraud) or H2testW.

3. Try with another software to download the image to the card. I recommend using BalenaEtcher or USBImager software – they are open source source, free, have releases for Windows/macOS/Linux and using them minimizes the chances of a mistake. I've had cases where something odd was written at the start of the SD card that prevented the boot from it.